In the video series Dancer Diary, Haley Hilton chronicles her life as a dancer in New York City. Here, Hilton and her friend Libby Lloyd, a dancer on Broadway, rewatch the cult classic film Step Up. For more Dancer Diary videos, visit Dance Magazine’s YouTube channel. The post Dancer Diary: Pro Dancers React to <i>Step Up</i> appeared first on Dance Magazine.
Choreographer Damien Jalet on How Netflix’s Emilia Pérez Uses Dance as a “Tool for Resistance”
On the surface, Netflix’s new film Emilia Pérez doesn’t sound like a natural fit for dance: The plot follows a violent drug cartel leader in Mexico who hires a lawyer to help plan a faux death in order to start a new life as a woman. Yet Damien Jalet’s choreography plays a major role in […]
Op-Ed: Should Dancers Say Yes to Every Opportunity?
The reality of a dancer’s life is often more complicated than what we imagined as young students. We must become not just powerful artists but also skilled marketers, social media managers, and self-care experts. This, coupled with the need to pay rent and buy food, can create a heavy schedule of work and art. Time […]
Op-Ed: How to Save a Doomed Geisha
The UK’s The Spectator recently published a piece by the Japan specialist Lesley Downer, historical consultant for the Northern Ballet’s 2020 production Geisha. In her essay, Downer wonders why claims of cultural appropriation so dramatically affected the reception of the work, which has not been remounted since its premiere. You can hear her frustration as […]
How Majorette Dance Became a Mainstream Phenomenon
At historically Black colleges and universities in the American South, the real stars of any football game are the majorettes. Their signature dance style, created by Black women and femmes, has attracted a cultlike following. It’s all about no-holds-barred spectacle, combining the precision of a kick line with the winking sensuality of burlesque, boldly embodying […]
Yanira Castro’s Exorcism = Liberation Is a Public Art Campaign for Divided Times
Stroll through New York City, Chicago, or Western Massachusetts in the next month and a half and you might encounter a somewhat mysterious provocation on a poster, or in a window: “Exorcism = Liberation” “I came here to weep” “What is your first memory of dirt?” Yanira Castro, the multidisciplinary artist behind those slogans, hopes […]
“Playground” Star Dexter Carr on When Dance Gets the Reality Show Treatment
The new Hulu reality series “Playground,” with Megan Thee Stallion as an executive producer, is equal parts dancing and drama. The show’s namesake is Playground LA, the Los Angeles dance studio owned by Kenny Wormald and Robin Antin that serves as a frequent backdrop for viral class videos. “Playground” follows a group of the studio’s […]
Kayla Hamilton on Disability as Method and Access as Artistry
Bronx-based dancer, director, and educator Kayla Hamilton is at a transitional moment in her career. Her largest ensemble project yet, How to Bend Down / How to Pick It Up—a multidisciplinary performance exploring histories of Black disability, while imagining a liberated future—premieres at New York City’s The Shed next week before embarking on a U.S. […]
A Strike Threat, Scaffolding, and Last-Minute Changes: What It Was Like Dancing in the Olympic Opening Ceremony
Ballet de Lorraine’s Tristan Ihne has been dancing professionally for nearly two decades. But on July 26, he gave a performance unlike any he’d done before: Along with about 200 other dancers, he danced atop a golden platform filled with water next to the Seine river in an 8-minute piece by Maud Le Pladec, as […]
Choreographer David Dorfman on Magical Risk and Radical Empathy
For 40 years, David Dorfman has made capacious work full of heart. His 2020 piece (A) Way Out of My Body features original text, songs by Lizzy de Lise, and the rousing music of a live “house band” led by composer Sam Crawford. In a performance of the work last month in New York City’s […]