10 Hairy Legs dissolved at the end of 2020.

Mike Esperanza, Courtesy 10 Hairy Legs

News of Note: What You Might Have Missed in December 2020

Courtney Escoyne
Jan 08, 2021

Here are the latest promotions, appointments and departures, as well as notable awards and accomplishments, from the last month (plus a few from the first week of 2021).

Comings & Goings

Helgi Tomasson, an older white man, gazes seriously at the camera, the red orchestra seats and golden tiers of the War Memorial Opera House blurry behind him.

Helgi Tomasson

Erik Tomasson, Courtesy Resnicow and Associates


Helgi Tomasson will conclude his tenure as San Francisco Ballet's artistic director and principal choreographer by mid-2022.

Glenn Allen Sims and Linda Celeste Sims have retired from Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

Jacquelyn Smiley Robinson has resigned from her role as managing director of Deeply Rooted Productions. Dominique Atwood has been named development director.

Heather Robles has been named executive director of The Bessies.

At Paris Opéra Ballet, Paul Marque has been promoted to étoile.

Milena Sidorova, Sedrig Verwoert and Wubkje Kuindersma have been appointed young creative associates at Dutch National Ballet.

Stijn Schoonderwoerd has been named general director of Dutch National Opera & Ballet.

10 Hairy Legs has folded as of December 31, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Awards & Honors

At the NY Dance and Performance Awards (the "Bessies"), the 2020 Lifetime Achievement in Dance Honorees were Arthur Avilés and Charles Rice-González, Louis Johnson, and Mary Overlie. Harkness Center for Dance Injuries, Ishmael Houston-Jones, Shannon Hummel and Peter Richards received awards for Service to the Field of Dance. Jacqulyn Buglisi received a special citation for Table of Silence.

Chicago Dance History Project will present its inaugural Maurice Seymour Award to Scott Silberstein on January 31.

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Photo by Ernest Gregory, Courtesy Fleming

How This Tap-Dancer-Turned-Composer Stays True to His Jazz Roots

From Riverdance to HBO's "Boardwalk Empire," tap dancer DeWitt Fleming Jr. has proved to be a triple threat on the stage and screen. He's also an entrepreneur, selling his own line of wireless microphones, DeW It Right Tap Mics. Last year, he added "composer" to his resumé with the release of Sax and Taps INTERSPLOSION!, the first tap dance and jazz album recorded at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Dizzy's Club. One of the songs, co-written with jazz saxophonist Erica von Kleist, was a finalist for last year's Unsigned Only music competition.

"When you're invited to dance with a jazz band, it's always assumed that, as a tap dancer, you're going to be a feature. If you go all the way back to New Orleans' Congo Square, and even before then, dance was a part of the music. I wanted to stick to those roots and create an album where everything was intertwined."

He recently spoke with Dance Magazine about his collaboration with von Kleist and the creation of their album.

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January 2021