Five dancers on coming back from injury.     Injuries are the bane of a dancer’s existence. They are an occupational hazard, and in a long career, virtually every dancer will sustain an injury that threatens to keep them off the stage. With today’s finer diagnostic techniques, medical specialists, physical therapists, and alternative techniques, there’s […]

Humor in dance     Everything is beautiful at the ballet, A Chorus Line tells us—but we knew that already. The fairest girl with the best technique lands the handsome prince, or winds up as the soloist in the “Waltz of the Flowers.” But some of us are not the fairest. We started training too […]

Ballet dancers who call their own shots and carry their own bags.     Traveling by foot, train, and bus, Bonnie Pickard distinguishes herself from the average commuter by her swept-back hair, pointe shoes peaking from her dance bag, and street-meets-dancewear ensemble. In a single day, Pickard dances in three, sometimes four, different studios spread […]

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 […]

Where you don’t have to win to be a winner     Better known to dancers outside the U.S., the Prix de Lausanne in Switzerland has opened doors of prestigious ballet schools to talented young students for 33 years. Noted New York ballet coach and choreographer Elena Kunikova attended the Prix in 2005 to observe […]

This director/choreographer/dancer mixes hip hop with concert dance, with electrifying effects.     A marvel of speed, precision, and invention, Victor Quijada is riveting as a performer. His movements coil tight and strong in the solar plexus, leaving the upper back and limbs free. As artistic director/choreographer of Montreal’s Rubber-bandance Group, he mixes hip hop […]

In 2005, American Ballet Theatre asked Franco De Vita to become the principal of the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School, a new institution devoted to training ABT dancers of the future. Born in Italy and raised in Belgium and France, De Vita combines a Gallic effervescence with a no-nonsense approach to teaching. His European sensibility was […]

I’m at the advanced level in my dance school and want very much to be a professional dancer. I know I need to work hard to get a job in a dance company. How do I become special? I don’t want to be a mediocre dancer. —Determined, Cleveland, OH   Self-discipline, talent, good training and […]