Passover was going to be a challenge. During her years as a modern Orthodox Jewish student at the School of American Ballet, Dena Abergel had stayed with a family in the city every Friday so she could attend Friday night and Saturday classes without taking the train home to New Jersey, in accordance with her […]

In an industry with strict physique expectations, Colleen Werner is forging an alternate path—an adult dance experience that celebrates body diversity. While studying to become a clinical mental health counselor in Nashville, she’s simultaneously dancing with Black Sheep Ballet, a virtual company that aims to bring ballet to more diverse audiences. Meanwhile on Instagram, she’s […]

Colonialism and slavery violently disrupted the histories of Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC). White folks appointed themselves tellers of all stories, and their viewpoints have rewritten, erased or entirely excluded other narratives. BIPOC dance artists have, for long, felt this exclusion while being exploited. This exclusion is still the source of trauma for […]

The day I fell in love with ballet was the day I signed myself up for what now seems like a life of invisibility. Despite clear talent, I grew up with teachers who ignored me in class; it made me work harder. I went on to a performance career with Oakland Ballet, North Carolina Dance […]

For the last five years the dance world, and specifically the ballet world, has been enrolled in the mission to understand and implement diversity, equity and inclusion into the field at all levels. A great deal of funding has been allocated towards efforts of education and training, consultants have been hired, conferences and seminars attended. […]

There are lots of gift guides floating around the internet this time of year. But the end of the decade has us thinking about more than presents. As much as the dance world has evolved over the past 10 years, there’s still a lot of work to do. So we started pondering: If we could […]

It’s Nutcracker time again: the season of sweet delights and a sparkling good time—if we’re able to ignore the sour taste left behind by the outdated racial stereotypes so often portrayed in the second act. In 2017, as a result of a growing list of letters from audience members, to New York City Ballet’s ballet […]