Category: dance

“While [Kristin Colvin] Young’s job involves the responsibilities that immediately come to mind when you think of stage management — like calling the lights and sound during shows — her role encompasses everything from prepping casting inserts for programs to finalizing rehearsal schedules to giving preshow audience announcements as the ‘Voice of God.’ During a recent tour stop in Copenhagen, Young documented what a typical performance day entails.” – Dance Magazine

The MacArthur-winning modern choreographer is creating a new solo on the star ballerina for the opening of this year’s Fall For Dance festival in New York. Brian Seibert talks with the two of them about working with each other for the first time. – The New York Times

Yes indeed, historically speaking. “Tap and jazz grew up together, and in the 1930s and ‘40s, it was assumed that the greatest jazz bands — Duke Ellington’s, Count Basie’s — would bring tap dancers with them on tour. After World War II, though, as jazz separated from dance, hoofers became much scarcer in jazz clubs and concerts — never entirely absent but unusual, forgotten enough to be a novelty. Lately, that’s been changing a little.” – The New York Times

At City Ballet, the master is coaching other dancers in a piece created for him by Jerome Robbins. “Dance, to Mr. Baryshnikov, is about five points: the head, the two hands and the two feet. ‘You cannot dance with three elements,’ he said. ‘You have to think about those things all the time — that it’s natural extension.'” – The New York Times

Heffington moves like a trailblazer because he is one. His creative visions have rebooted the way the pop-culture world thinks about dance, and the way the dance world thinks about success, because his achievements — in music videos, film and television, onstage and in the business realm — have been as untraditional as his choreography. – Washington Post

Los Angeles already had one dance festival, but Lythgoe, producer of So You Think You Can Dance, knew that if he hadn’t heard of it, it wasn’t getting enough publicity. So he and Allen created a big new one, and here he tells Jennifer Stahl how they did it. “Los Angeles has so much going for it dance-wise,” he says, “but we don’t sort of come together and show off.” – Dance Magazine

Choreographer Lin Hwai-min, who founded the company in Taiwan in 1973 and led it to acclaim abroad and superstar status at home, is stepping down as artistic director at the end of this year. Judith Mackrell meets Lin and his successor, Cheng Tsung-lung. – The Guardian

De Luz, who retired from NYCB last spring, has just begun a five-year term as artistic director at Spain’s national company, which came to international renown under the leadership of choreographer Nacho Duato (1990-2010). De Luz tells Wendy Perron that (among other goals) he’d like to bring some of Duato’s works back to the CND’s repertoire. – Dance Magazine