Curtain Up

The Trey McIntyre Project is all about pleasure. It comes from the music, the nifty, puzzle-like choreography, and the sheer joy of the dancers themselves. Trey’s ballets are entertaining and challenging in just the right ratio. When you walk out of his theater, you’re smiling—if not singing.

For the last three years, TMP has brought that pleasure to Boise, Idaho. Read Martha Ullman West’s “Wide Open Spaces” to find out how the community has embraced its new stars. TMP has been so successful that the dancers even received an unexpected bonus at the end of the year! No small trick in these hard times.

Talking about pleasure, some of the great visual pleasures of the dance world are the iconic photographs of Max Waldman. These luscious pictures appeared in books, magazines, and as posters hanging on dancers’ walls in the 1970s. We decided to ask a few of Waldman’s famous subjects to look back and remember the special way he worked. Turn to “Still Classic” and let your eyes feast on these images—and also see what Gelsey Kirkland, Natalia Makarova, and Judith Jamison say about working with Waldman.

For many of us, it was more pain than pleasure to come to a fork in the road at age 17 and choose a college or conservatory. I remember the intensity of that year of uncertainty. I was so distraught, so torn between two schools (Juilliard and Bennington) that I had the urge to stop people on the street and yell, “Which should I choose? Just tell me!” I was convinced that my decision would affect the rest of my life. (It did, and I made the right one.) For those of you in the midst of such a decision, I suggest you read “The Turning Point,” in which Mary Ellen Hunt talks to five dancers who made five different choices. I wish I’d had access to such an article when I was 17. Which reminds me—our new Dance Magazine College Guide is out this month. To order your copy go to www.DanceU101.com.

It’s my pleasure to bring you a fun new section called “Dancer’s Choice,” where one young dancer tells us about her favorite things. First up: Kathleen Breen Combes, the Boston Ballet principal who positively glows in works from Balanchine to Kylián to Elo. Our ingenious style editor, Khara Hanlon, has come up with a page that gives us a glimpse into Kathleen’s day-to-day dance life. You’ll find “Dancer’s Choice” right after “DM Style.”

Dressed for success? Photo by Daniel Rosenthal of Brooks Institute of Photography, Courtesy TMP.