When did hip hop find its swan side? Lil Buck: “Creamy transitions and a polished smoothness.” Photo ©2011 Erin Baiano, Courtesy Vail International Dance Festival. The wildly popular “Lil Buck and Yo-Yo Ma” video on YouTube features a strange and lovely fusion of romantic music and urban dancing (see “25 to […]
Ghrai DeVore in Christopher Huggins’ Essence. Photo by Eduardo Patino, Courtesy AAADT. Near the end of Rennie Harris’ new piece Home for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, there is a section that the dancers have dubbed “twinkletoes” for its fast footwork. As they rehearse it, Ghrai DeVore flicks through the intricate, rapid combination […]
Robert Battle rehearsing Takademe in the Ailey studios. Photo by Paul Kolnik, Courtesy AAADT. This month at City Center is the first Ailey season with Robert Battle at the helm. He wasted no time in expanding the rep, reaching into the company’s past riches as well as taking on other modern dance giants. […]
Watching from the wings—it’s what all dancers do. But seen through a photographer’s lens, that perspective can provide an unexpected bit of poetry. The camera can catch the underside of the choreography, revealing a completely different angle from what the audience sees. Rose Eichenbaum takes us to that vantage point in her […]
Lisa Gajda is the epitome of a Broadway baby: She’s performed in more than a dozen Broadway productions including Cry-Baby, Monty Python’s Spamalot, Movin’ Out, and Fosse. Charismatic presence and fierce technique have made her a favorite of many top Broadway dancemakers, from Rob Ashford to Jerry Mitchell. Now, she’s hitting the boards again—in her […]
To Toronto, tout de suite! While dedicated to presenting Canadian contemporary dance, Toronto Dance Theatre reaches beyond borders for its Paris/Toronto Project. Welcoming choreographers Alban Richard and Emmanuelle Vo-Dinh from the City of Light, director Christopher House uses the new points of view to stretch his dancers and raise the company’s […]
As a follow-up to our Race Issue in 2005, we set ourselves this simple question: How diverse is the up-and-coming generation? But this soon splintered into other questions: What opportunities are available to young dancers? How are students engaging with cultures other than their own? What is diversity, anyway? In talking to artistic directors, educators, […]
Generations of Inspiration A homestead for Philly’s young dancer, Philadelphia School of Dance Arts celebrates 50 years. By Brenda Dixon Gottschild In a spacious second-floor studio at the West Philadelphia branch of the Philadelphia School of Dance Arts (PSDA), 27 ballerina hopefuls, aged 9 to 11 and clad in black leotards and […]