6 Essential Job Skills Dance Gives You

Retiring from the stage can feel like you’re suddenly abandoning something you’ve dedicated the better part of your life to, leaving behind the person you’d worked so hard to become. But that’s not actually the case. There are plenty of skills and lessons learned in the studio that can be brought into any workplace. Being […]

Grappling With the Grief of Saying Goodbye to Your Dance Career

I didn’t even want to leave the house. I had made the decision to move on from my dance career, but I still wasn’t sure what I was moving on to. I hadn’t anticipated the identity crisis, and I didn’t know how to face the professional world as anything other than a dancer. It took […]

Watching the Dance World Return, Without Me

Sitting on a quiet South Carolina beach this month, I felt something I hadn’t felt in many months: the desire to move. I tried single-leg balances, some basic floorwork, headstands…formerly easy things that I now couldn’t quite do. Stunned and emotionally spiraling, I sat in the sand and let it all wash over me; it […]

Beatriz Stix-Brunell Is Swapping Her Ballet Shoes for Books

You might think that, as a Royal Ballet dancer who trained at both the School of American Ballet and the Paris Opéra Ballet School, Beatriz Stix-Brunell has had enough experience of world-class institutions to last her a lifetime. But having always had an academic itch, she’s decided to scratch it—so she’s adding one more institution […]

Beatriz Stix-Brunell Is Swapping Her Ballet Shoes for Books

You might think that, as a Royal Ballet dancer who trained at both the School of American Ballet and the Paris Opéra Ballet School, Beatriz Stix-Brunell has had enough experience of world-class institutions to last her a lifetime. But having always had an academic itch, she’s decided to scratch it—so she’s adding one more institution […]

Patricia Delgado’s Second Act: Film, Broadway, Juilliard & More

Early on in the rehearsal process of the upcoming film West Side Story, director Steven Spielberg turned to Patricia Delgado and asked her why the dancers weren’t in unison. “He was right,” remembers Delgado, who was serving as associate choreographer to her husband, choreographer Justin Peck. “I explained to him that it takes a lot […]

The Dancer Identity: Do You Ever Stop Being a Dancer?

What does it take to be considered a “Dancer”? Is it a paying job in performance? A certain level of technical proficiency? Who gets to call themselves a Dancer—with a capital “D”—and once you earn that title, can it ever get taken away? I stopped dancing seriously 10 years ago after 18 years of training […]