For dancers, strengthening acting ability can enhance not only artistry and confidence but also storytelling onstage. After all, there is a lot of overlap between the two art forms. “Acting is mostly listening and being present,” says Isadora Wolfe, the associate artistic director of Sleep No More and a teacher of the Acting for Dancers class at The Juilliard School. “Dancers have those skills. That’s what we’re doing all the time: listening in a million different ways.”

Whether playing a saucy soubrette or an imperious swan, Irina Dvorovenko was always a formidable presence on the American Ballet Theatre stage. Since her 2013 retirement at 39, after 16 seasons, she’s been bringing that intensity to an acting career in roles ranging from, well, Russian ballerinas to the Soviet-era newcomer she plays in the […]

In a sheer red slip—dirt-covered and exposed—the Chosen One frantically pleads with the community encircling her, wildly dancing until she at last succumbs to an inevitable death. Part of Pina Bausch’s haunting Rite of Spring, this solo is one of the most vulnerable in dance. “When I perform this role, there is no acting, my […]

As a kid, I often had trouble getting any words out the way I really wanted to. I developed a fantasy where I could find each character from each story I read within myself, and use them to communicate. I was always “Evan,” but embodying different characters broadened the way I could connect with people. […]