I now work with some of the smartest, hardest-working, and most inspiring people I’ve ever known. Every Sunday morning at 9 am—which, as a former professional, is very early to be taking a ballet class—40 to 50 adult dancers come into Westside Ballet and start their pliés with me. Our median age is somewhere in the late 50s, and I have students from ages 14 to 85!

“The more I danced here, the more I really got into the style, the classes and the magic of the opera house,” she says. “Everyone was adjusting to so much change with the pandemic that it empowered me to go for it.”

Here are the latest promotions, appointments and departures, plus notable awards and accomplishments, from the last month. Comings & Goings At American Ballet Theatre , Joo Won Ahn, Aran Bell, Skylar Brandt, Thomas Forster, Calvin Royal III and Cassandra Trenary have been promoted to principal, Gabe Stone Shayer to soloist. At Pennsylvania Ballet, Jack Thomas […]

We know there are certain things dancers can do pre-show to help them perform at their best. (Like warming up, eating something energizing and maybe even taking a nap!) But pre-show routines are also highly individual, and involve artists preparing their heads for performance just as much as their bodies. That could mean anything from […]

When Angel Corella took over as artistic director of Pennsylvania Ballet in 2014, the company underwent a sea change. And while some in the ballet world were shocked by Corella’s vision to reinvigorate and redirect the company, longtime fans of his career shouldn’t have expected anything less. He was one of American Ballet Theatre’s youngest […]

MoBBallet, an organization founded by Dance Magazine contributing editor Theresa Ruth Howard in 2015 to preserve and promote the legacy of black dancers in ballet, hosts its first symposium October 11–13 at Pennsylvania Ballet. Offering separate courses for intermediate to pre-professional students, dance educators and the greater Philadelphia dance community, the pilot aims to foster […]

Notable dancer and beloved teacher, Ross Parkes, 79, passed away on August 5, 2019 in New York City. He was a founding faculty member at Taipei National University of the Arts in Taiwan, where he taught from 1984 to 2006. Lin Hwai-min, artistic director of Cloud Gate Dance Theater, said: “He nurtured two generations of […]

It can be hard to imagine life without—or just after—dance. Perhaps that’s why we find it so fascinating to hear what our favorite dancers think they’d be doing if they weren’t performing for a living. We’ve been asking stars about the alternate career they’d like to try in our “Spotlight” Q&A series, and their answers—from […]