Seventy-five years ago, in a San Francisco busy with Naval activity in the middle of WWII, the San Francisco Ballet staged the first full-length Nutcracker in the U.S. The snow is still falling – but there’s a lot more of it now than there was in 1944, when 16 white-clad ballet corps members danced with sparkler-style sticks around the stage. – San Francisco Chronicle
Category: dance
The Rise – And Importance – Of Asian American Dance Groups
In a lot of Asian countries, “hip-hop rose to popularity as a form of self-expression and resistance, sometimes in the face of colonialism and oppressive regimes.” But current Asian American hip hop groups are all about finding each other, and finding community. – Noisey
A ‘Riverdance’ Alum Who’s Now Trying To Strip Away Every Cliché Of Irish Dance
Colin Dunne doesn’t wear the Celtic-ized costumes or hold his torso and arms rigid; he frequently dances in sneakers or barefoot; he sometimes improvises, which is almost unheard-of in traditional Irish dance. And in his newest show, he’s collaborating with a dead fiddler who was even more nonconformist than he is. – The New York Times
What Happens When You Get Your Dream Ballet Career And You’re Still Miserable?
“Countless dancers find themselves at a crossroads when they question whether they still love dance, whether the sacrifices are worth it or whether a professional career is truly what they want — or truly possible. We spoke with three dancers who faced this crucial turning point and achieved the right balance of ballet in their lives.” – Pointe Magazine
What It’s Like To Study Ballet While Black
Felicia Fitzpatrick: “With its European roots, ballet has always valued Eurocentric body shapes and skin color, leaving little opportunity for Black ballerinas to even attempt to engage with the art form. Even if they were allowed to participate, they were still othered and singled out for their race.” – Zora
Sean Spicer Is A Dancing Trainwreck. So Why Does He Keep Surviving “Dancing With The Stars?”
Gia Kourlas: “He had a different partner this week because his regular one, Lindsay Arnold, had a death in her family. It didn’t make his dancing better or worse. It remains consistent in its awfulness.” – The New York Times
Annie-B Parson Talks About Choreographing David Byrne For Broadway
“Often when I work with directors, or when I’m directing myself, what you think at the beginning often changes. That’s fair and normal. But with this show [American Utopia], the ideas David first presented me with have not changed. … I’ve worked with him for so long that I can literally get in his body.” – Vulture
Mark Morris’s Rollicking New Memoir
“I was never ashamed of being a sissy, and I wore the bullying as a badge of honor,” he writes. “I knew what was going on and I knew who I was, so I took care of myself by being funny. Nevertheless, every solo I made up in the first part of my career was a humiliation dance in one way or another.” – Washington Post
The Queens Dance Troupe Made Up Of Grandmothers
Says one 79-year-old dancer, “While I am dancing, I am very focused. I listen to the music and the lyrics. I also think about my movement: How can I dance beautifully? I actually forget that I am aging.” – The New York Times
Former Royal Ballet Dancer Jailed For Molesting Girls
Stephen Beagley was a leading classical ballet dancer in the 1970s and 1980s in Britain, and starred in CATS as well. He’s been jailed for 10 years for molesting girls ages 9-13. – BBC