Valerie Allman: "I grew up dancing. That was my first love and I never expected that there would be such a parallel between dance and discus.” - The New York Times
Just months after most of the flagship summer festival was cancelled following the workplace death of a crew member, the dance mecca is hosting a program in October in the rebuilt Doris Duke Theatre: a weekend of tap by Caleb Teicher and Nic Gareiss. - The Berkshire Eagle (Pittsfield, MA)
“Alexander Loxton, who played the ‘older Billy’ in the West End musical Billy Elliot as well as dancing with the Royal Ballet …, says he suffered a career-wrecking ankle ligament injury during an unjustified stop-and-search by Met Police in September 2016.” He is suing for £600,000 (roughly $800,000) in damages. - The Independent (UK)
“Joshua Bergasse spoke … about his role reproducing choreography, how an iconic Broadway musical translates to an opera stage, and the efforts to achieve laser synchronicity between Bernstein’s notes and Robbins’s moves.” - LA Dance Chronicle
Popular and productive, Arpino, who was 85 when he died in 2008, didn’t get much respect from influential critics. At various times they called his style slick, kitsch and facile. Audiences were less conflicted — for the most part, they seemed to love his ballets. - The New York Times
“’It really bores me, this transactional conversation,’ he says, meaning the choreographer explaining their intention; the audience expecting something explicit to be communicated. … ‘Especially in ballet, there’s a push all the time for concrete narrative. … I think we need to be much braver about trusting our instincts about what we’re receiving.’” - The Guardian
Zenetta Drew, who presided over last year’s fiasco — which cost the company $560,000 in a settlement with the National Labor Relations Board and $248,000 in withdrawn city funding — will retire later this year. Meanwhile, the board unanimously accepted the recommendations in an advisory task force’s report on repairing DBDT. - KERA (Dallas)
This report analyzes the gender distribution of Artistic, Executive, and Associate/Assistant Directors, as well as Heads of Schools, Heads of Second Companies, Rehearsal Directors, and, for the first time, music directors and conductors among the 150 largest ballet and classically-based dance companies in the US. - Dance Data Project
“A tradition dating back to 1954, the Dance Magazine Awards are given in appreciation of the artistry, integrity, and resilience that dance artists have demonstrated over the course of their careers. The 2025 awards have a special West Coast focus.” - Dance Magazine
Over more than a decade with Lines, Cissoko has become such a part of King's creative process that it's now almost impossible to know the dancer from the dance, as the poet Yeats put it. - San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)
“I thought the (wider) world was so interesting (when I was young), and outside was where I could breathe. I think the world I was coming from was not one in which I could survive. As a queer, white Arab (in Belgium), everything about me was problematic for my environment.” - The Guardian
Working with a physician and several dancers, Lynne Charles (who had a 35-year-career as a principal ballerina) developed 4Pointe, a somatic method to strengthen specific muscles for pointe work. “It’s not meant to replace traditional pointe class,” she stresses. “It’s meant to go hand-in-hand alongside it, like Pilates or Gyrotonic.” - Pointe Magazine
Universally, there is an urgent call for dance’s back offices to approach funding with the same creativity, vitality, and care that goes into artistic decision-making. - Dance Magazine
“Many from the Ballet Nacional are quietly choosing to leave behind difficult conditions: Blackouts that make rehearsal spaces and exercise rooms swelteringly hot. Scarce medical supplies. Pointe shoes stuck in customs for months.” - The New York Times
Choreographer Joshua Beamish is the founding director of Ballet Vancouver, which, like Ballet BC and Goh Ballet, will focus on contemporary choreography. The company will present a home season and tour internationally. - Vancouver Sun (Yahoo!)
