a female dancer hanging up a white dress on stage

How to Navigate a Performing Career While Grieving

Navigating the death of a friend, relative, or partner is a profoundly emotional experience. Because grief also impacts the body on a physical level, the unique demands of a dance career can add additional challenges. “The way the body responds is such a huge part of dancers’ jobs,” says Olga Gonithellis, the founder of Creativity Mental Health Counseling, a New York City–based mental health practice that works with artists, performers, and other creatives. “Grief has physical symptoms that are wide-ranging.”

The Art of Dancing Without Music

While dance is often considered inextricably linked to music, the absence of music can open a unique space for exploration. Three artists share their experiences and advice for dancing in works without music.

A dancer costumed in bright yellow steps into a wide stance, legs crossed. Her arms are raised at the elbows, hair flying up as she begins to turn. In the foreground, a couple of dancers stride around her. Upstage are musicians.

A Sizzling Summer: The Shows to Catch as Festival Season Hits Its Stride

Summer festival season is underway, boasting a staggering number of must-see performances. Here are a handful of highlights, along with a pair of July premieres happening outside any festival umbrella. American Dance Festival DURHAM, NC  The modern dance festival’s 90th-anniversary season blazes on through July 22, with 32 performances featuring 13 festival commissions, 9 premieres, […]

A dancer whose arms are encased in an almost skeletal suggestion of enormous wings is seated, their torso nearly touching the ground as they lean forward, wings curving upward and back against the black stage behind them.

7 Must-See Performance Picks Hitting Stages This Month

A long-awaited world premiere, a festival filled with experiments, two New York City mainstays and a trio of new works tackling environmental issues head-on—there are a lot of performances to be excited about this month, and our top picks are just the tip of the iceberg.

Lloyd Knight is a tall, muscular Black man here wearing red leggings with silver bands at the calves. He poses against a white backdrop in forced arch, the leg closest to the camera raised in parallel attitude front. His torso arches back, nearly parallel to the ground, as he raises his arms in a purposefully bent third position. His head turns toward the camera with an easy, open smile as he tips off-balance.

Lloyd Knight Illuminates the Stage at Graham and Beyond

For the last 18 years, Lloyd Knight has been a member of the Martha Graham Dance Company, where he has been a principal since 2014. And though he deeply loves the Graham repertory and technique, and has made strong impressions in many of Graham’s works, he is always looking for more. “I don’t want to be put in a box,” he says.

a dancer in a long grey dress stands on stage, knees bent and leaning into her right hip with arms splayed wide

New Insights into Martha Graham

Rarely has a biographer stretched our knowledge of her life and times as much as Neil Baldwin in his new book, Martha Graham: When Dance Became Modern.

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