Category: dance

Yung Phil and his crew Turf Feinz may work the BART trains in and around San Francisco, but only between gigs for commercials, music videos, and concert tours. “We’re using [the subways] as another outlet,” he tells Jennifer Stahl. “It’s not just about trying to get a quick dollar. We try to push the movement, we try to push the culture forward.” – Dance Magazine

According to reports on the Russian broadcast network RBC, one dancer at the Bolshoi (where rehearsals for the fall are underway) has gotten sick and 59 dancers and rehearsal pianists have been quarantined. At the Mariinsky, where opera performances are underway and the ballet Giselle opens on Aug. 13, “two or three” dancers are ill, classes and rehearsals are suspended, and company members who aren’t performing that day have been asked to stay out of the theater. – Gramilano (Milan)

The LADP app takes this experience of live-streamed classes to a new level by packaging this professional-grade instruction with a sneak peek into the company’s rehearsals and performances. The app is free; access to the classes is $9.99 a month. The app is a savvy effort to prevent layoffs similar to the ones that have hit many dance companies, while raising the profile of Millepied’s  eight-year-old organization. Classes are taught by members of the company in genres including ballet, modern, and hip-hop. Guest dancers also make appearances on the app every week. – Fast Company

Dana Naomy Mills: “The theme of the universality of grief, as well as the tension of confinement and expansion that echo throughout Graham’s performance, acquire a double meaning by being viewed at this time, when contemporary spectators, shielding from the virus, are isolated inside their own grief.” – Psyche

The writer of the piece says, “Limitations foster creativity.” These specific limitations also foster free time to watch other people’s creativity, of course. – Dance Magazine

Here’s one instance from last month: “Standing at the base of the three-story pedestal supporting the Confederate general’s likeness, [Janine] Bell, the artistic director of Elegba Folklore Society, welcomed a small sea of drummers, dancers and bystanders banging on plastic buckets to an event she called the Reclamation Drum Circle. ‘We are not playing today,’ she said, and invited all present to move and sway to the music. And so began an extended jam session at a park long considered a whites-only space.” – The New York Times

“From her house in Amsterdam, she has taken to creating dance films, all three to five minutes in length, with performers around the world. Dancers from Tulsa Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, Dutch National Ballet and more have already taken part, with others scheduled in the coming months.” – Pointe Magazine

“With their ability to elevate a dancer both literally and metaphorically to a superhuman realm, [they] are the ultimate symbol of a ballerina’s ethereality and hard work. … The shoes carry an almost mystical allure: They’re an endless source of lore and ritual, with tips, tricks and stories passed down over generations. [Here’s] how a delicately darned slipper introduced in the 1820s has transformed into a technical tool that offers dancers the utmost freedom onstage today.” – Pointe Magazine

“Six years after shuttering his popular dance troupe …, its eponymous founder is relaunching the company as a conduit for digital dance films, with a project called FLTPK. … He sees his film work more of a continuation of his work as a photographer rather than as a choreographer. … ‘It’s not a company of dancers,’ McIntyre insists. ‘It’s a community of artists.'” – Dance Magazine

“Every August for the past five years, Beach Sessions Dance Series has been an exciting fixture on the sands of Rockaway Beach in Queens. The festival brings contemporary-dance luminaries to share their work through free, outdoor site-specific performances, all while raising environmental awareness through beach cleanups and other collaborative programming. But as coronavirus began to decimate the plans of other summertime dance festivals, it might have seemed inevitable that Beach Sessions would also be forced to take the year off. Enter TikTok.” – Dance Magazine