A native of Lafayette, Louisiana, Courtney danced with Lafayette Ballet Theatre before matriculating to New York University. After spending her freshman year in London, she moved to New York to attend NYU Tisch School of the Arts, where she recently graduated with a BFA in Dance. Courtney began contributing to Dance Magazine during her senior year. She has performed in works by Karole Armitage, Netta Yerushalmy, Septime Webre, Vita Osojnik, Cherylyn Lavagnino, Giada Ferrone and Fairul Zahid, among others. She continues to take class, create and perform in the city.
When the news broke that Prince George, currently third in line for the British throne, would be continuing ballet classes as part of his school curriculum this year, we were as excited as anyone. (Okay, maybe more excited.)
This was not, it seems, a sentiment shared by "Good Morning America" host Lara Spencer.
On August 19, 1929, shockwaves were felt throughout the dance world as news spread that impresario Sergei Diaghilev had died. The founder of the Ballets Russes rewrote the course of ballet history as the company toured Europe and the U.S., championing collaborations with modernist composers, artists and designers such as Igor Stravinsky, Pablo Picasso and Coco Chanel. The company launched the careers of its five principal choreographers: Michel Fokine, Vaslav Nijinsky, Léonide Massine, Bronislava Nijinska and George Balanchine.
Paul Taylor American Modern Dance's annual Lincoln Center season will feature a free memorial performance on November 12 honoring Donald McKayle, who passed away in spring 2018 at age 87.
The DIY, anything-goes ethos of Edinburgh Festival Fringe goes hand in hand with the ideals of crowdfunding. So it only makes sense that Kickstarter would launch an official partnership with Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society. Incentives for artists to fund their Fringe appearances using the crowdfunding platform include tailored one-on-one coaching and extra promotion via Kickstarter's social media. The platform is also providing financial backing for a new series of initiatives that support the health and well-being of creators bringing their work to Edinburgh this month.
It might seem like the majority of the American dance world moves to Vail or Jacob's Pillow for the month of August, but there's plenty to see elsewhere. From Royal Ballet dancers appearing in an intimate New York City theater to a new musical based on a Disney animated classic, here are the shows we plan to close out summer with.
On July 27, 1974, Mikhail Baryshnikov made his American Ballet Theatre debut, dancing opposite fellow expatriate Natalia Makarova in Giselle mere weeks after his defection from the Soviet Union. The then-26-year-old caused a sensation, with Dance Magazine contributor Olga Maynard observing in her review, "If Baryshnikov exerts his good influences on ballet in the West we shall owe him a debt of gratitude."
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Back when Robbie Fairchild graced the cover of the May 2018 issue of Dance Magazine, he mentioned an idea for a short dance film he was toying around with. That idea has now come to fruition: In This Life, starring Fairchild and directed by dance filmmaker Bat-Sheva Guez, is being screened at this year's Dance on Camera Festival.
While the film itself covers heavy material—specifically, how we deal with grief and loss—the making of it was anything but: "It was really weird to have so much fun filming a piece about grief!" Fairchild laughs. We caught up with him, Guez and Christopher Wheeldon (one of In This Life's five choreographers) to find out what went into creating the 11-minute short film.
Looking for a good summer read (or several)? Dance Magazine has got you covered. So many of our favorite dance artists are secret (or not-so-secret) bookworms that we decided to ask them for recommendations—and where better to start than American Ballet Theatre principal and #BallerinaBookClub leader Isabella Boylston? She dished about the books she keeps on her nightstand, what she reads when she's in need of a little inspiration (hint: She's big into fantasy) and more.
How do you respectfully preserve a dance tradition that is more than 1,000 years old while recontextualizing it for 21st-century audiences? Perhaps no one has done it so well in recent memory as Prumsodun Ok, the founder of Prumsodun Ok & NATYARASA, Cambodia's first gay dance company.
Choreographic incubator Broadway Dance Lab has recently been rechristened Dance Lab New York. "I found the nomenclature of 'Broadway' was actually a type of glass ceiling to the organization," says choreographer Josh Prince, who founded the nonprofit in 2012.
In the June 1974 issue of Dance Magazine, our cover subject was the endlessly charming Frederic Franklin, then 60 years old. After declaring at the age of 4 that he was "going to be in the theater," the Liverpool-born dancer spent a lifetime doing exactly that.
As far as we're concerned, it's not really summer until our favorite dance festivals kick things off. This year's season is as packed and promising as ever, with seemingly everyone who is anyone converging on at least one big festival between now and August. Here are the artists, premieres and collaborations we can't wait to see.
Rocketman is not your typical biopic. The film charts Elton John's rise to fame and the construction of his beloved, audacious persona in the only way that could be appropriate for the subject: via a splashy, fantastical movie musical bursting with over-the-top production numbers. We chatted with Adam Murray, the British choreographer who worked with director Dexter Fletcher and star Taron Egerton, to find out how they made the magic happen. As Murray puts it, "It was like being in the best sweets shop ever, with all of these creative geniuses."
You never quite know what's going to happen when Natalia Osipova steps onstage—you know you're in for something extraordinary, but the exact nature of what you'll get is a mystery until it's happening. It's only fitting, then, that we would learn of Force of Nature, a new documentary following a year of the ballet superstar's career, a day before its limited release in the UK.
On May 18, 1919, Margot "Peggy" Hookham was born. She would grow up to become Dame Margot Fonteyn, England's first homegrown prima ballerina. She joined the Sadler's Wells School in 1934 and was performing principal roles with the precursor to The Royal Ballet the next year. Fonteyn was a company-defining figure, dancing Aurora for the re-opening of the Royal Opera House after World War II, creating numerous roles with Sir Frederick Ashton and forging a legendary partnership with Rudolf Nureyev.
"New York City Ballet star appears in a Keanu Reeves action movie" is not a sentence we ever thought we'd write. But moviegoers seeing John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum will be treated to two scenes featuring soloist Unity Phelan dancing choreography by colleague Tiler Peck. The guns-blazing popcorn flick cast Phelan as a ballerina who also happens to be training to become an elite assassin. Opens in theaters May 17.
I caught a preview screening of The White Crow earlier this week at New York City's 92Y, and I have to say: Even with a solid grasp of dance history and a smattering of film studies knowledge, I had some questions when the credits rolled. The Ralph Fiennes–directed Rudolf Nureyev biopic dramatizes the events leading up to the ballet star's famous defection from the Soviet Union, touching on incidents from his childhood and his years at the Leningrad Choreographic School.
So before you check out the film (which has a limited release in NYC and Los Angeles today), here are a few details that might be helpful to know.
Since the project was first announced toward the end of 2017, we've been extremely curious about Yuli. The film, based on Carlos Acosta's memoir No Way Home, promised as much dancing as biography, with Acosta appearing as himself and dance sequences featuring his eponymous Cuba-based company Acosta Danza. Add in filmmaking power couple Icíar Bollaín (director) and Paul Laverty (screenwriter), and you have a recipe for a dance film unlike anything else we've seen recently.
Today—April 16, 2019—marks what would have been Merce Cunningham's 100th birthday. As dancers from Los Angeles to New York City to London gear up for Night of 100 Solos (the marathon performance event being livestreamed today), and as companies and presenters worldwide continue to celebrate the Cunningham Centennial through their programming, we searched through the Dance Magazine Archives to unearth our favorite images of the groundbreaking dancemaker.
Cloud & Victory gets dancers. The dancewear brand's social media drools over Roberto Bolle's abs, sets classical variations to Beyoncé and moans over Mondays and long adagios. And it all comes from the mind of founder Tan Li Min, the boss lady who takes on everything from designs to inventory to shipping orders.
Known simply (and affectionately) to the brand's 41K Instagram followers as Min, she's used her wry, winking sense of humor to give the Singapore-based C&V international cachet.
She recently spoke with Dance Magazine about building the brand, overcoming insecurity and using pizza as inspiration.
