Category: dance

Backup Dancers Are Leaping To The Forefront With The Power Of Smart Social Media

Backup dancers aren’t very “backup” anymore; instead, like the 16-year-old who began touring with Janet Jackson at age 12 and is now a major social media influencer, they’re at the center of the conversation. That’s thanks to Instagram. “Internet popularity can be a dancer’s entree to choreographing and starring in her own viral videos, traveling the world as a guest artist and teacher, and inking lucrative brand deals and endorsements.” – The Washington Post

There’s A New Dark Horse Contender For Best Ballet Company In South America

In 2010, Argentine dancer and former ABT principal Julio Bocca was named artistic director of Uruguay’s flagship company, the Ballet Nacional del Sodre. Since then, under Bocca and successor Igor Yebra, what was once a small, poorly attended troupe has become a dynamo: it has increased the number of rehearsals and performances, tours within the country and abroad, and sells more than 100,000 tickets a year in a country of only 3.3 million people. – Yahoo! (AFP)

Sean Dorsey Has Blazed A Trail For Trans Dance Artists

“Now in its 15th season, Dorsey’s award-winning San Francisco company, Sean Dorsey Dance, is heralded for intersectional dance-theater works that celebrate trans, gender-nonconforming and queer identities. Along the way, Dorsey, 47, has become the first trans choreographer to receive funding from the National Endowment for the Arts (seven grants to date, totaling $115,000), and the first U.S. trans artist presented by the American Dance Festival and New York City’s Joyce Theater. Today, he’s the role model he always wished he had.” – Dance Magazine

An Amazon.Com For Choreography?

“Described as the first resource of its kind, Choreography Online allows individuals to buy the performance licence for choreographic material through a searchable video-based site. … Uploaded choreography can be searched by genre, number of performers or difficulty, and a time-limited licence can then be bought to perform the dance, providing the original choreographer is credited.” – The Stage

Barcelona Dance Group Traveling To LA, Stopped, Deported, Even Though They Had Visas

The four were forced to sign a document agreeing to deportation, Marta Carrasco said. She said Customs told her group, “If you don’t sign, you will not be allowed to enter the U.S. for five years.” The artist added that they were “accompanied like criminals by five immigration officers all the way to the airplane door.” – Los Angeles Times

Morphing ‘Swan Lake’ Into A Modern Irish Folk Tale

Choreographer Michael Keegan-Dolan has taken the kernel of the Tchaikovsky/Petipa classic’s story and transplanted to in the milieu of contemporary Ireland to create Swan Lake/Loch na hEala, with a score of Irish and Nordic folk music accompanying a narrative of a depressed loner and a young woman molested by a priest and changed into a swan so she can’t tell anyone of his crime. – The New York Times

A Dance Critic Assesses Joaquin Phoenix’s ‘Joker’ Moves

Gia Kourlas: “You can’t completely banish your true self when you dance; Arthur Fleck is still somewhere inside of Mr. Phoenix, even after Arthur transforms himself into the Joker. What makes Mr. Phoenix’s performance so confusingly poignant — and not just a tale of good vs. evil — is the way in which he has essentially placed two characters within one dancing body.” – The New York Times