“I am the one. They don’t know yet, but I’m going to change the world.” Make no mistake about it. Shane Sparks is on a mission. The hip hop choreographer who has helped thrust this genre of dance into the mainstream spotlight is on a roll. And his whirlwind of success has happened in only […]
BalletMet Columbus artistic director Gerard Charles will become the ballet master of the Joffrey Ballet in Chicago this July. Charles served as the head of BalletMet for over a decade and has been with the company for 26 years. He will continue to work with BalletMet in order to launch its 2012–13 season this August. […]
New Role “Better to retire five years too early than five minutes too late,” is an adage of the ballet world that has been taken to heart by Sergei Filin, one of the Bolshoi Ballet’s greatest stars of the past two decades. Filin blended technical finesse with the strength for which the Bolshoi is known, […]
These days you can’t swing a sequined dress without hitting a dance reality TV show. Every major network has its angle on them: from contestants competing weekly in front of a live audience, to behind-the-scenes looks at the lives of commercial dancers trying to make the cut, to “celebrities” paired with professionals fox-trotting their way […]
I went to college eager to dance. I knew then that my body wasn’t built to do what it was asked to do in training—I didn’t have sufficient turnout, and my hips were tight, but I pushed myself physically to rise to every challenge. Years after I left Purchase College, I danced 10 seasons with […]
“You’re inviting the presence of the Lilac Fairy, so turn your palms up,” says ABT’s artistic director Kevin McKenzie as he demonstrates a magisterial circular walk. In a studio at the company’s headquarters on lower Broadway, he’s testing out choreography on the men portraying the fairies’ cavaliers in the Prologue of The Sleeping Beauty. In […]
Dancers and floors have an ambivalent relationship, but new technology is improving it. A herd of thundering tappers stamps across the floor at Debbie Allen Dance Academy in Culver City, California. Leaping, spinning, and sliding, they are euphoric as they pound out complex rhythms on a surface that gives with each landing, responding […]
Dawn Fay Ballet Memphis doesn’t rank its dancers in the typical hierarchical sense. However, if there were a scale, Dawn Fay would undoubtedly land on top as the company’s prima. Watching Fay dance is a bit like listening to Melissa Etheridge sing rock or Diana Krall jazz: She is soulful, insightful, a powerhouse of strength. […]
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