a male dancer standing on an outdoor stage lifting his arms over his head

The New York Public Library’s “Border Crossings” Exhibit is Part of a Developing Conversation About Modern Dance’s Radical Roots

For decades, the development of American modern dance was largely seen as a reaction to classicism. But many other forces drove modern pioneers’ art. “At the heart of modernism, there is trauma,” says art historian Bruce Robertson. Robertson­ and dance historian Ninotchka Bennahum are the curators behind the New York Public Library for the Performing­ Arts’ exhibit “Border Crossings: Exile and American Modern Dance, 1900–1955,” which recognizes the foundational—and often overlooked—contributions that marginalized dancers, including Limón, made to the development of American modern dance.

The Most Magical Dancing in New York City Last Week Was in a Public Library

Libraries, rightly or not, are frequently designated in the public consciousness as places that are silent, stuffy and still. This has never really been the case when it comes to the Jerome Robbins Dance Division at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Last Wednesday, as dance world luminaries and patrons alike gathered […]

DM Editors Pick November's Can't-Miss Shows

Our editors’ performance picks this month are all about taking what’s expected and turning it on its head. Life After Romeo The cast of & Juliet in rehearsal Johan Persson, Courtesy Dewynters LONDON What if, instead of reaching for a dagger after finding Romeo dead beside her, Juliet got a life? & Juliet, a new […]