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DANCE

Taking Ballet Class Outdoors In The Middle Of A New York Winter

"Across the city, amateur and professional dancers are donning sneakers, masks and lots of layers to carry on with a familiar ritual that, for many, is essential to maintaining physical and mental health. … For the most part, have endured without interruption, a consistency that speaks to dancers' desire to be physically present together, not cooped up in...

Meet The Choreographer Behind The Viral Stars Of The UCLA Gymnastics Team

Bijoya Das was a gymnast herself from age 6 until an injury in college led her to switch to dance; she's now a successful commercial dancer and choreographer in the popular music industry. She is also the one who creates the dances for the gymnasts at UCLA whose routines keep becoming hits on YouTube — and that's a job...

The Dramatic Importance Of Club Dance To City Life

That's merely one thing that's missing right now, of course, but it is missing, and Dublin isn't going to let people forget the joys of moving their bodies alongside so many others at dance clubs. "Who’s in charge of making sure we have the facilities to be a city? Who’s in charge of making sure there’s somewhere for us...

Australian Dance Theatre’s Artistic Director Stepping Down After 22 Years

Garry Stewart took the helm at Adelaide-based ADT — which is the country's oldest contemporary dance company — in 1999 and choreographed 20 original works there. - InDaily (Adelaide)

Is Choreography Is Protected By U.S. Copyright? Yes And No

It's a messy enough business that the first commercial choreography for a pop music video (an industry where you'd think there's enough money involved to have figured this out years ago) to get copyrighted was only last July. (It was JaQuel Knight's moves for Beyoncé's "Single Ladies".) Steven Vargas gives readers some background in American copyright law, hints for...

‘It’s Muybridge on Steroids’: Herman Cornejo And A ‘Photo-Scientist’ Make A Totally Different Dance Video

In DANCELIVE by Herman Cornejo, shot by Steven Sebring using his specially developed in-the-round camera system, viewers can "watch from up close and see their movements from all sides and different angles, the visual equivalent of surround sound. … QR codes … will allow viewers to use their phones to interact with the online images, moving them forward...

Running The Prix De Lausanne Ballet Competition Despite The Pandemic

Since this year's 78 contestants from 20 countries can't travel to Switzerland, they're submitting pre-recorded videos. The jury members (masked and socially distanced, of course) will meet in Lausanne to watch and judge those videos together, keeping to the same schedule they would in a normal year. - Pointe Magazine

Milwaukee Ballet Plans Return To Mainstage Performance In June

As it did with its abbreviated Nutcracker in December, the company will do its first two productions of 2021 before an in-person audience of 10 people, with all other ticketholders watching online. But the season's final production will be back (local regulations permitting) at Milwaukee Ballet's usual venue, the Marcus Performing Arts Center, June 10-13. - Milwaukee Business Journal

Scottish Gymnastics Told To Speed Up A Ballet School Abuse Investigation

"Several parents raised concerns with Scottish Gymnastics a year ago over dance classes for eight to 12-year-olds at the prestigious Ballet West school in Taynuilt, Argyll. Allegations were made that children at Ballet West’s lower school were shouted at by coaches and 'body shamed,' causing distress and anxiety." - The Sunday Times (UK)

What It Took To Program Robots To Dance The Twist And The Mashed Potato

A video which became a viral hit last month "shows two of Boston Dynamics' humanoid Atlas research robots doing the twist, the mashed potato and other classic moves, joined by Spot, a doglike robot, and Handle, a wheeled robot designed for lifting and moving boxes in a warehouse or truck. … almost a year and half of choreography,...

Black Dancer Sidelined At Berlin State Ballet Won’t Give Up Struggle

"Berlin first black dancer, Chloé Lopes Gomes, said she has been made to feel different because of her skin colour since she first donned ballet shoes as a child. But after she was again subjected to what she described as 'racism' at Germany's largest dance company, she has launched a fightback that has forced the State Ballet to...

Remembering The Other Nijinsky — And How She Changed Dance

"The Nijinsky name, however, does not belong to alone. In an era where static positions were the marrow of classical dance, Nijinska envisioned a modernist ballet, one which saw focus shift towards the movement which connected these positions. Ultimately, she believed it was not the final posture that encapsulated the beauty of ballet, but the spaces in...

Black Ballet Dancers Talk About How To Move Toward Equity And Inclusion

Black artists From Boston Ballet, ABT, New York City Ballet, BalletMet, Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, Tanzcompany Innsbruck, the Trocks, and the pool of freelance dancers describe the challenges they face and what would be genuinely helpful. - Dance Magazine

A Dancer Breaking Ballet’s Gender Norms

What is unique about Ashton Edwards is that he is a man doing serious en pointe work in a professional ballet setting. "Ashton led us there," says PNB director Peter Boal, speaking of Edwards' request to study en pointe. "Ballet can be a little bit slow. We said, 'Why not? Lead us and we will work with you.' "...

Oh, Netflix, Why Couldn’t You Make A Better Ballet Show?

The plot has issues. The characters have issues. The filming of dance itself has issues. "Then there are the voice-overs, each more overwrought than the next. 'There’s a wicked paradox in ballet,' one intones. 'Great flexibility is expected to blossom in a rigid world. The brutal rules and endless isolation, the messing of your mind, it somehow contorts your...

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