NDT in NYC

NEW YORK CITY   Nederlands Dans Theater returns to New York City Center for the first time since Emily Molnar took the helm. William Forsythe’s N.N.N.N. is joined by a pair of U.S. premieres: Imre and Marne van Opstal’s The Point Being and Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar’s Jakie. April 3–6. nycitycenter.org. —Courtney Escoyne

Centering Latina Voices

SAN FRANCISCO  The Carmen premiering at San Francisco Ballet this month won’t look or sound the same as usual. Choreographer Arielle Smith (a 2022 “25 to Watch” pick) sets the tale in contemporary Cuba—specifically at the family restaurant to which the titular heroine returns with her new husband after the death of her mother—while refocusing the story on Carmen and emphasizing the depth and complexity of the characters with cinematic flair. Escamillo, whom Carmen falls in love with, is recast as a woman, and the new score by Arturo O’Farrill only references the familiar Bizet opera as it layers in Cuban folk music. Joining the new ballet on the Dos Mujeres program is Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s Frida Kahlo–inspired Broken Wings (which SFB artistic director Tamara Rojo commissioned and starred in during her English National Ballet tenure). The evening marks the first double bill choreographed by women and the first full program dedicated to Latinx stories at SFB. April 4–14. sfballet.org. —CE

Eclipsing All Else

NEW YORK CITY  Ahead of the Great North American Eclipse on April 8, the feath3r theory alights at NYU Skirball to premiere a devised dance theater work about a group of friends who team up to watch the celestial event and miss it. Raja Feather Kelly draws on Ernest Becker’s The Denial of Death, the popularity of the science fiction concept of the multiverse, and the ways social media exacerbates loneliness and society’s inability to face it for The Absolute Future (or Death, Loneliness, and The Absolute Future of the Multiverse, or How to Cover the Sun with Mud). April 5–6. nyuskirball.org. —CE

Carnival of Politics

SEATTLE  Choreographed and directed by Francesca Harper and performed by dancer Wendy Whelan and poet Marc Bamuthi Joseph, Carnival of the Animals reframes the Camille Saint-Saëns classic to consider the animals of a political jungle as it responds to the January 6 insurrection and contemplates the future of democracy. The SOZO-produced work premieres at the Meany Center for the Performing Arts on April 6. sozoartists.com. —CE

Memories of Matriarchs

HOUSTON  With three “Bessie” Awards, the Rome Prize, and a sumptuous stage presence, Jasmine Hearn is one of the most acclaimed contemporary dance artists to come out of Houston. But Memory Fleet: A Return to Matr, a performance, installation, and online archive that preserves the memories of eight Black Houston matriarchs, is their first major commission in their hometown. Commissioned by DiverseWorks, the multidisciplinary project includes original sound scores, choreography, and garments, along with guest performances by former Houston Ballet soloist Sandra Organ Solis and additional vocals and performances by local dancers and “Houston Aunties,” as Hearn calls them. The premiere at Houston Met April 6–7 will be followed by tours to Pittsburgh and New York City. diverseworks.org. —Nancy Wozny

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

COSTA MESA, CA  American Ballet Theatre presents the North American premiere of Woolf Works, Wayne McGregor’s three-act meditation on the writings of Virginia Woolf, at Segerstrom Center for the Arts. Inspired by her novels Mrs. Dalloway, Orlando, and The Waves as well as her letters and diaries, the critically acclaimed ballet eschews narrative adaptation to take a stream of consciousness approach to the modernist writer’s oeuvre. April 11–14. abt.org. —CE

Packed With Premieres

CHICAGO  South Chicago Dance Theatre returns to the Auditorium Theatre for an evening filled to the brim with premieres by Donald Byrd, Joshua Blake Carter, Monique Haley, Tsai Hsi Hung, Terence Marling, and founding executive artistic director Kia Smith. April 27. southchicagodancetheatre.com. —CE

The Weight of a Lie

ZURICH  Cathy Marston brings her penchant for literary adaptation to Atonement, her first new work as Ballett Zürich’s director. In Ian McEwan’s novel and Joe Wright’s acclaimed film adaptation, teenage writer Briony Tallis tells a deliberate lie about her older sister’s lover and spends the rest of her life attempting to make up for its unintended consequences. Marston transfers the action to the world of ballet, making Tallis a choreographer while wrestling with the story’s questions about the fallibility of memory and the nature of self-deception and guilt. April 28–June 7. opernhaus.ch. —CE

A Jazzy Centennial

Dance artists join the nationwide celebration of iconic jazz drummer and composer Max Roach.

Max Roach 100 at The Joyce Theater

NEW YORK CITY  Richard Colton curated The Joyce Theater’s Max Roach 100 program, which will feature a new work to Roach’s Percussion Bitter Sweet album by Ronald K. Brown for Malpaso Dance Company and EVIDENCE, A Dance Company; Rennie Harris Puremovement in The Dream/It’s Time; and a solo by tap star Ayodele Casel set to a series of duets by Roach and Cecil Taylor. April 2–7. joyce.org. —CE

Bill T. Jones at Harlem Stage

NEW YORK CITY  Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company revisits Degga, a 1995 collaboration between Jones, Max Roach, and Toni Morrison, as part of Harlem Stage’s E-Moves program. Also on offer is a new work by Roderick George. April 19–20. harlemstage.org. —CE

The post 10 Must-See Shows Hitting Stages This April appeared first on Dance Magazine.

But there’s no doubting the rigor and penetration of his eye as he asks a dancer with a paintbrush to tackle his easel with “more velocity,” urges a couple to make a lift “sharp,” and encourages a leg into a clearer diagonal as the bustling number evokes kaleidoscopic images of the City of Light.

Later, in separate interviews, Kelly and Chavkin talk about Lempicka the show, Lempicka the artist—Chavkin knows many audiences likely won’t recognize Lempicka’s name, but suspects they will recognize her art—and their own collaboration on the musical. At times, they’re like he-said, she-said accounts of the same happy marriage. Below are a few excerpts from those conversations, edited for length and clarity.

On Lempicka’s Paintings

Kelly: There is so much movement—the way that curves move forward and backward, how diagonals are made in the body. And I think any dance person could see the épaulement in the paintings. I told them [Chavkin, Kreitzer, and Gould] that épaulement is the central movement language to begin any choreography for this work.

Chavkin: He explained to us what “épaulement” meant, and it was, “Oh, my god, that’s it—we were meant for you, and you were meant for us!”

On Storytelling With the Body

Kelly: I’m a postmodernist, and I am a contemporary dancer. I have to use everything I’ve learned to find a new language—I have to use postmodernism, I have to use lyrical, I have to use jazz. And I’m always going to tell a story, no matter what.

Chavkin: When I first encountered [the theatrical training technique] the Viewpoints in college, I was like, “Oh! I get how to do this!” I get that story is communicated through the body, through the physical state of the performer, through the physical state of the stage, and tension and line—all of the things that are absolutely principles of dance but that are also principles of staging.

On Working Together

Kelly: What’s exciting for me is that now, in 2024, she really does trust me. We’ve been doing it for almost eight years, and I think she trusts my understanding of the show. I tend to take care of the ensemble, and she leaves me to do that. Then we come together, and we note each other. Sometimes I’m offering her behavior for scenes, because I love for it to blend—so that the show doesn’t go from scene to dance. So that the whole show is alive with the same behavior. It can’t happen unless we’re working both in tandem and also separately, because we might have a different point of view on something. I’m certainly not a choreographer that just makes dances.

Chavkin: There’s a dance that every single director-choreographer team does once they get to know each other. Raja and I had the necessary luxury of many years and multiple incarnations of this project to figure out whose territory is whose. What’s been so exciting and so helpful is I tend to think in large movement of bodies and energy in the space—where do we need chaos, where does it need to be more stable, et cetera, et cetera. And Raja is so exquisite on human specificity and detail. It’s a big-picture/intimate-picture kind of dialogue between us. He gives it more shape, more line, further articulation. It’s so satisfying when you meet someone who can pick up what you’re putting down.

The post Raja Feather Kelly and Rachel Chavkin on <i>Lempicka</i> the Show and Lempicka the Artist appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Ayodele Casel and Arturo O’Farrill

“It’s frightening and glorifying at the same time.”

To hear tap dancer and choreographer Ayodele Casel and jazz musician Arturo O’Farrill talk about their artistic partnership is a lot like watching them improvise together onstage: You sense their joy, gratitude, faith, and, perhaps most importantly, Zen-like connection. “The thing that’s boggled my mind the most and also settled me right away in working with Arturo is that feeling of familiarity and home and trust and play,” says Casel.

That rush of seemingly contradictory feelings is something O’Farrill experiences during performance, too. “When I get in front of Ayodele and next to a piano and throw down, it’s frightening and glorifying at the same time,” he says. “It’s like playing in a cosmic sandbox.”

When Casel was filming Chasing Magic, a 2021 virtual performance at The Joyce Theater with O’Farrill (and several other collaborators), she was confident enough in their improvisatory mind-meld to not meticulously plan what their contribution to the concert might be. “I said, ‘Arturo, do you want to come to The Joyce in, like, 10 minutes?’ ” she remembers. “He came onto the stage, we had a brief conversation, and then we jumped right in. Fourteen minutes later, [director] Torya [Beard] was like, ‘Okay!’ ”

Casel cites an ability to deeply, meditatively listen to each other as necessary for that kind of extraordinary encounter. O’Farrill likens it to a letting go of expectation and orchestration. “When you first meet somebody, you think, Let’s fill in every dot,” he says. “You have to get past the ‘Oh my god, what are we doing?’ Now, we know that we don’t know what we’re doing. But as you get older you’re like, ‘Wow, this is exactly what art is supposed to be.’ ”

David Roussève and cari ann shim sham*

“We’re wielding our swords together.”

Choreographer, writer, and director David Roussève and multidisciplinary artist cari ann shim sham* have a nearly 25-year artistic relationship that could perhaps best be described as fluid. They met when shim sham* was a student of Roussève’s at the University of California, Los Angeles. Since then, shim sham* has been, at different times, his cinematographer, his film editor, and even a one-time performer in Roussève’s choreography. But she’s also been his teacher, as when Roussève first forayed into dance film and needed help finding his “sea legs,” as he puts it, as well as his creative collaborator in more recent projects, like 2018’s Halfway to Dawn, with choreography and text by Roussève and video by shim sham*.

“What I appreciate about cari ann is that she’ll say, ‘I don’t know if this is going to work. Let’s just try it,’ ” says Roussève. That kind of experimental ideation fuels their partnership in a way Roussève had never experienced previously. “I used to think, I need a collaborator who can execute my vision,” he says. “Over time, you realize a good collaborator is going to have better ideas than you.”

Shim sham* credits their chemistry to the ways in which they balance each other. “David is a wordsmith,” she says. “I’m not strong with words, but I’m very strong with visuals and imagery. David is so good at setting up metaphors that I can then visualize through imagery.”

At the root of their ease and trust is a shared belief in art’s ability to provoke. Roussève describes their aesthetic as “socially interested” and “askew.” “We both have really strong activist standpoints in our work,” agrees shim sham*. “We’re wielding our swords together.”

Cynthia Oliver and Jason Finkelman

“It’s magic. It is sleight of hand.”

Unlike most artistic collaborators, choreographer Cynthia Oliver and composer Jason Finkelman don’t get the downtime that comes from being able to say goodbye at the end of a long day. That’s because Oliver and Finkelman, who have been working together for almost as long as they’ve known each other, are married.

That relationship can sometimes lead to, say, freer discussion than what might take place between two artists still learning each other’s sensitivities. “There’s the moment in rehearsal when I tell the dancers that Jason is coming in, and we’re going to have little conversations in the corner,” says Oliver. “I tell them there’s going to be tension—we might even fight a little bit—but don’t be alarmed. This is what we do.”

Their process has taken many shapes over their decades together­, but Finkelman always demands that the score be in service to Oliver’s space-devouring, nuanced movement. “I’m always looking for what the choreography is calling for,” he says. “Something to drive the dance? To underscore the text? To propel or emphasize the silence?”

Despite its longevity, their partnership shows no sign of stagnation or fatigue. “It’s magic. It is sleight of hand,” says Oliver. “We don’t even know how it manifests, but ultimately something comes out of the fairy dust of these conversations—a commitment to making something together.”

Raja Feather Kelly and Michael R. Jackson

“It feels like we were always together.”

Months before they started working together on the musical A Strange Loop in 2018, choreographer Raja Feather Kelly and playwright-composer-lyricist Michael R. Jackson kept hearing from mutual colleagues that they needed to collaborate. They chalk this up partly to their similarities as people and artists—“We’re both Black gay men, both queer artists who have a similar iconoclastic, experimental, counterculture point of view,” says Jackson—but also to their immediate, uncanny connection. “I can’t recall a time before our collaboration or friendship began, or what it was like in the early parts of it, because it feels like we were always together,” says Jackson. “Raja just came in, and he was magical.”

That magic helped them communicate easily despite their admittedly­ different artistic disciplines. “We both really love popular culture,” says Kelly, as an example. “In the moments where it might be difficult to find a common language, we’ll find analogies for each other: ‘This is a Kanye-Kardashian/OJ Simpson kind of thing’ versus ‘This is Mean Girls meets Heathers meets [Beetlejuice’s] Lydia Deetz kind of thing.’ ”

They stretch each other, too, which leads to an occasionally challenging but ultimately deeper collaborative practice. “On A Strange Loop, I had come late in the process with an entirely rewritten opening number,” says Jackson. “Raja was like, ‘I need a dance break,’ which I had not planned for—I’d never written a dance break. But his provocation to me was that that was important, so he sent me home and I worked on it. And then we had a dance break in the opening number.”

The end result is always something neither could have conceived of without the other. As Kelly says, they are “artists who are influencing one another because of our desire to understand art better.”

The post 4 Choreographers and Their Go-To Nondancer Collaborators on Making Magic Together appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Where am I catching you?

I’m in San Diego. I was working on a show last summer with Rachel Chavkin called Lempicka at La Jolla Playhouse. I’m now at the Potiker Theatre, next door to the Playhouse, working on a show of my own called Bunny Bunny.

I’m glad you brought up Lempicka. I wanted to ask about the difference between looking at someone’s life in all its complexity, and at more limited source material, like the film Dog Day Afternoon, which inspired the feath3r theory’s show Wednesday.

Actually, our show Wednesday was also about a real person named Elizabeth Debbie Eden. Everyone knows Dog Day Afternoon as this work of cinematic genius, whereas no one knows about Elizabeth Debbie Eden. There was an opportunity to center this incredible trans woman, whose story was much erased, even though, without her, there would be no Dog Day Afternoon.

So Lempicka and Wednesday aren’t as different as I thought.

No, and, in fact, that sort of gets at the thing that inspires me most, or that I will probably always wrap my head around, which is—and this is why I like Andy Warhol—how a person becomes a concept, how a concept becomes a culture, how culture becomes a system or an iconography. We become all-consumed by ideas, when ideas just come from people.

You’ve charted that process through various terrain.

Yeah, and, in the case of A Strange Loop, that’s also about a person, but then it expands to that person’s thoughts, and their thoughts’ thoughts, and their thoughts’ thoughts about the person. What becomes exciting about choreography is people’s behavior—the idiosyncrasies that become movement motifs that become phrases that become choreography. To bring it back to Tamara de Lempicka: She was very particular about the way she held her body, what we know in ballet as épaulement. That’s just something she did naturally—and it’s in all of her paintings.

What changes when the source is text—say, by Michael R. Jackson or Aleshea Harris, whose play On Sugarland you choreographed?

Well, Aleshea is a person who has an inherent and insatiable desire for movement. I feel connected to many writers, but with her work, I’m like: “Without question, I understand it.” When On Sugarland was in one of its first iterations, I remember people saying, “What is this play? What does it mean? What’s going on?” Our collaborations have really been a sort of translation. [Jackie Sibblies Drury’s] Fairview is another play that’s unconventional in that it isn’t really complete on the page. These plays require bodies to come to life. They need scores and logic that can only be created by movement. Formulas and conventions come up so often because they work, and many of the people that I work with—I’m thinking of Aleshea, Jackie, Michael, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins—are interested in breaking that apart, and that breaking-apart is an embodied practice.

Now that A Strange Loopis an acclaimed reality, what possibilities are open for White Girl in Danger?

I think the ambition of White Girl in Danger might even be more than A Strange Loop. I’m particularly excited because there’s an ’80s and ’90s nostalgia to it that comes from soap opera, and yet it’s topical. White Girl in Danger also reflects the tropes and archetypes and humor and formulas and absurdity of reality TV, and takes all of those too far. I’m excited to flex my creative muscles to find a concept that can live through all of those things. I’m delightfully scared, like, I don’t know how to do it, which is both a great place to be and the scariest place to be. Michael and I share, and have committed to one another, a promise of integrity. Go hard or go home.

Integrity comes up frequently in your interviews. You also mention ambition a lot. What, for you, is the relationship between them?

I didn’t know who I was or what I wanted to do until a teacher of mine, Vincent Borelli, put a script in my hand and said, “Do something with this.” So, part of that is having met someone who was able to show me to myself. He was so adamant about us understanding what integrity meant, which was a commitment to learning, to translating, to doing what you say you’re going to do, with no frills and no game-playing.

So is it fair to say that, for you, ambition is less a desire for achievement or validation and more the potential of an opportunity?

One hundred percent. I want to be the best artist I can be, and my pact with the people I work closely with—Aleshea, Branden, Michael, Lileana [Blain-Cruz, director of Faust and White Girl in Danger]—is that we are watching each other and will hold ourselves to that standard. We might get accolades, and those are great, but, like, is the work any good? Somebody once told me, “Just make your work for the four people who are going to tell you whether you’re doing the thing you said you would or not. Every­­one else just gets to participate.”

The post Raja Feather Kelly is “Delightfully Scared” About the New Musical <i>White Girl in Danger</i> appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Gone Tomorrow

SALT LAKE CITY  The trio of works featured in Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company’s Here Today program will be performed onstage for live audiences for the very first time. Charles O. Anderson’s chilling Rites and Molly Heller’s quarantine-inspired Full View make the leap from 2021 film projects to full stage productions (the former with the addition of students from Westminster College), while Raja Feather Kelly‘s Scenes for an Ending premieres. Jan. 12–14. ririewoodbury.com.

High Drama From Hong Kong

NEW YORK CITY  Hong Kong Ballet makes a rare appearance stateside at New York City Center, offering a tantalizing glimpse of what Septime Webre has made of the company since becoming artistic director in 2017. His Romeo + Juliet, which premiered in summer 2021, sets the star-crossed lovers and their warring families in 1960s Hong Kong. Jan. 13–14. nycitycenter.org.

Spice at Sadler’s Wells

LONDON  The announcement of a new dance work featuring experimental choreographer Jules Cunningham, frequent collaborator Harry Alexander and pop star Melanie Chisholm (“Melanie C,” of Spice Girls fame) elicited for many the question posed by the piece’s title: how did we get here? The collaborative work, premiering at Sadler’s Wells, will dig into the stories the performers hold in their bodies—subject matter that seems perfectly aligned with Cunningham’s searching, identity-driven work, in an arena wildly outside of what one would expect of Sporty Spice (despite her early dance training). Jan. 19–29. sadlerswells.com.

New, Now, Next

SAN FRANCISCO  The much-anticipated next@90 festival, boasting three triple bills of brand-new works, kicks off at San Francisco Ballet this month. The first program features Haffner Serenade by Robert Garland, which includes a solo for Esteban Hernández that places West African movement in a classical context; Jamar Roberts’ theatrical Resurrection, in which an attempt­ to raise the dead goes awry; and Danielle Rowe’s MADCAP, inspired by clowns. Longtime SFB artist Val Caniparoli contributes Emergence, while new-to-the-company dancemakers Bridget Breiner and Yuka Oishi offer a new take on the Biblical tale of Salome and on Maurice Ravel’s iconic Bolero, respectively, to program two. The festival closes with Nicolas Blanc’s Gateway to the Sun, modeled after a poem by Rumi that is excerpted in composer Anna Clyne’s 2019 “DANCE,” to which it is set; Claudia Schreier’s Kin, to a commissioned score by Tanner Porter; and resident choreographer Yuri Possokhov’s fresh take on the music famously associated with Balanchine’s Stravinsky Violin Concerto. Jan. 20–Feb. 11. sfballet.org.

One Night With Osipova

NEW YORK CITY  Ballet superstar Natalia Osipova brings the U.S. premiere of her Force of Nature program to New York City Center Jan. 21. Among the solos and duets on offer are the third-act grand pas de deux from Don Quixote, Fokine’s seminal The Dying Swan and Ashes, a work co-choreographed by Osipova and Jason Kittelberger. A percentage of ticket sales are to be donated to the Ukrainian relief effort. nycitycenter.org.

Peck, Copland, Jinakunwiphat

NEW YORK CITY  Winter at New York City Ballet promises repertory staples, recent additions and a pair of notable premieres. Resident choreographer Justin Peck returns to the music of Aaron Copland after 2015’s electric Rodeo: Four Dance Episodesfor his first evening-length ballet for the company, premiering Jan. 26. Keerati Jinakunwiphat, who dances with A.I.M by Kyle Abraham, will debut her first work for NYCB during the 21st Century Choreography program (Feb. 1, 8, 9 and 11), which also includes Alexei Ratmansky’s distinctive Voices and Peck’s playful Everywhere We Go. nycballet.com.

Elementary…

ST. LOUIS  What happens when Joshua Peugh, a choreographer lauded for his theatrical yet honest works on queer themes, turns his attention to the great Victorian detective Sherlock Holmes? The Big Muddy Dance Company is on the case with the premiere of the evening-length My Dear Watson—though the title is, perhaps, suggestive. Jan. 27–28. thebigmuddydanceco.org.

The post 7 Performance Picks to Kick Off the Year appeared first on Dance Magazine.

This year’s event was held at Chelsea Factory, where the first choreographic offering of the evening—Andrea Miller’s liquid, interconnected Pearls, performed by Harrison Ball and Patricia Delgado—was created. It was a particularly fitting tribute to Chairman’s Award recipient Jim Herbert, who not only founded Chelsea Factory but also, as Joyce Theater executive director Linda Shelton noted in her presentation, had recommended the song (“Pearls” by Sade) to Miller, one of the many dance artists he has supported and championed through his role as founder and executive chairman of First Republic Bank. “I asked, did she have a budget?” Herbert joked about meeting Miller for the first time 15 years ago, shortly after she founded Gallim. “She pulled out two little receipts. It worked out well.” In his speech, Herbert reminisced about not knowing what ballet was until 1966, when one of his colleagues invited him to attend a performance: “I fell in love that night,” he said, and his support for New York City’s varied dance scene has been unwavering since.

The theme of supporting nascent choreographic talent carried over into the presentation of this year’s Harkness Promise Awards, which grant two choreographers in their first decade of work $5,000 unrestricted grants and 40 hours of rehearsal space without expectation of a final product, funded by the net proceeds from the Dance Magazine Awards. Raja Feather Kelly, one of the inaugural recipients back in 2018, introduced Harkness Foundation for Dance executive director Joan Finkelstein, quipping, “You do have incredible taste.” Of the 2022 recipients, Kayla Farrish and Johnnie Cruise Mercer, Kelly said, “I cannot wait to be in community with you and see what you do.” Finkelstein also reflected on the last five years of Promise Award recipients: “All of them are continuing to make stunning work that opens up our field to new modes of expression.” She presented Farrish and Mercer with their awards after a video showcasing excerpts of their choreographic work. “I want to see what’s possible,” Farrish said in voiceover—a sentiment that felt ripe with (yes) promise.

A filmed interview with Brenda Dixon-Gottschild (courtesy of PBS WHYY), interspersed with performance footage, showed the dance artist and scholar in every decade from her 20s to her 70s. “Here,” she concluded proudly after the video, “you see Brenda-Dixon Gottschild as an 80-year-old.” But first, Rennie Harris paid tribute to his “dance mother,” who he first met as a teenager. “There was something about the way you spoke that made me pay attention more than I would have to any other adult,” he said. “You inspired me to think critically about street dance—Black dance. Hers is not only the voice of her generation and my generation, but of generations to come. To quote Brenda, ‘I aim to perform corrective surgery on the historical record.’ Brenda Dixon-Gottschild, I am here to tell you your corrective surgery was successful.”

Harris proceeded to surprise the audience by dancing a brief solo with all his signature precision, cleverness and intention to a song he played from his phone—bringing down the house as he danced onstage for the first time in five years. In lieu of a more traditional acceptance speech, Dixon-Gottschild movingly performed a poem by Tracy K. Smith, “We Feel Now A Largeness Coming On,” with verve and gesture that was instinctively echoed by Harris (“my wonderful aesthetic son,” Dixon-Gottschild called him) as he stood listening beside her.

In paying tribute to ballet star Herman Cornejo, outgoing American Ballet Theatre artistic director Kevin McKenzie noted that one of the pleasures of directing the company has been getting to “witness great dancers before, during and after they discover what great dancing actually is,” as was the case with Cornejo, who proves that consistency is the secret to longevity. “If he was ever afraid of anything, I never knew it,” McKenzie said. “He would in essence walk out onto the edge of a cliff, hang his toes over and revel in the feel of the wind in his face. That’s what it felt like to watch him in his full glory. Now, to see him revisit roles 20 years later, it’s astonishing that he delivers them with the same clarity of his youth.”

While Cornejo was unable to attend the ceremony, he delivered his acceptance speech in a pre-recorded video. “I’m not retiring anytime soon,” he reassured the audience with a smile, drawing laughter with the story of how he got his first contract with ABT: He was hired as an apprentice and was soon after cast in a soloist role in La Bayadère during the company’s tour to Japan; on the day of the performance, already in full makeup, he was informed by a union representative that “as an apprentice, I couldn’t do a principal role. So they brought a corps contract backstage for me to sign. So I did.” He concluded, “Nothing is impossible. Stay positive. Keep doing what you love to do.”

Kyle Gerry and Caitlin Scranton performed Lucinda Childs’ spare, luminous Étude 18, a work set to music by Philip Glass that just premiered in September—and which stood in stark contrast to Carnation, a solo of Childs’ from her Judson Dance Theater days, which Yvonne Rainer described in her presentation.

“This dance, I would say, is very exceptional in that it is not characteristic of anything she’s done since then,” Rainer said. She described Childs sitting at a table with one leg encased in a garbage bag and proceeding to put “a lettuce strainer upside down on her head, and already there’s an incredible drama and incongruity there because there is this utterly beautiful woman who is about to do some very ridiculous things.” Rainer moved to and from the microphone to gesture and mark space as she continued to describe Childs using hair curlers and kitchen sponges to create a particular image, dumping the materials into the garbage bag, and doing a handstand to cause all of the objects to come tumbling out. “This dance blew me and others who saw it away, and she never did anything like it again,” Rainer concluded before welcoming Childs to the stage to receive the “heavy object” that was her Dance Magazine Award.

Childs, reflecting on meeting Rainer and following her to Judson Dance Theater, said, “I thought it was so fantastic, but I thought it was especially fantastic to be invited by Yvonne. I think that the most important thing, then and now, has been the whole spirit of collaboration, that we work together, that we shared ideas.” After thanking her collaborators, presenters, supporters and dancers from over the years, she concluded, “Everything that makes this art form has to happen in the way it’s supposed to happen—in the way we learned at Judson: What you do with what you’re doing is just as is important as what you’re doing. So what we did with what we do, is what we did.”

Dianne McIntyre’s tribute began with a performance of an excerpt from her Love Poems to God, a soulful and surprising duet for dancer Demetia Hopkins and singer Tina Fabrique, to poetry and music by Hannibal Lokumbe. The interconnectedness of the movement and music made the feedback Jawole Willa Jo Zollar recalled receiving from McIntyre as a young choreographer all the more vivid: “She said, You’re dancing to the music, now you gotta get inside the music,” Zollar recounted. “From there I knew I was gonna follow this woman.” She described the space McIntyre created for her Sounds in Motion company in Harlem as a place that “profoundly centered the community of Harlem and Black folks from all over,” which in the ’70s and ’80s was, “a free space for us Black folk where we could create without being concerned about the white gaze. All of these people whose names I had read about, or music I had listened to, were all there in the studio and passing through.” But McIntyre had done even more, and continues to do so; Zollar shared how McIntyre had recently shown a work in progress that Zollar’s students at Florida State University talked about through the end of the semester. “She continues to be an artist that is pushing, that is exploring, that is questioning, that is supporting and nurturing new generations of artists all across this country.”

“My talk is mostly thank yous,” McIntyre admitted as she took the stage. Amidst her family (“My parents just said, ‘Go ahead, you wanna dance? Well…I don’t know…’ My mother said that, but my father said, ‘Yes! Whatever you want to do!’ “), mentors, collaborators and supporters, she made a particular point of saluting the dance writers who “didn’t put us in a box,” (among them Jennifer Dunning, Deborah Jowitt, Julinda Lewis, Sarah Kaufman and Wendy Perron) and her dance ancestors, particularly those who “did not have the fortune that I am having this evening: H.T. Chen, Eleo Pomare, Rod Rodgers, Viola Farber, Gregory Hines, Geoffrey Holder, Helen Tamiris, Jeff Duncan, Talley Beatty, Louis Johnson, Mary Hinkson, Baba Olatunji, Blondell Cummings, Pearl Primus, Charles Moore, Joan Miller, Billy Wilson, Louise Roberts, Janet Collins, Syvilla Fort…to name a few.” She concluded, “Now, I’ll soar even higher.”

While Harrison Ball and Jonathan Fahoury performed a silken excerpt from Kyle Abraham’s Love Letter (on shuffle), the choreographer’s most recent entry in New York City Ballet’s repertory, presenter Charmaine Warren took us all the way back to her first encounter with Abraham: New York Theatre Workshop, 2006, in his solo Inventing Pookie Jenkins. Warren helped make introductions to Brad Learmonth and Ellen Dennis, which led Abraham to Harlem Stage’s E-Moves and the inaugural Fall For Dance festival, respectively; both, in messages that Warren shared on their behalf, were united in praising not only Abraham’s abilities as a performer and dancemaker, but also (and primarily) his humility and warmth. “Kyle will make time for you,” Warren said. “I promise you that.”

Those qualities were at the forefront as Abraham accepted his award, giving a speech that was primarily concerned with giving thanks: to the childhood friend who got him into the performing arts, to his teachers—in particular those “who when I couldn’t afford class, couldn’t afford to eat, couldn’t afford even transportation to get to class, who let me take their classes for free”—to the companies who have commissioned him or let him restage his works and to his A.I.M family, who he invited onto the stage, as “This is not an award that I could say that I should be receiving single-handedly.”

“I moved to New York summer of 1996,” Abraham reflected, “around the time that Ulysses Dove passed away. As someone who likes making work in both the ballet and contemporary worlds, and comes from a social dance background, I always wished that I could have a conversation with him. I still wish that to this day. I still wish I could have learned from him as I’ve tried to learn from his videos. I always wish I could say thank you to him.

“We’ve lost so many artists over the years. I just want to make sure I can continue to acknowledge them and say thank you for the brilliance that you’ve created and shared with our entire world, and for inspiring me. I want to thank all the recipients tonight for all the brilliance and inspiration you’ve shared with all of us over the years.”

The post The 2022 Dance Magazine Awards Celebrated Longevity and Interconnectedness appeared first on Dance Magazine.

BEFORE Your Campaign Begins

Let your fundraising be an extension of your work.

In the same way that you wouldn’t let someone else tell you how to make your art, you should create a campaign with your own artistic values in mind, says Raja Feather Kelly, artistic director of the feath3r theory. “That’s what helps me not get bogged down in the business or the logistics­ or what you should or shouldn’t do,” he says. For both his company’s 2022 season and 2021 crowdfunded fundraiser, Kelly chose a theme that felt reflective of the feath3r theory’s current work trajectory, called “Season 12: The Ephemeral.”

“Nothing is promised, everything is fleeting—that’s our experience of last year,” he says. “Once that became our theme, we got excited, and the whole thing started to blossom.” Kelly’s videographer filmed him practicing for the campaign video, speaking to himself in the mirror, and used that footage for Kickstarter; campaign supporters earned rewards that granted them access to backstage and one-night-only company gatherings.

Plan everything.

“It’s the same as when you have a dance production—you create a schedule, and then you have much less stress the first day of rehearsal,” says Zayan. If you have a four-week crowdfunding campaign, for example, plot out how many social media posts and emails you’ll share each week—and compose those messages ahead of the campaign. “Of course,” he says, “things can happen in the middle of the campaign. But the more you prepare in advance, the more flexible and ready to react you will be.”

Set two goals.

Though he admits it sounds counterintuitive, Zayan recommends setting a smaller initial goal than what you actually hope to raise. Then, once you’ve reached it, you can set up a second, or stretch, goal. “That will give you another opportunity to communicate with your supporters: ‘We reached our goal, and now we’ve set up another one!’ ” Zayan sets his fundraising goal each year at $25,000, though he always intends to raise more—for his 2021 campaign, he raised $83,000.

Set a daily target.

Zayan suggests dividing the total amount of money you need to raise by the number of days the campaign lasts and then attempting to reach that figure each day. “That way, if I make my goal for the day, I know I can work on something else—I’m not waiting for the donations to come in,” he says.

DURING Your Campaign

Ask for every dollar.

“Crowdfunding is not a magic trick,” says Kelly, who has helmed several successful Kickstarter campaigns, including­ three 24-hour fundraisers held at the Kickstarter headquarters and broadcast live. “Every year, I make a list of everyone I know and how much I think they’ll donate. Then, I reach out to them.” It’s not enough to assume that potential donors will see your crowdfunding campaign and contribute of their own accord. “The Kickstarter is just a reminder,” says Kelly. “The real thing is the emails and text messages you send every day, asking, ‘Can you donate $5, $50, $100?’ ”

Be prepared for the “no.”

Kelly frankly admits that he expects most people to say “no” to his donation requests. “My mailing list is something like 11,782 people,” he points out. “If you look at my Kickstarter, 203 people donated, which means over 10,000 people didn’t.” Don’t let the fear of hearing “no” keep you from asking.

Tell stories.

“If your message is always the same—‘Help me reach my goal,’ ‘I need money’—that becomes boring,” says Zayan. “Tell stories—about your dancers, your life, about fundraising itself.” After following this advice for his most recent campaign, Kelly had many supporters reach out and thank him for sharing his personal stories. “They felt connected to the campaign in a way that was in contrast to the ‘Now-more-than-ever’ that we’re all tired of hearing,” he says.

Have a funding buddy.

Find a colleague who also fundraises and who you can talk to, suggests Kelly. “They’ll be someone to bounce ideas off of, someone to give you feedback during your campaign—‘What’s landing? What’s not?’—and you won’t feel like you’re losing your mind.”

AFTER Your Campaign Ends

Grow your community.

Let your campaign and eventual project’s fruition become­ an opportunity to expand your circle of supporters. Each person who went to see Kelly’s 2021 show received an envelope with a handwritten thank-you note, as well as an announcement about the company’s next campaign and an ask for a donation. Three days later, everyone got a follow-up email. Each year, Kelly also makes a list of people he doesn’t know but wants to be introduced to. “When you don’t ask people for money, your fundraising stays where it is,” he says.

Don’t Fixate on Donor Rewards

The perks that people receive for donating to a campaign often get too much attention, says Invisible Dog Art Center director Lucien Zayan. “The main reward is the work itself—artists tend to forget that,” he says. “Put that much more into the creation of the work you’re making, not the tote bag or the baseball cap—those things cost money to make and ship.” Let your campaign rewards instead be complimentary tickets or having a donor’s name listed on your program.

The post Crush Your Campaign: 9 Steps to Make Crowdfunding Work For You appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Ballet Her Way

BOSTON  This season’s ChoreograpHER program at Boston Ballet boasts five premieres by women: New York City Ballet star Tiler Peck, rising neoclassical choreographer Claudia Schreier, visual artist Shantell Martin, Boston Ballet principal Lia Cirio and noted Cunningham and Pam Tanowitz dancer Melissa Toogood. March 3–13. bostonballet.org.

Rock the Vote

NEW YORK CITY  Powerhouse off-Broadway venue The Public Theater presents another new musical drawing on American history: SUFFS, a look at the triumphs and failures of the women’s suffrage movement of the early 20th century. Raja Feather Kelly provides choreography for the Shaina Taub–written, Leigh Silverman–directed premiere. Previews begin March 10, with an opening night slated for April 6. publictheater.org.

Doña of Drama

ON TOUR  Ballet Hispánico teams up with Annabelle Lopez Ochoa for the company’s first evening-length commission. Doña Perón takes inspiration from the life of Eva “Evita” Perón, the controversial woman who rose from dancehall performer to First Lady of Argentina, and whose advocacy work was often viewed as being in conflict with her embrace of upper-class life. The work debuts in New Orleans March 12, followed by tour appearances in Detroit (March 19–20) and Chicago (March 26–27) before alighting in New York City April 1–3, closing out the company’s 50th-anniversary celebrations as part of the inaugural City Center Dance Festival. ballethispanico.org.

An Eight-Part Premiere

LOS ANGELES  Martha Graham’s 1952 Canticle for Innocent Comedians is known to have comprised eight vignettes, each celebrating aspects of nature and humanity’s relationship to it, but the work is largely considered to be lost. The Martha Graham Dance Company debuts a new version at The Soraya on March 19, reimagined by a team of choreographers led by Sonya Tayeh. Graham’s “Moon” section and an iteration of “Wind” by late original cast member Sir Robert Cohan are joined by new vignettes by Tayeh, Kristina and Sadé Alleyne, Juliano Nuñes, Micaela Taylor, Yin Yue and Jenn Freeman, tied together by a new prelude, finale and transitions crafted by Tayeh. marthagraham.org.

Community Creations

GRAND RAPIDS, MI  Grand Rapids Ballet continues its 50th-anniversary season with Jumpstart 22. Joining revivals of Penny Saunders’ Amiss and Jennifer Archibald’s Brothers are premieres of works by company members, each of which was created in partnership with other local organizations, including the Grand Rapids Art Museum, Grand Rapids Civic Theatre, Grand Valley State University, Opera Grand Rapids and St. Cecilia Music Center. March 25–27. grballet.com.

Deadly Dances

STUTTGART  Gauthier Dance continues its penchant for ambitious, multi-choreog­rapher projects with Seven Sins. Aszure Barton, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Sharon Eyal, Marcos Morau, Sasha Waltz, Marco Goecke and Hofesh Shechter each tackle a sin for the evening of work, planned to debut March 26. theaterhaus.com. 

Update: Gauthier Dance has postponed the premiere of Seven Sins to May 7, due to members of the company testing positive for COVID-19.

The post This Month’s Performance Picks Are Chock-Full of New Choreography appeared first on Dance Magazine.

NEW YORK CITY
The 1975 film Dog Day Afternoon dramatizes the events of a bank robbery gone wrong and the ensuing police standoff. One of the men attempting this robbery was motivated by needing money to fund gender-affirming surgery for his partner, Elizabeth Eden. In WEDNESDAY, Raja Feather Kelly dismantles the film to center his relationship to Eden, interrogating the motivations and outcomes of the robbery while questioning whose identities have a place in popular culture—and whose still do not. Following pandemic delays, the feath3r theory debuts the dance theater “speculative documentary” at New York Live Arts. Dec. 1–4, 8–11. newyorklivearts.org. —Courtney Escoyne

All About Ailey

NEW YORK CITY
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater makes a triumphant return to New York City Center for its annual winter engagement. There are milestones to toast, from the 50th anniversary of Ailey’s iconic Cry—celebrated in a special program on Dec. 4 and 15—to artistic director (and 2021 Dance Magazine Award recipient) Robert Battle’s decade helming the company—marked by an evening of his own works, including a new production of Unfold, Dec. 7, 11 and 17. There’s a bittersweet departure to honor, as star performer Jamar Roberts bids farewell to the stage on Dec. 9. (He’ll continue as the company’s resident choreographer.) There are digital dance pieces to see in person for the first time—Roberts’ Holding Space and Battle’s For Four—alongside new productions and revivals of existing works. There is, in short, much to look forward to in the packed three-week season—a very fitting welcome home for Ailey. Dec. 1–19. alvinailey.org. —CE

For the Future

TV & ONLINE Oona Doherty takes the lead for this year’s iteration of Fly the Flag, an annual celebration in the UK of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Focused on teenagers living in a post-Brexit UK, a new film will give voice to their perspectives on the future, featuring dance crafted by Doherty in collaboration with crews from around the UK responding to the principle of freedom of expression. The film will debut on Sky Arts Dec. 10. flytheflag.org.uk. —CE

Something Old, Something New

MIAMI Dance NOW! Miami’s Masterpiece in Motion programs connect the company’s original repertory with history-making choreographies. Stories for the Holidays promises a fresh encounter with the restless spirit of Isadora Duncan thanks to scholar Andrea Mantell-Seidel’s restagings of the early-20th-century pioneer’s work. From Harp Étude and the cradling tenderness of Ave Maria to the defiance of Varshavianka and Dubinushka, the lineup embraces devotional solace and resolute solidarity. Three Moments in Time and Die Frauen, by founding directors Diego Salterini and Hannah Baumgarten, respectively, and Jon Lehrer’s Solstice join these Duncan offerings. Dec. 11. dancenowmiami.org. —Guillermo Perez

Dorrance and Dormeshia Reunite

NEW YORK CITY & ONLINE
It’s been 10 years since Michelle Dorrance and Dormeshia (a 2021 Dance Magazine Award recipient) first collaborated to put together a program at Danspace. Now, the brilliant tap artists are teaming up again, this time at 92Y, for Michelle Dorrance, Dormeshia & Guests, a slate of tap dance that is sure to be every bit as effervescent, delightful and surprising as its hosts and curators. Tickets are available for both in-person attendance and livestream viewing. Dec. 16–17. 92y.org. —CE

The post 5 Non-Nutcracker Shows We Have Our Eyes on This December appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Chris McAndrew, Courtesy The Corner Shop PR

The post News of Note: What You May Have Missed in August 2019 appeared first on Dance Magazine.

I couldn’t stand that I was made to feel as if I had to ask for permission to be an artist.

I believe in my work—as I imagine all choreographers do. I work hard, have sleepless nights, have emptied bank accounts and participated in other questionable ethics in support of my work and the people that realize it.

At the time of my grant rant, I had even received nominations, awards and fellowships for my work. Notably, the Solange MacArthur Award for New Choreography, a NYFA fellowship, a fellowship at the Center for Ballet and the Arts at NYU, a nomination for Most Innovative Choreography by the fans of Dance Magazine and a Princess Grace Award.

Maria Baranova, Courtesy the feather3r theory

The post So I Got a Grant! (Or Three.) Here's How, and Why It Means Everything and Nothing appeared first on Dance Magazine.

The post Agnes de Mille Sealed This Envelope in 1963. Five Choreographers Are Imagining What's Inside appeared first on Dance Magazine.

But, true to form, Kelly—whose past few months have included choreographing the Skittles Super Bowl musical and earning one of our first-ever Harkness Promise Awards—had some surprises up his sleeve when he made us a playlist he describes as “for moody Geminis who work over 12 hours a day and need a playlist that can shuffle and never disappoint.”

Though the playlist has some whiplash-inducing twists and turns—from Coheed and Cambria to Carly Rae Jepsen to Missy Elliott to Schubert—there is a through-line: “Music that makes you feel like you’re in your own movie. I love walking through the street feeling like I’m on a runway, living my best life.”

The post The Music That Makes Raja Feather Kelly Feel Like He's In His Own Movie appeared first on Dance Magazine.

At least that’s what Skittles is betting on. This Sunday, rather than paying for a 30-second TV spot seen by more than 100 million people, the candy brand (owned by Mars) is throwing its resources into a 30-minute show called Skittles Commercial: The Broadway Musical. There will only be one performance, seen by 1,500 ticket holders at New York City’s Town Hall theater. And no, it won’t be aired on TV or livestreamed online.

If that math sounds confusing, don’t underestimate the power of social media buzz.

The post Skittles Just Created a "Broadway Musical" Starring Michael C. Hall appeared first on Dance Magazine.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press Contact: Jonathan Marder + Company

Eve Hodgkinson | 212.271.4285

Eve.Hodgkinson@gsmltd.net

New York, NY (September 2018)
– Misty Copeland will open the 61^st annual Dance Magazine Awards. The evening will honor Ronald K. Brown, Lourdes Lopez (presented by Darren Walker), Crystal Pite, and Michael Trusnovec (presented by Patrick Corbin). A special Leadership Award will be presented to Nigel Redden. Since 1954 the Dance Magazine Awards have recognized outstanding men and women whose contributions have left a lasting impact on dance. This year’s Awards will take place on Monday, December 3, 2018 at The Ailey Citigroup Theater at 7:30 pm. Tickets start at $50 and can be purchased by emailing dmawards@dancemedia.com.

A new award, The Harkness Promise Award, will shine a light on two emerging young artists for the promise of their artistic work. The inaugural awardees are Raja Feather Kelly and Ephrat “Bounce” Asherie. The Harkness Foundation For Dance received proceeds from last year’s Dance Magazine Awards for this grant. The award showcases innovative thinking and how to be an effective artist-citizen who positively impacts dance and the broader community through performance, education, organization and activism. Proceeds from this year’s Dance Magazine Awards will be applied to next year’s Harkness Promise Awards.

“All of us at Dance Magazine are excited to partner with The Harkness Foundation For Dance for a second year and to benefit these two deserving artists. This year’s Dance Magazine Awards has once again chosen a stellar group of honorees and we are thrilled to have Misty Copeland join us. We are confident that the 61^st Dance Magazine Awards will be our best yet.” – Frederic Seegal, CEO/Chairman Dance Media

About The 2018 Dance Magazine Honorees

Ronald K. Brown
– At only 18 years old, Ronald K. Brown founded Evidence, A Dance Company, out of a desire to tell the stories of the communities around him. Thirty-three years later, Evidence is now a mainstay in the modern dance world and Brown is a vanguard among choreographers fusing Western modern dance with movement from the African diaspora. In addition to running his own troupe, he’s choreographed on such companies as Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (including 1999’s much-beloved Grace) and won an Astaire Award for his choreography on Broadway’s Porgy & Bess in 2012.

Lourdes Lopez
– Since becoming artistic director of Miami City Ballet in 2012, Lourdes Lopez has successfully built upon its Balanchine legacy while also embracing Miami’s unique cultural identity. She first rose to prominence as a principal dancer with New York City Ballet, performing featured roles in works by George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins. Her wide-ranging career has also included stints as a cultural arts reporter on WNBC-TV, a faculty member at such institutions as Barnard College and Ballet Academy East, the executive director of The George Balanchine Foundation, and a co-founder of The Cuban Artists Fund and of Morphoses.

Crystal Pite
– Since creating her company Kidd Pivot in 2002, choreographer Crystal Pite has become a critical darling for her dark, mysterious works that powerfully explore the human condition. Her increasingly ambitious productions, some featuring more than 60 dancers, span dance theater to contemporary ballet. A former dancer with Ballet British Columbia and William Forsythe’s Ballett Frankfurt, Pite has created more than 50 works for companies like Paris Opéra Ballet, The Royal Ballet and Cullberg Ballet. Today, she is an associate choreographer of Nederlands Dans Theater, associate dance artist of Canada’s National Arts Centre and associate artist at Sadler’s Wells in London.

Michael Trusnovec
– As a member of the Paul Taylor Dance Company for 20 years, Michael Trusnovec has commanded the repertory with authority and artistry. He has excelled in roles as diverse as the tormented and tormenting preacher in Speaking in Tongues; the lyrical central figure in Aureole; the dogged detective in Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rehearsal); and the corporate devil in Banquet of Vultures. His work has been honored with a Bessie Award and he was named the Positano Premia La Danza Dancer of the Year in 2016. Having created 26 roles in Taylor premieres, he now serves as company rehearsal director in addition to being one of PTDC’s central performers.

Nigel Redden
– Nigel Redden’s expansive, globalist vision has guided performing arts institutions across the country. At only 25, he became director of the performing arts program at the Walker Arts Center in Minnesota, where he launched a festival called New Dance America. From 1991 to 1995, he served as executive director of the Santa Fe Opera. For two decades (1998-2017), Redden served as the director of New York City’s wide-ranging Lincoln Center Festival. Today, he continues to direct the Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, South Carolina, which he has led since 1995.

About the 2018 Harkness Promise Award

Created by the Harkness Foundation for Dance in a unique partnership with Dance Magazine, the Harkness Promise Award recognizes talented choreographers for the quality of their innovative work and for their demonstrated commitment to being an involved artist-citizen. The grant will directly benefit the awardees during the first decade of their creative careers.

Raja Feather Kelly
will be honored with the inaugural 2018 Harkness Promise Award for his innovative dance-theatre works which mine popular culture to examine assumptions related to gender, race, and our shared contemporary experience; for consistently challenging performative norms; and for his efforts to build a community of radical artists through his work with large ensembles of collaborators and through his thoughtful teaching.

Ephrat “Bounce” Asherie
will be honored with the inaugural 2018 Harkness Promise Award for her experimental but accessible choreography, which investigates the complexities and narrative qualities inherent in various street and club dance styles to arrive at new modes of expression; for her support of women’s unique contributions to house dancing; and for her commitment to teaching as a form of collaborative creativity and community-building.

About The Harkness Foundation for Dance

The Harkness Foundation for Dance is a private grant-making foundation dedicated to invigorating and supporting the dance art-form, predominantly in New York City. Since 1959, the Harkness name has been synonymous with dance philanthropy. The Foundation carries forward the lifelong dedication to the dance art form of the great American dance patron Rebekah Harkness. Over many decades, this support has taken the form of funding, rehearsal and theater space, technical assistance, and guidance—an unrivaled legacy that has touched countless dance artists and companies in all dance styles and genres. With a broad focus that spans dance creation, presentation, education, medicine and other vital services to the dance field, from 1986 to the present the Harkness Foundation has contributed over $30 million to more than 560 organizations across the industry. For more information: harknessfoundation.org

About
Dance Magazine

Dance Magazine
was first published in June 1927 under the name The American Dancer. Produced by a Hollywood-based team of editors under the leadership of Ruth Eleanor Howard, it cost a quarter and was dedicated to readers who “love the dance.” In the 1920s and 30s, the magazine offered monthly news of the changing dance world in Europe and America. In 1942 New York publisher Rudolf Orthwine purchased both The American Dancer and another publication, Dance, which had begun in 1936, and combined the two into what would become Dance Magazine. The magazine expanded internationally under Lydia Joel, editor from 1952 to 1970, and enjoyed continued success under long-time editors William Como, Richard Philp and Wendy Perron.

Today, under editor Jennifer Stahl, the magazine reaches dance students, dance professionals and dance lovers around with world with its monthly print and digital editions, and its website. Written by accomplished journalists and active dancers, Dance Magazine tells the stories behind the most exciting dance artists working today and keeps readers up to date with news on the buzziest projects in the field. Dance Magazine is owned by DanceMedia, which also publishes Dance Spirit, Pointe, Dance Teacher and Dance Retailer News.

The post Press Release: Dance Magazine Awards 2018 Announced appeared first on Dance Magazine.

The post What Wendy's Watching: Kota Yamazaki Gets Contemporary Luminaries to Go Butoh appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Best Viral Video

Winner
: Andrew Winghart’s “Cry Me a River”

Other Nominees:

• Kyle Hanagami’s “Shape of You”

• The Kennedy Center’s staff video for National Dance Day

• Tiler Peck in Charlotte OC’s “Medicine Man”

Most Moving Performance

Winner
: Alexander Ekman’s Joy at the Joffrey Ballet

Other Nominees:

• George Balanchine’s Jewels at Lincoln Center, featuring New York City Ballet, Paris Opéra Ballet and Bolshoi Ballet

• Bangarra Dance Theatre’s Bennelong

• Jerome Robbins’ Opus 19/The Dreamer at Pacific Northwest Ballet, featuring James Moore and Noelani Pantastico

• Dana Tai Soon Burgess’ After 1001 Nights

Coolest Collaboration

Winner
: NW Dance Project’s Carmen, with choreography by Ihsan Rustem, sets by Luis Crespo and costumes by Michelle Lesniak

Other Nominees:

• Alonzo King LINES Ballet’s Figures of Speech, with choreography by Alonzo King, score by Alexander MacSween, audio design by Philip Perkins, visual design by David Finn and David Murakami, poetry curation by Bob Holman, and costumes by Robert Rosenwasser and Colleen Quen

• MADCO’s Freedom program, with choreography by Jennifer Archibald, Gina Patterson, Cecil Slaughter and Nejla Yatkin

• Monica Bill Barnes & Company and artist Maira Kalman’s The Museum Workout

Best Dance Documentary

Winner
: Mr. Gaga, directed by Tomer Heymann

Other Nominees:

• Restless Creature: Wendy Whelan, directed by Linda Saffire and Adam Schlesinger

• “At This Stage,” directed by Ezra Hurwitz

• Bronx Gothic, directed by Andrew Rossi, based on the performance by Okwui Okpokwasili

• STEP, directed by Amanda Lipitz

Most Inventive New Work

Winner
: Chicago Dance Crash’s The Bricklayers of Oz, choreographed by Jessica Deahr

Other Nominees:

• Seeing You, co-directed by Randy Weiner and Ryan Heffington, with choreography by Heffington

• E/Space by Melissa Barak

• The Times Are Racing by Justin Peck, at New York City Ballet

• Michelle Dorrance and Nicholas Van Young’s Works & Process Rotunda Project, at the Guggenheim Museum

• Raja Feather Kelly’s Another F**king Warhol Production

Find out what Dance Magazine‘s contributors picked as their favorites of 2017 here.

The post These Are The Performances Our Readers Loved The Most This Year appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Voting will be open until September 25th. Only one submission per person will be counted.

The post Vote for Our 2017 Readers' Choice Awards appeared first on Dance Magazine.

The post Will They or Won't They? appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Though a dual career can be fulfilling, simultaneously inhabiting the roles of dancer and choreographer requires focus, organization and a great deal of energy.

Compartmentalize

You don’t want to be in rehearsal for another choreographer but have your mind stuck on a project of your own, or vice versa. Practice turning your attention to the task before you and blocking out everything else. “I can think of times when I had something major happening in my own career and I was also touring with other choreographers,” says Melnick. “It’s actually one of the few times in my life where I can be very present. If I’m on tour with you, I’m for you, even if I’m going to come home and have a show of my own next week.”

Creating some mental separation between projects will also help protect your intellectual property. When working as a dancemaker, your ideas are your business. Many choreographers ask their dancers to generate movement or create characters. There is no reason why you cannot participate in that kind of process, but be mindful of what concepts you might want to save for yourself.

Raja Feather Kelly, PC Epfalck | Effyography

“I have only worked with choreographers who I respect and haven’t had any intellectual property issues,” says Raja Feather Kelly, who creates and performs with his company, The Feath3r Theory, and performs in work by Reggie Wilson, Keely Garfield and Kota Yamazaki. “That said, I think about it. And I am careful. Sometimes my ideas should stay my ideas.”

Take a Load Off

A dance career is always physically taxing, but the demands can be doubled when you are using your own body as a source of movement generation and communication. Kelly suggests giving yourself one day off per week. Even if you are working on a project where you are not dancing, try not to forget about your own body.

“You have to be disciplined not to lose the health factor that allows you to deliver as a performer,” says Chloe Arnold, who choreographs and performs with her tap company, Syncopated Ladies, and choreographs for film and television. “Going to the gym, taking dance classes and eating well are important.”

Know Your Rehearsal Style

Taking a step back is sometimes necessary not just to conserve your energy but to give other dancers what they need from you as a choreographer. “When I’m making work with other people I often take the focus off my own dancing,” says Melnick. “I step out when needed, knowing that I already have my dancing covered or that I’ll go back to it later.” She makes sure to set aside time to rehearse alone.

Other dancer/choreographers bring in a trusted outside eye to make sure their dancing isn’t overlooked. “Sometimes I have someone stand in for me,” says Kelly, “but we’re a wild dance-theater company. I like that my performers might not know what I am going to do.” Keep your working style in mind when selecting dancers. The more adaptable they are, the easier it will be for you to jump in or out when necessary.

The post How to Stay Sane When You're Both a Dancer and Choreographer appeared first on Dance Magazine.

David Gordon’s Live Archiveography, photo by Paula Court

The series kicked off with David Gordon in a live version of Archiveography, in which his reminiscences—played out in dance, film and talking—are scintillating, witty and moving. Live Archiveography gave riddle-like hints of Gordon’s ingenious overlapping of image, story and dancing in his prolific career as choreographer and playwright.

Vicky Shick’s Let It Linger invited us into a quietly mesmerizing world of four women in an almost empty space. Their relationships ranged from a curious indifference to a tender nurturing to a sharp rebuff. With a haiku-like spareness, the vivid qualities of Marilyn Maywald-Yahel, Anna Azrieli, Lily Gold and Mina Nishimura unfolded in dreamlike vignettes. (Full disclosure: I’ve danced with Vicky at American Dance Institute.)

Mina Nishimura and Marilyn Maywald-Yahel in Let It Linger, photo by Paula Court

For a change of pace, Raja Feather Kelly’s Another Fucking Warhol Production or Who’s Afraid of Andy Warhol will mess with your mind. Recently Kelly’s been excelling at gender-bending, race-flipping chanteuse acts. Back in the day we would have called it camp, but he is calling it “docufiction.” (Sounds like a variation on “fake news” to me.)

Kyle Abraham’s Dearest Home is based on the concept of empathy. This will come as no surprise for those who saw his last work for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Untitled America. For that piece, the sound score was a set of interviews that revealed the destructive effects of incarceration on families. Abraham has always brought his social consciousness to his mercurial choreography. In this “Choreography in Focus,” he talks about his signature work, the powerful Pavement, which focuses on the neighborhood where he grew up in Pittsburgh. Images of police brutality thread through the piece. I think we’ll all be ready for a little empathy, as envisioned by Kyle Abraham, June 28—July 2.

The post The Lumberyard Wraps Up a Great Season appeared first on Dance Magazine.

The post What's Not Okay to Ask A Dancer to Do? appeared first on Dance Magazine.

In other industries, paying a future employer for an interview would be considered unethical. Yet in dance, it is common practice. Many companies offer the explanation that it is expensive to hold open calls and in exchange for that fee, they are providing a class. Now, cash-strapped dancers and even some company leaders find themselves questioning this norm.

Just Saying No

In August, Brooklyn-based downtown dancer and choreographer Raja Feather Kelly was asked to help advertise an open call. When he saw that there was a fee to attend, he immediately posted on Facebook: “I just don’t think dancers should pay to audition. NO!” The post stirred up discussion among the modern dance community. Some choreographers lamented the higher cost of booking space when it is used for an audition rather than a rehearsal, while others admitted that it should still be part of a company’s budget. Dancers expressed frustration at being expected to contribute to a company they didn’t even dance for yet. Too few jobs seemed to come as a result, and there was a sense that some companies might be holding auditions opportunistically—to collect money or advertise an upcoming show. Dancers’ confidence in the process was waning.

Raja Feather Kelly. Photo by Andy Toad, Courtesy Kelly.

Kelly sees another path. “It is very possible to take class, see dance shows and meet people you want to work with without having to audition, much less pay to audition. That is how people really are getting work,” he says. “Dancers need to take responsibility for building relationships.” In the long run, the cost for classes and tickets ends up being more expensive, but this type of investment is likely to have a bigger payoff.

Are There Any Benefits?

In the ballet world, where companies are spread out, making connections often comes with the cost of travel and auditions. To counter that, Kansas City Ballet artistic director Devon Carney made a compromise: an audition tour. Beginning in 2014, he expanded auditions beyond New York City and Kansas City, aiming to reach a major metropolitan area in each region of the U.S. While it does cost non-AGMA members $25 to attend a KCB audition, Carney insists that bringing open calls to a broader community has made the process more affordable. “The alternative is traveling further, which costs the dancer more, and the room is more crowded,” he says. To date, Carney has hired from open calls in Houston, San Francisco, Boston, Kansas City and New York City.

Kansas City Ballet artistic director Devon Carney leading rehearsal. Photo by Jessica Kelly, Courtesy KCB.

What About Videos?

If you’re considering submitting video auditions to forego travel costs, be aware that you’ll often pay as much as $35 per application. Why? “It’s a more stringent process,” says Carney, who receives about 500 submissions every season. Unless you think you’re the perfect fit, you may want to save a little cash and stick to open calls. “Ultimately, it’s best way to get the most time in front of a director.”

The post The Great Debate: Should Auditions Cost the Dancer? appeared first on Dance Magazine.