As any good bunhead would tell you, for me, Nutcracker is a yearly tradition as old as leaving cookies out for Santa Claus. But this year, I got to experience it with fresh eyes by taking both my 35-year-old fiancé and my 5-year-old nephew for their first times. I didn’t plan on being a Nutcracker […]

By now, you’re probably as obsessed with the artists on our 2018 “25 to Watch” list as we are. But how do we decide who makes it? One answer is: carefully. Another: It’s a long, long process. It all starts (officially) with an email. Over the summer, we ask Dance Magazine contributors and editors which […]

Vibrant, dazzling, a little bit dangerous: Angelo Greco is a firecracker. He pushes his breathtaking jumps and turns to the very edge of control, yet imbues each step with lyrical musicality and sensitive emotion. Those qualities, along with a boyish mop of curls, made Greco an instant audience favorite when he joined San Francisco Ballet […]

A new year calls for a new approach to your training. As you make your resolutions for 2018, think about the corrections you hear most often. Now is the perfect time to address these issues and set realistic goals to fix them. Not sure what to tackle first? These seven resolutions master teachers wish you’d […]

You dance like a knockout—but can you take a punch? Intense stage combat is a crucial element in many shows, from the sword fighting in Romeo & Juliet to the left hooks of the Broadway musical Rocky. But performing it well requires careful body awareness, trust and a full commitment to safety. Whether you’re dancing […]

When conveying a story onstage, certain roles come more easily than others. Some dancers naturally possess the regality of the Lilac Fairy, others the attack of Kitri. Some take on the naïve Aurora with ease, but have trouble with Myrtha’s complexity. Tackling a role that’s outside your character wheelhouse can be tricky—especially since ballet’s princesses, […]

When we put San Francisco Ballet principal Sarah Van Patten on our cover in 2013, we couldn’t stop gushing about how deeply she dives into every character she portrays. Since then, her characterizations have only grown, and she’s taken on a new role—as a ballerina mom. We caught up with Van Patten for our “Spotlight” […]

Who are you when you no longer do what you’ve been doing for years? It is the big question facing anyone who retires. For top ballet dancers, however, the situation is more extreme. They start young, grow up in a rarified atmosphere, mostly see only each other, and become more and more removed from ordinary […]