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DANCE

A Young Polio Survivor And Refugee Heals Herself And Others Through Dance

"Chantal-Iris Mukeshimana came to Belgium as a child after fleeing the genocide in Rwanda. Decades later, she founded a dance school where fellow wheelchair users can express themselves." (video) - Deutsche Welle

Learn Some Music History Through A Viral TikTok Dance

The "Pink Shoe Laces" craze might come from an homage to the recently concluded Mrs. Maisel, but some of the kids doing it are googling Dodie Stevens' 1958 tune, which "is an anti-war/anti-conformity/counterculture anthem." - EuroNews

Juilliard’s Dean Of Dance Sees Her First Class On To The Reality Of Life After School

Alicia Mack: "The idea is that you graduate students who have an extraordinary range ... but are also entrepreneurial and think of themselves as a brand, so if the job isn’t there, they create the opportunity." - The New York Times

Hollywood’s Commercial Choreographers Have Formed A Union of Their Own

"After forming in 2022, the Choreographers Guild started accepting members this spring. The labor organization plans to tackle a host of issues: It aims to establish a standard pay minimum, secure health care and pensions, strengthen choreographers' copyright rights and more." - Marketplace

Texas Ballet Theater Names Tim O’Keefe (Permanent) Artistic Director

The dancer-turned choreographer joined the Fort Worth company as associate artistic director in 2002 and was appointed acting artistic director last summer when Ben Stevenson retired. - The Ballet Herald

Dancer Brian Henry, Aka HallowDreamz, Is “The Face Of Krump In New York”

"It's not just that he's commandingly large and muscular, with a Moses-like beard. ... Standing in profile with his chest angled forward, he could be an Assyrian sculpture. Breathing like a dragon and then opening his eyes, he could be inspirited clay, the first man." - The New York Times

The First AI-Generated Dance

Now it’s ballet’s turn, and a subversive new performance will become the world’s first AI ballet, using generative AI to inspire all aspects of the composition; from the concept to the score and the set design. - Wallpaper

A New York Times Critic Finds A New Fave Tap Dancer On A Subway Platform

"Stumbling on Ja'Bowen is like uncovering a New York City art secret. The lucidity of his body and the music that it produces are steadying forces in an unpredictable space. ... With rigor, elegance and humor, he takes the craft of tap seriously while disarming the crowds." - The New York Times

How Dancing Made The Savannah Bananas Social Media’s Favorite American Sports Team

"The factors driving the Bananas' online success are obvious. In-game clips of players swinging flaming baseball bats, pitching from atop stilts, and performing choreographed dance routines are tailor-made for social media. To reduce the team's popularity solely to its viral antics, however, is dishonest." - The Guardian

For The First Time In Four Decades, San Francisco Ballet Is Having An Open Call For Corps Dancers

"Whether the company's open call for corps members marks a change in relationship with the San Francisco Ballet School is still uncertain." The company is completing a major change in leadership: Tamara Rojo is just finishing her first season as artistic director following Helgi Tomasson's 37-year tenure. - San Francisco Chronicle

Dancing Across (Or Inside?) The Blockchain

Catherine and Ti have devised a coding language by which sequences of human movements are translated into what they call choreographic hashes—code that determines the appearance of a piece of digital art. - Decrypt

This Choreographer Is Incorporating Rock Climbing and Tightrope Walking Into His Work

In a work titled Corps Extrêmes ("Extreme Bodies"), which choreographer Rachid Ouramdane calls "halfway between a documentary and an art piece," involves highliner Nathan Paulin, eight acrobats from Compagnie XY and the Swiss free climber Nina Caprez. - The Guardian

Gia Kourlas Is Giving Balanchine Too Much Of A Pass For His Abusive Behavior

"Far too often, women in ballet have been disbelieved, gaslighted, judged, or blamed for the harms inflicted on them by their abusers. Kourlas continues this trend, but attaches these behaviors to words like 'feminism' and 'freedom' in a way that diminishes them." - Dance Magazine

City Ballet Finally Has An Asian American Woman Principal

Mira Nadon, who's 21: "That's exciting for me to have some responsibility and feel like I can do something to help ... the culture in our company." - CBS

The Contemporary Ballet That Became Modern Taiwan’s National Epic

"Performed by Cloud Gate Dance Theatre, Legacy is widely considered to be the first contemporary dance to tell the story of modern Taiwan. It re-enacted the journey undertaken by the 17th-century pioneers who traveled from mainland China, via the choppy Taiwan Strait, before settling on the island." - CNN

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