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FEATURES | By Sophie Bress

Through dance history, finding my own

“Confidence, Sophie. You need to work on your confidence.” That’s the voice of every dance teacher I’ve ever had, a cacophony of mental noise as I hastily pack my things for my morning contemporary class at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. I’ve never been to the Pillow before, despite reading about it every year since about age 12, when I learned what it was. Growing up dancing in Wyoming, and then moving to California to continue studying dance in college, I’ve always been on the wrong side of the country. This year, though, I’m finally in the right place at the...

FEATURES | By Candice Thompson

The Biggest Dance Party of the Year

Abdel R. Salaam met Dr. Charles R. Davis in 1969. Known as Baba Chuck (“Baba” being a term of endearment for patriarchal figures in communities worldwide), he founded the DanceAfrica Festival at BAM in 1977. Baba Salaam, the current artistic director for DanceAfrica, danced in those inaugural performances with the Chuck Davis Dance Company.

FEATURES | INTERVIEWS | By Lauren Wingenroth

Past Meets Present

Claudia Schreier’s “Passage” for Dance Theatre of Harlem was commissioned to mark the 400-year-anniversary of the arrival of the first enslaved Africans to Virginia in 1619. But to think of “Passage” as a commemoration, or as a historical piece, doesn’t do justice to its purpose or its power.

FEATURES | By Chava Pearl Lansky

The Nutcracker on Ice

While Isa Braun slogged through her workday on January 10, she kept overhearing people asking each other if they were going to the ballet later that night. Ordinarily, this would have been normal for Braun; until October of 2021, she was a freelance dancer living in New York City and working in an administrative position at School of American Ballet. But in January, Braun’s job was that of a dishwasher—and her residence? McMurdo Station, Antarctica.

FEATURES | By Cecilia Whalen

From East to West

Nai-Ni Chen's first experience in the United States was as a cultural ambassador. A teenage dancer from Taiwan, she was invited to be a youth representative from China to the U.S. and traveled to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to speak with students. At MIT, her group was welcomed by a student-led club, headed by Andy Chiang, who was also Taiwanese and studying computer science. Andy had lived in the U.S. since he was in high school, but was deeply connected to and influenced by his Chinese heritage. He met Nai-Ni, and the two instantly bonded over their mutual...

FEATURES | By Cecilia Whalen

Set and Reset

When first developing "Set and Reset" in 1983, Trisha Brown knew that she wanted the work to be a collaboration. Right away, Brown decided she wanted interdisciplinary artist Laurie Anderson to create a score, and being that both were also talented visual artists, Brown figured that they could actually complete the entirety of the work together, covering costumes and set design, as well. This is what she planned to tell her board when first announcing the idea; However, upon their initial meeting, before she could even explain her full plan, Brown's chairman spoke up: "Who is going to do the...

FEATURES | By Sophie Bress

Accessibility in Dance

At first glance, everything in Salt Lake City, Utah’s Jeanne Wagner Theatre looks relatively typical. Rows of red velvet seats line the two aisles that lead to a dimly lit proscenium stage. Audience members chat in hushed tones as they take their seats. Ushers shuffle programs as they prepare for the show to begin.

FEATURES | By Victoria Looseleaf

Choreographers’ Scores

While performing arts organizations around the globe were decidedly hard hit by Covid-19 during the last 15 months, dancers and choreographers, whose physical bodies are literally on the line in their work, suffered particularly severe losses. Enter, then, Kristy Edmunds, executive and artistic director of CAP UCLA, a position she’s held since 2011, and one that has provided a platform for critical innovators in all disciplines of artistic practice.

FEATURES | By Sophie Bress

Beyond the Muse

When asked whether she’s ever had to perform in a work she didn’t agree with or believe in, Penny Wildman’s typically bubbly and lighthearted tone grows ever so slightly vehement. “All the time,” she replies. “All the time.”

FEATURES | By Cecilia Whalen

Human Touch

With eyes closed, Blakeley White-McGuire and Daniel Fetecua Soto felt stones on their bare feet and the sun on their cheeks, but most of all, they felt each other. Taking turns guiding as the other moved blindly, the modern dance stars made their way through the Sacred Labyrinth on Block Island, RI, and into “The Tongue of the Flame,” what would become their new intimate dance theater duet.

FEATURES | By Oksana Khadarina

The Golden Mask

On April 22, Moscow’s Concert Hall “Zaryadye” hosted the award ceremony of the winners of the XXVII Golden Mask Award. The three-hour-long celebration took place before a limited-capacity live audience and was streamed via various online platforms of the festival.

FEATURES | By Oksana Khadarina

Olga & Orlando

The Bolshoi Ballet recently unveiled a world premiere of “Orlando”—a two-act ballet based on the famous novel by English writer Virginia Woolf. The premiere took place on the Bolshoi Theater’s New Stage on March 24, with the cast led by the Bolshoi’s prima ballerina, Olga Smirnova, in the title role. The ballet was choreographed by Christian Spuck, a German dance-maker, who is currently artistic director of Ballet Zurich.

Featured Reads

REVIEWS | Lorna Irvine

Teenage Angst and Institutions

Watching Matthew Bourne's reworked version of the “star-cross'd lovers,” I was briefly reminded of Veronica, played by Winona Ryder, in the dark 1988 comedy by Daniel Waters and Michael Lehmann, Heathers, and her line, “my teen angst bullshit has a body count.” Yes, this is the darker side of Bourne's repertoire,...

INTERVIEWS | Marina Harss

The Me of Today

The choreographer Alexei Ratmansky reflects on the war in Ukraine, the connection between geopolitics and ballet, and joining the house of Balanchine.

REVIEWS | Rachel Howard

Starry Nights

Beneath blue California skies, manicured trees, and the occasional hum of an overhead airplane, Tamara Rojo took the Frost Amphitheater stage at Stanford University to introduce herself as the new artistic director of San Francisco Ballet.

REVIEWS | Faye Arthurs

America, F**K Yeah

After a week of the well-balanced meal that is “Jewels”—the nutritive, potentially tedious, leafy greens of “Emeralds,” the gamy, carnivorous “Rubies,” and the decadent, shiny white mountains of meringue in “Diamonds”—the New York City Ballet continued its 75th Anniversary All-Balanchine Fall Season with rather more dyspeptic fare.

REVIEWS | Emily May

Acosta Danza’s Choreographic Soup

An “Ajiaco” is a type of soup common to Colombia, Cuba, and Peru that combines a variety of different vegetables, spices, and meats.