It’s easy to think of sculpture as a static form, but what happens when you place it in the midst of a public park and invite performing artists to inhabit it? Passerby have been finding that out since Josiah McElheny’s Prismatic Park arrived in Manhattan’s Madison Square Park this June. Madison Square Park Conservancy’s Mad. […]

Many people see dance and choreography as separate pursuits, or view choreography as a dance career’s second act. For some dancers, however, performing and choreographing inform one another. “That’s just the kind of choreographer I am. I feel things so deeply in my physicality. I have to do it to know it,” says Jodi Melnick, […]

Efficient movement is easy to recognize—we all know when we see a dancer whose every action seems essential and unmannered. Understanding how to create this effect, however, is far more elusive. From a practical perspective, dancing with efficiency helps you to conserve your energy and minimize wear and tear on the body; from an artistic […]

The Music Man Mark Morris Dance Group is plenty busy this month, headlining Luminato, Toronto’s annual arts festival, with Morris’ masterwork L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato in its Canadian premiere June 21–23. Morris directs this year’s Ojai Music Festival (the first choreographer to do so), where his dancers will perform; and at Ojai North!, […]

Dancer and dancemaker Jodi Melnick brings her unique sensibility to a variety of projects. Not everyone grows up wanting to become a ballerina. Jodi Melnick, whose bare feet are firmly planted in New York’s downtown dance world, is a case in point. “I do think there’s an idea that if you’re a modern dancer it […]

Call it the scandal issue. First of all, we have the centenary of The Rite of Spring, which ignited the biggest artistic scandal of 1913. Instead of giving you a verbal history, we offer a photo collage of various choreographers’ versions, including of the original Nijinsky Sacre du Printemps. What was the scandal? Nijinsky’s choreography […]

Earth Dancing Every year the Thunderbird American Indian Dancers hold a rousing powwow on the Lower East Side. A New York troupe founded in 1963 by a group of Native Americans, the Thunderbird dancers represent a variety of nations descended from Mohawk, Hopi, Winnebago, and San Blas peoples. They are not professional, but they’ve handed […]