Dance

There’s no touring, no practicing for Coachella, no videos filming. There’s nothing. “As the entertainment business comes to a halt, commercial dancers and choreographers — the performers who animate film, TV and music videos — said the experience has been surreal and stressful.” – Los Angeles

Tuany Nascimento grew up in Complexo do Alemão, a poor and often dangerous group of hillside slums in Rio de Janeiro. She studied dance with hopes of becoming a professional ballerina, a dream she gave up in order to help support her family with a day job. But she kept dancing when she could, and enough neighborhood girls became curious that she started her own school, called Na Ponta dos Pes (meaning on pointe). (video) – Al Jazeera

“The employees who are to be paid and receive benefits through the dark season include the dancers, musicians, stagehands, costume designers, security personnel, ushers and administrators. … For now, their payment schedule is the same as it would have been without the pandemic: They will be paid until the end of the spring season, and then will face a short layoff.” – The New York Times

“So am I a dancer? The short answer is no. And people find this answer surprising. Many expect a dance writer to dance, despite not having the same expectations of other fields. For instance, most food critics are not chefs, and most film critics are not actors or directors.” – Broad Street Review

“Dance curators do a lot more than program a season. They spot raw talent, develop and shape careers, identify trends and create context around what they are presenting. But what does it take to get into this kind of wide-ranging work — and what do curators actually do on a daily basis?” Three of them tell us. – Dance Magazine

The recently interrupted tours, canceled premieres, locked studios and social distancing requirements have hit the financially fragile, socially enmeshed dance world hard. When your life revolves around lifting, leaping, catching, jumping and otherwise spending time (often literally joined at the hip) with your dance partners, how do you deal with solitary confinement? – Washington Post

Brian Seibert: “She calls it Passing and Jostling While Being Confined to a Small Apartment. It’s a dance history exercise [for Seibert’s class at Yale], but it occurred to me that it might double as a diversion for people now cooped up at home; it’s something that anyone can attempt, carefully. Ms. Rainer agreed. So here I can present her first dance for the socially isolated.” – The New York Times

The move comes after an investigation into alleged sexual misconduct by Scarlett, who had been artist-in-residence, with students at the Royal Ballet School. The company also said, in what seems a carefully worded statement, that “there were no matters to pursue in relation to alleged contact with students.” – The Guardian

Debbie Allen, star and choreographer of Fame, has been hosting dance lessons and classes since Wednesday. “‘While all of us are dealing with this uncertainty and darkness, we will bring the light right here on the dance floor,’ she told her class which amassed to over 89,000 students, as she blasted Fame‘s titular song.” (And don’t forget about #QuaranTunes.) – The Hollywood Reporter

It seems all too obvious to compare flamenco virtuoso/a Manuel Liñán’s all-bio-male show Viva! to Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo. But, writes Marina Harss, the dancing here is quite traditional, “less satire than declaration of love for flamenco, pure and simple.” – The New York Times

“The idea came from the dancer Miranda Quinn: The opening sequence of The Brady Bunch popped into her head. ‘How they’re all in little squares,’ she said. ‘That made me think of how we’re all being quarantined and are supposed to stay separate, but this was a way for all of us to still be dancing together and creating together even though we’re apart.'” – The New York Times

“We polled contributors from around the country to put together a very subjective and not at all comprehensive list.” In addition to Best Dance Theater Work and Best Dance Film, there are such categories as Best Story Ballet Remake, Most Exciting Reinvention of Neoclassicism, Most Satisfying Confusion, and Most Creative Use of Tables. – Dance Magazine

Marina Harss talks to four dancers from across the country about how they’re staying in shape and in touch despite being more or less trapped in their houses. – The New York Times

Garnet Henderson’s guide includes more than just obvious advice such as “keep three to six months’ worth of income in savings” (which, she acknowledges, is impossible for many dancers). One key point: be sure to save documentation of every gig you’ve lost because of the epidemic, because you’ll need it when you apply for aid. – Dance Magazine

As dance, music and opera companies seek ways to stream performances online; dance teachers hold class and dance parties on Instagram live; university dance programs unveil plans to move curriculum online; and pioneering choreographers seek ways to make virtual dances amidst this period of social distancing, an uptick in innovative online dance experiences is imminent. But it is impossible to predict now what the overall economic impact of COVID-19 will be on arts and culture—an $800 billion U.S. industry. – Dance Magazine

Moira Macdonald was at Pacific Northwest Ballet’s final (in too many senses) dress rehearsal for a program the public won’t get to attend. “There was no one in the seat in front of me, no one next to me, no one across the aisle — just performance, filling up the empty spaces. You don’t usually think of McCaw Hall as a room, but it is; this was like a large version of a living-room entertainment. Were those people onstage, dancing with the fierce passion that comes when you only get one shot at something, performing only for me? It was easy to think so.” – The Seattle Times

Mistake. “Not long after she started working again at the academy, she misappropriated $1.5 million from its coffers.” – The New York Times

Seriously: Dance is doable in-the-house exercise. Though the five dancers in this article all have extensive gym and group class routines, one also says that “dancing helps me appreciate my body and how much it can do for me. I can ask it to be coordinated, connected, and challenged. I like that it can surprise me, too!” – HuffPost

Kathryn Morgan, who spoke on the Today Show about mental health and the ballet world, went viral for that – but had much more to say. On her own YouTube channel, she gave a lot more details. – Dance Magazine

Merce Cunningham, Alvin Ailey, Mark Morris, Pina Bausch, Richard Alston … and the list goes on. Writer Lyndsey Winship gives a brief survey of the various ways (and no, video alone is not enough) that companies and archives are working to preserve modern choreography. – The Guardian

The Brazilian-born star will become, along with Sofiane Sylve of San Francisco Ballet, principal dancer and ballet master of the Semperoper Ballett in Dresden. In late 2017, Gomes was pressured to resign from ABT over what the board chairman called a “highly concerning” accusation of (unspecified) sexual misconduct in 2009 that was unconnected with the company or anyone in it; Gomes has since worked freelance as dancer and choreographer, most notably with former ABT colleague Julie Kent at The Washington Ballet. – Pointe Magazine

“During his time at Houston Ballet as choreographic apprentice in 1989, and later as choreographic associate from 1995 to 2008, he created seven ballets … Although the company has returned to his popular full-length Peter Pan several times over the years, and In Dreams in the 2017/18 season, [Pretty Things] is McIntyre’s first new work for the company in nearly two decades.” – Dance Magazine

“Alas, few of us were fortunate enough to witness this production. Friday night, the Ballet announced that all further performances of this “Midsummer” run have been canceled because city officials ordered that the Opera House and other venues be closed as a precaution amid the coronavirus crisis. If I do get the virus (not to suggest there were suspicions of contagion at Friday’s engagement), I’d almost say the performance I saw would be worth it.” – San Francisco Chronicle

“The dancing is already at a very high standard, the repertoire is solid and the audience base is dedicated. But I want to add certain things to the repertoire that haven’t yet been seen in Australia. … I also want to bring the company around the world. … And I want to dive into the company’s responsibility to the greater Australian community.” – Dance Magazine

Why? Because they’re in city-owned buildings, and “San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced on Friday, March 6, that War Memorial and Performing Arts Center venues, including the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall, will be closed for all public events for the next two weeks over fears of the rapid spread of COVID-19.” – San Francisco Chronicle

Chris Emile does DIY dance all over LA, bringing in audiences who normally might stay away from spaces like museums, or from traditional dance stages. He says, “It was really important for us to show people of color in our performances and just be physically closer to the audience, because we felt that was the way to get people impacted and get people involved in what we were doing.” (It’s working.) – Los Angeles Times

Says choreographer Andrew McNicol, “With McNicol Ballet Collective I wanted to create a new type of company that offers world-class dancers a flexible performance platform that’s able to fit in around the repertoire and commitments of their individual home companies.” – The Stage

Siobhan Burke: “Divulging this information has never been simple, not during the four and a half years I spent touring, on and off, with the Irish dance extravaganza, and not in the decade since I last set foot onstage with the show. … The mere sight of a Riverdance billboard … fills me with an uneasy mix of affection and anxiety, embarrassment and pride.” – The New York Times

For The Washington Ballet, Dr. Natalie Rouland studies the history of great Russian story ballets such as Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake, going all the way back to the written stage directions and Stepanov choreographic notation of the originals. – Dance Magazine