If you are a performing artist, I’ll bet that, like me, you feel beaten up, beaten down, slammed against many walls. You are likely searching for hope, but feeling that any kind of sustainable life in the arts is a faraway fantasy, only possible during better times. And weren’t these supposed to be the “better […]
Trans Artist and Activist Sean Dorsey on How Dance Can Meet This Political Moment
On his first day in office, President Trump issued a series of executive orders limiting the rights of transgender and nonbinary Americans, from stating that the U.S. government would recognize only male and female genders to removing gender options from passports. His orders targeted rights and protections attained through years of courageous advocacy. And award-winning […]
Hip-Hop Dance Theater Company Boy Blue Is Bringing London Energy to New York City
Choreographer Kenrick “H2O” Sandy and composer-producer Michael “Mikey J” Asante met at school in East London when they were 12, bonding over hip hop. After performing in local street-dance battles, they founded the hip-hop dance theater company Boy Blue in 2001, wowing audiences with precision choreography and explosive energy. Their show Pied Piper won an […]
Meet Radha Varadan, the Kathak Dancer Reinterpreting Classic Ballet Variations
Radha Varadan’s ingenious reimaginings of some of ballet’s most famous variations using kathak, a form of Indian classical dance, have earned her serious traction online. Based in India and the U.S., Varadan trained in both ballet and kathak growing up. She later studied postmodern dance (and molecular biology) at George Washington University, and today she […]
Suzie Toot on Bringing Tap to the “RuPaul’s Drag Race” Stage
In the season premiere of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” Season 17, Suzie Toot wowed the judges, her fellow contestants, and viewers with a tap routine that proved she has serious dance chops. Her side-splitting Morse code interpretation of the Gettysburg Address secured her the season’s first win, and unleashed a wave of new fans. Ms. Toot—born […]
Behind “The Nelken Line” Dance Protest in DC—and the Organizers’ Hope to Take It National
A sharp wind was blowing in Washington, DC, on the morning of Monday, February 17, as 36 dancers processed single file around the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Threading in front of the modernist white marble edifice, then across a plaza with views of the Potomac River, they danced the spare but […]
Ashley Bouder on the Ballets That Have Defined Her Career
The last few weeks have felt fairly routine for Ashley Bouder—morning class, rehearsal, picking up her daughter from school—until it hits her: Her 25-year career at New York City Ballet is about to come to a close. “I go through little bouts where it’s really real and I feel like crying,” she says. “But I’m […]
How the Federal Funding Freeze Nearly Upended Jody Sperling/Time Lapse Dance’s Egypt Tour
The funding freeze that President Trump instituted earlier this week has had ripple effects in the dance community. Choreographer Jody Sperling, whose company Jody Sperling/Time Lapse Dance often engages creatively with the issue of climate change, was told that the troupe had lost a major State Department grant—just before leaving for the tour that grant […]
For 101-Year-Old Vija Vetra, Dance Is a Symbol of Life Itself
“Dance is the art of movement, and therefore anything that is moving, breathing, growing, or feeling is part of the dance,” says Vija Vetra, a 101-year-old Latvian-born dancer, choreographer, teacher, and lecturer who first earned acclaim as an Indian classical and modern dancer in the mid-20th century. Vetra’s passion for her art has taken her […]