Search results for: YAGP

Flying High at 10 Donald Byrd’s 10th season at Spectrum Dance Theater has been chock-full: a national tour of his Theater of Needless Talents, Byrd’s homage to artists who perished in the Holocaust; the premiere of A Meeting Place last winter; and a DanceMotion USA goodwill trip to Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Bangladesh. This month, […]

All photos by Vladimir Lupovskoy, Courtesy IFMC.     Judging choreography can be problematic, especially when six judges come from vastly different cultural contexts. But at the International Festival of Modern Choreography in Vitebsk, Belarus, in November, the process was mostly harmonious. Led by Vladimir Vasiliev—the famously heroic Bolshoi star of the ’60s through the […]

Even if you don’t take home a medal, you might take home a job offer.   Teddy Forance working with Travis Wall (kneeling) of Shaping Sound for the reality show All the Right Moves. Oxygen Media/Trae Patton. Contemporary dancer Teddy Forance is a fixture in the L.A. dance scene. Among other gigs, he’s a co-director […]

Five dancers’ decade-by-decade approach to dancing health   For a young dancer, it’s easy to live only in the here and now, blinded by stage light. Feeling invincible, you cut corners with the care of your body. As the years go by, you pay more attention to your instrument. So many aspects of both body […]

The Ballet West dancer has charisma to spare.     Last February, two days before Ballet West premiered its new Don Quixote, 19-year-old corps dancer Beckanne Sisk checked the final cast list and found her name printed next to Kitri for opening night. It was an extraordinary opportunity for a new company member who only […]

Purity and elegance make this ABT corps dancer stand out.     “Use that God-given fifth position,” demands artistic director Kevin McKenzie as he coaches Joseph Gorak on his pirouettes. An American Ballet Theatre Nutcracker rehearsal is underway, and choreographer Alexei Ratmansky stands by to help. Gorak’s ability and potential have been drawing a lot […]

The terrific documentary First Position, which focuses on six competitors at the 2010 Youth America Grand Prix, officially opens tomorrow in New York and Los Angeles—and will show at more theaters around the country in the coming weeks (see this listing to find a theater near you).   As detailed in my review from last […]

I think Makarova was overwhelmed by the love and adulation heaped upon her Saturday night by Youth America Grand Prix. The evening was fittingly titled “Ballerina Assoluta: Gala Tribute Honoring the Legendary Natalia Makarova.” We were already cheering at the top of our lungs during the standing ovation, when Kevin McKenzie gestured to Marcelo Gomes […]