ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

DANCE

Meet New York’s Seniors-Only Precision Dance Troupe. It’s Called The Pacemakers.

“The team performs for hundreds of thousands of fans each year, appearing frequently at sporting events, community centers, festivals and conferences across the Northeast. … The Pacemakers boast 47 members and have won fans around the globe with viral performances that have racked up millions of views online.” - New York Post

Ronald K. Brown On 40 Years Of His Dance Company And How To “Make Dance Speak”

“Dance is already abstract, and so the role of us as artists is to be as specific as possible with what we want to say. That’s how we make dance speak. We are talking heart-to-heart, spirit-to-spirit, with the audience.” - The Minnesota Star Tribune

Writer Hanif Kureishi, Paralyzed After An Accident, Creates A Dance

“Kureishi, 70, who wrote the award-winning novel The Buddha of Suburbia and the film My Beautiful Laundrette, has devised a filmed piece about the devastating aftermath of his fall for two leading ballet dancers, in collaboration with choreographer and Royal Ballet principal character artist Kristen McNally.” - The Observer (UK)

Here’s One Choreographer Who Loves AI And Virtual Reality

Wayne McGregor worked with a Google Arts & Culture Lab team to develop a choreographic language agent called AISOMA — a tool that can create and reiterate phrases and movements from a huge repository of dance data. He's also created a pas de deux which audience members watch inside a circular 12K LED screen. - Financial Times

How Pittsburgh Ballet Is Bucking a Trend And Finding Success

In an attempt to cater to evolving tastes, bring in as many attendees as possible and expose the next generation to ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet has been programming productions that tap into popular stories to help sell tickets. - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Thinking About Misty Copeland’s Legacy

“Her journey shattered long-standing norms in an art form historically dominated by white dancers, challenging stereotypes about body type, ethnicity, and ‘who belongs’ in classical ballet.” - Salon

Taylor Swift’s Choreographer Also Happens To Choreograph Operas For The Met

Mandy Moore “has created charming routines for movies including La La Land and Silver Linings Playbook and television shows. … She has made dance numbers for the Grammys, the Emmys, the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards.” Now she’s on Broadway, and at the Met. - The New York Times

Ski Ballet, Long Overshadowed By Snowboarding, May Be Making A Comeback

No, seriously: This is snow dancing, with skis. "In 1988 and 1992, ski ballet featured as a demonstration sport in the Winter Olympics. At a high level, it was actually pretty bad ass.” Powder (Yahoo)

Mark Morris Sued By Ex-Company Member For Allegedly Discriminating Against Black Dancers

“The plaintiff, Taína Lyons, an Afro-Latina dancer, … alleges that (Morris) told her that her hair was ‘too big’ and a ‘distraction.’ ... Ms. Lyons, who started at the company in 2022 and was terminated in 2024, claimed that she had faced discrimination based both on race and on disability.” - The New York Times

Dancers In Estonia’s National Ballet Have Been Working Second Jobs As Taxi Drivers To Get By

The opera house issued a public appeal to the Riigikogu Cultural Affairs Committee on Thursday, stating that if the current lack of funding continues as it is, the sustainability of the national opera is in serious danger. - ERR (Estonia)

Misty Copeland Dances Her Final Performance With ABT

“Misty Copeland took one last spin on her pointe shoes Wednesday, showered with golden glitter and bouquets as she retired from American Ballet Theatre after a trailblazing career in which she became an ambassador for diversity in an overwhelmingly white art form.” - AP

Irish Dance’s Governing Body May Go Bankrupt Due To Cheating Scandal

“If all potential legal cases are to proceed against An Coimisiún Le Rincí Gaelacha, it may not be able to continue as a going concern ‘to govern our beautiful art form’. That is the warning sounded by directors of Irish dancing’s largest and oldest governing body.” - The Irish Times

When Should A Dancer Take The Risk Of Turning Down A Role?

“In a world with fewer contracts than aspiring dancers, and a long history of training dancers to silently acquiesce, it can feel taboo to express discomfort or refuse an opportunity. But artists sometimes have to contend with a role that seems culturally insensitive, exacerbates an injury, or otherwise feels wrong.” - Dance Magazine

Just How Will The Kennedy Center Make Dance Less “Woke?”

Avoiding “wokeness,” as the conservative right defines it, may prove difficult. Ballet has long been shaped by refugees, people of color, and the queer community. - Washington City Paper

The South London Fashion House That Supplies Hamilton, Wicked, And Strictly Come Dancing

DanceSport International London used to be a dance studio - but now it employs 52 artisans constantly engaged in costumes for the West End, not to mention films and TV series. The dance background makes sense: "Performers want to move, and we want to accentuate the movement” - BBC

Our Free Newsletter

Join our 30,000 subscribers

Latest

Don't Miss

function my_excerpt_length($length){ return 200; } add_filter('excerpt_length', 'my_excerpt_length');