At the beginning of Pass Over, the play’s charismatic protagonist, Moses, played by Jon Michael Hill, wakes up and flips his hat onto his head. It’s a small gesture, but like all the movement in the show, it says a lot. “It’s a moment of such confidence and prowess,” says director Danya Taymor. “It lets the […]

University dance programs have undergone some remarkable changes since March 2020. From shutting down completely and sending students home to mandating masks and social distancing, there are plenty of pandemic-era adjustments that students and faculty will be happy to leave behind. However, there are also some transformations that many dance departments plan to carry forward […]

In late 2020 I was on the phone with Heidi Latsky, whose New York City–based company I’ve danced in since 2007, batting around ideas of what we could do that would be ambitious, outside-the-box. With a deep breath and a not-small dose of chutzpah, I shared with her the idea that I’d been sitting on […]

In May 2020, Times Square was eerily quiet, as if it were holding its breath like the rest of the world, afraid to make a move. The clamor of taxis, crowds and construction was gone, but one faint trickle of music could still be heard if you listened closely—a mini Bluetooth speaker, resting on the […]

In the early days of the pandemic, as the full impact of lockdowns began to sink in, Kristy Edmunds, executive and artistic director of UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance, had an idea: If she couldn’t commission artists to perform, what about instead commissioning them to each create a score for a dance work? […]

Sitting on a quiet South Carolina beach this month, I felt something I hadn’t felt in many months: the desire to move. I tried single-leg balances, some basic floorwork, headstands…formerly easy things that I now couldn’t quite do. Stunned and emotionally spiraling, I sat in the sand and let it all wash over me; it […]

As the world returns to something like normalcy, dancers are feeling two intense emotions: “Enthusiasm and fear,” says Dr. Lucie Clements, a dance psychologist based in England. “Most are excited about coming back to the studio full-time, and many are anxious.” If you’re more conflicted than you might have expected about coming back to the […]

Fatigued muscles, brain overload and pre-performance nerves are only a few of the stressors dancers endured before COVID-19 interrupted our ecosystem. But over the past year, the pandemic morphed our preexisting stressors into different ones. We grappled with uncertainties related to health, safety and financial security. We asked ourselves questions like “What if I lose […]