From dancers to presenters to directors, no one in dance is exempt from the task of building an audience. But keeping up with email, social media and other marketing efforts can chip away at precious time spent honing your craft. Add in the fear of coming across as vain or self-absorbed, and it can be […]

A breath of fresh choreographic air is coming to Salt Lake City. Ballet West artistic director Adam Sklute has invited companies from across the country to join Ballet West for the first annual National Choreographic Festival, May 19–20 and 26–27. Over the course of two weekends and two different programs, premieres and recently acquired repertory […]

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 […]

Partnering training is one of the most nuanced parts of dance education. And yet, so much of it is entirely focused on male students. Beyond the basic principles—like holding your core and avoiding slippery leotards—young women often have little direction other than performing steps they already know with the help of a male dancer. But […]

A King Re-Gendered Setterfield in Lear. Photo by Patrick Moore, courtesy NYLA. Play King Lear? Valda Setterfield has done so many other things that when she turned 79, she felt ripe for the challenge. At the request of Irish maverick choreographer John Scott, she played (and danced) the plagued king in Ireland two years ago, […]

Pantastico in Maillot’s Roméo et Juliette. Photo by Angela Sterling, courtesy PNB. When Noelani Pantastico saw Pacific Northwest Ballet at Jacob’s Pillow in 2014, during her summer break from Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, the former PNB principal realized that she had more career options than she thought. After seven years in Europe, the Hawaii native […]

PNB’s Maria Chapman in Balanchine’s Apollo. Photo by Angela Sterling, Courtesy PNB. Julie Kent. Carla Körbes. Paloma Herrera. Xiomara Reyes. Over the past year, each of these phenomenal ballerinas took their final bows. Yesterday, Pacific Northwest Ballet broke the news that another dancer of the same generation has retired: principal Maria Chapman. The sudden announcement wasn’t made until after her […]

    Frantziskonis’ current goal? To look relaxed onstage. Here, in The Sleeping Beauty. Photo by Lindsay Thomas, courtesy PNB. At about 5′ 3″, the petite Jahna Frantziskonis is a force onstage: all speed and lightness as Cupid in  Don Quixote, technical and steely in Forsythe’s The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude and emotionally vulnerable in Nacho Duato’s intense Rassemblement. But the featured […]