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

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As a single working mother, Mom’s dedication amidst the height of the 1970s feminist movement was resolute. The studio often became my sanctuary as she worked passionately for what felt like 24 hours a day. She and her colleagues were on a mission, inspired by Mr. Ailey’s fearless vision, on the verge of international flight. Their solidarity was palpable. It grounded me and many other aspiring artists in the New York dance community at the time.

Surrounded by dancers, from all over the globe—New York locals, talents from Baltimore, Brazil, Eastern Europe, Japan, and beyond—I found a surrogate family in the studio. As a child among them, my youth seemed to bring joy to many who were far away from home. The dancers became my guardians; they nurtured me and supported my development.

One of my most memorable guardians was Pearl Lang, who called me Strawberry Girl, because of my love for strawberry yogurt. Ms. Lang was a Martha Graham dancer who had her own company that my mother danced for at the time. She was also the co-director of The Ailey School alongside Mr. Ailey then, a powerful leading feminist voice in the modern dance movement.

Watching these dancers in their classes began to pique my curiosity. It was as if, through their unapologetic nature and fearless subtleties, they revealed unspoken stories. The more I watched, the more I learned. Their whispers became more tenable and refined. The power of this silent expression, and my developing understanding of unspoken narratives, started to awaken the artistry within me that seemed to transcend gender and race.

My witnessing during these early years laid the foundation for my artistic journey and identity. It anchored my practice in the profound humanity and activism that I saw through others. It evolved into a comprehension of human behavior, people at their most powerful moments and in their most vulnerable ones. It was through their silent eloquence that I began to understand the artistic language of the soul. It was not only seeing their development as artists that moved me deeply, but through watching their process as human beings. As I witnessed this personal process, they became the most beautiful human beings in my eyes. I can still see and feel them living out their dreams through integrity and perseverance, one day at a time.

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Downtown Breakdown

NEW YORK CITY  The Perelman Performing Arts Center continues its inaugural season with the Motion/Matter: Street Dance Festival. Kia LaBeija premieres the commissioned P is For Pop and D is For Dip, honoring the legacy of voguing and ballroom culture, on a program with Korea National Contemporary Dance Company in Lee Kyungeun’s BreAking. It’s later joined by Nicolas Huchard’s The Barefoot Diva, after Oulouy and Supa Rich Kids present Afrikan Party for three evenings to open the festivities. In between is an all-styles dance battle, with Rennie­ Harris, Princess Lockerooo, Ken Swift, and Omari Wiles set to adjudicate, and a dance party deejayed by DJ Spinna and Rimarkable. Jan. 5–14. pacnyc.org.

Moving and Grooving

NEW YORK CITY  The return of the Works & Process Underground Uptown Dance Festival is studded with familiar names. After kicking off with Kayla Farrish’s still in process Put Away the Fire, dear (in conjunction with the Guggenheim’s “Going Dark” exhibition), double bills will showcase excerpts and complete works by Pontus Lidberg, Princess Lockerooo, Music From The Sole, and Francesca Harper as well as works in progress from Lloyd Knight, Stefanie Batten Bland, Taylor Stanley and Alec Knight, Preeti Vasudevan and Amar Ramasar, and Ryan McNamara. Ladies of Hip-Hop premieres SpeakMyMind ahead of a “Behind the Groove Rotunda Party” led by Kwikstep and Rokafella on Jan. 13. Plus, Works & Process takes over Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall the evening of Jan. 12 with social dancing, works by Ephrat Asherie, It’s Showtime NYC!, Les Ballet Afrik, and more, culminating in the late night Underground Uptown Ball. Jan. 10–16. worksandprocess.org.

Spanish Flair

ON TOUR  The Madrid-based Compañía Nacional de Danza, led by former New York City Ballet star Joaquín De Luz, starts a rare North American tour this month. After kicking off in Detroit with La Sylphide (Jan. 11–13), the company heads to New Orleans (Jan. 20), Seattle (Jan. 25–27), Chicago (Feb. 10), and Los Angeles (Feb. 15) with a triple bill of Nacho Duato’s White Darkness, Sol León and Paul Lightfoot’s Sad Case, and De Luz’s Passengers Within, and brings Johan Inger’s acclaimed reimagining of Carmen to Toronto (Feb. 1–3). cndanza.mcu.es.

Wish Upon a Star

COLOGNE, GERMANY  In her new work, Pupo, choreographer Sofia Nappi takes a hard look at the story of Pinocchio, drawing on commedia dell’arte as she questions what the wooden doll really gives up by conforming to society’s norms in order to become a real boy. Jan. 13–14. tanz.koeln.

Objects of Power

SAN FRANCISCO  KULARTS will give the culminating performance of Alleluia Panis’ AntingAnting Project at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco this month. Named for anting-anting, a talismanic occult practice that predates the Spanish colonization of the Philippines, the two-year project seeks to form a contemporary, community-centered framework—in part through this multidisciplinary ritual performance—for the objects that have lost the context of their traditional cultural practices by being held within a museum. Jan. 27–28. kularts-sf.org.

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Dancin’ Back to Broadway

NEW YORK CITY  More than four decades after its original Broadway bow, Bob Fosse’s DANCIN’ returns to the Great White Way. Original 1978 cast members Wayne Cilento and Christine Colby Jacques direct and reproduce Fosse’s choreography, respectively, with additional reconstruction by Corinne McFadden Herrera, while a formidable cast tackles Fosse’s notoriously specific moves in the packed musical revue. Previews begin at the Music Box Theatre March 2, with opening night set for March 19. dancinbway.com. —Courtney Escoyne

Presence/Absence

NEW YORK CITY  Inspired in part by her work as a hospital chaplain, Keely Garfield’s The Invisible Project looks for hope as it considers disappearing acts and the interplay of presence and absence. Garfield is joined in the ritualized performance, premiering at NYU Skirball, by frequent collaborators Molly Lieber, Paul Hamilton and Angie Pittman. March 10–12. nyuskirball.org. —CE

Facing Love

CANTON, MI  Ballet 5:8 premieres a new evening-length work this month. BareFace, choreographed by artistic director Julianna Rubio Slager, is inspired by C.S. Lewis’ final novel, Till We Have Faces, which was itself a retelling of the Greek myth of Cupid and Psyche from the perspective of the latter’s sister. March 11. ballet58.org. —CE

Time for a Reckoning

NEW YORK CITY  The Reckoning, Francesca Harper’s response to the 2010 killing of 7-year-old Aiyana Mo’Nay Stanley-Jones­ by police, receives its live performance premiere at Works & Process, performed by members of Ailey II and FHP Collective and set to original music by Nona Hendryx. Commissioned by ARRAY’s Law Enforcement Accountability Project, the film and performance project is being presented in conjunction with the Guggenheim exhibition “Nick Cave: Forothermore.” March 11. guggenheim.org. —CE

Spanish Soul

ON TOUR  When flamenco luminary Sara Baras lets loose with footwork, the floor breaks out in banter, protest, jubilation, firing up her onstage collaborators. Alma, her latest production, bares the soul of that art in numbers both intimate and expansive. Striking design and a tight team of dancers, singers and instrumentalists bring theatrical flash to illuminate flamenco’s embrace of Cuban bolero. The show kicks off its American tour by headlining Flamenco Festival Miami XIV (March 16–19), which also features acclaimed guitarist Rafael Riqueni and a premiere from rising bailaora Irene Lozano, before heading to New York City Center (March 23–26) and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (March 29–30). arshtcenter.org, nycitycenter.org and kennedy-center.org. —Guillermo Perez

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Latest

NEW YORK CITY  Broadway mainstay Phantom of the Opera may be set to close next month, but a new Andrew Lloyd Webber musical arrives in its wake: Bad Cinderella, with choreography by JoAnn M. Hunter, contemporizes the fairy tale, questioning traditional beauty standards and adding a few new twists. The production’s opening night at the Imperial Theatre is set for March 23. badcinderellabroadway.com. —CE

Squaring the Past

NEW YORK CITY  A journey through time, space and identity, Christopher “Unpezverde” Núñez’s The Square: Displacement with no end recounts his nomadic Indigenous ancestors’ encounters with colonial geographies over the last two centuries. March 23–25. abronsartscenter.org. —CE

60 Years of Jazz

CHICAGO  Giordano Dance Chicago is doing it up big for Celebrate Giordano, its 60th-anniversary extravaganza. The jazz institution will showcase notable works from across its history: founder Gus Giordano’s rarely seen Sing, Sing, Sing (1983), Randy Duncan’s Can’t Take This Away (1997), Ron De Jesus’ pivotal Prey (2003) and Liz Imperio’s La Belleza de Cuba (2013). Former GDC dancer and associate director Michael Taylor offers Celebrate 60, an opener crafted specifically for the occasion, while Kia Smith contributes a premiere honoring Homer Hans Bryant, featuring dancers from GDC, Giordano II and her own South Chicago Dance Theatre—the collaboration a notable first for GDC. March 31–April 1. giordanodance.org. —CE

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This year, we’re honoring two Awardees of Distinction—Kay Mazzo, a symbol of strength and grace in the ballet world who’s preserving Balanchine’s legacy, and Risa Steinberg, a beloved dance educator who’s known for her challenging, illuminating Limón classes and for being a mentor for some of contemporary dance’s most exciting dancemakers such as Kyle Abraham, Brian Brooks and Kate Weare.

We’re also celebrating Ronald K. Alexander, who continues to open doors for young ballet dancers of color; Antonio and Kirven Douthit-Boyd, who are guiding the next generation through their Center of Creative Arts institution in St. Louis, Missouri; Kristine Elliott, who is using ballet to promote diversity and social change; Ana Nery Fragoso, who fosters community and collaboration through teaching elementary school children, leading professional-development workshops for educators, and mentoring future teachers as director of the Arnhold Graduate Dance Education Program at Hunter College; and Yvonne Gutierrez, a heralded flamenco, salsa and Spanish dance artist and educator who is renowned for her use of dance education to serve overlooked communities and promote HIV/AIDS awareness.

Attendees will also enjoy an inspiring, hour-long conversation with Francesca Harper who’ll be talking about the legacy that shaped her as a young artist and how she’s nurturing the next generation of dancers at Ailey II.

Tickets (including group tickets) are available for the ceremony only or for the ceremony with cocktail reception. Proceeds from the cocktail party fund the Dance Teacher Scholarship at MOVE|NYC|— a cause that is very dear to our hearts.

Click here to get your tickets now—we can’t wait to see you there!

Header photo credits, clockwise from top left: Photo by Rosalie O’Connor, courtesy SAB, Photo by Peter Schaaf, courtesy Steinberg; Photo by Hollis King; Photo by Peter Wochniak, courtesy Center of Creative Arts; Photo by L Kronenfield; Photo by Nel Shelby; Photo by Patricia Unterman; Photo by Peter Wochniak, courtesy COCA

The post Will We See You at the 2022 Dance Teacher Awards This Week? appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Hello, Goodbye

NEW YORK CITY
Back onstage in its home theater at last, New York City Ballet premieres new works by contemporary dance darlings Sidra Bell and Andrea Miller at the Fall Fashion Gala Sept. 30, with repeat performances Oct. 1–3, 6 and 12. But it’s also a season of goodbyes: Abi Stafford gives her final bow Sept. 26, then fellow principals Lauren Lovette and Ask La Cour on Oct. 9. Veteran star Maria Kowroski—the last dancer currently in the company to have worked with Jerome Robbins—follows on Oct. 17. nycballet.com. —Courtney Escoyne

Vivid Versatility

LOS ANGELES
Versa-Style Dance Company brings its high-octane blend of hip-hop and Afro-Latin styles to The Ford as the troupe premieres its latest work. Largely improvised, Freemind Freestyle draws inspiration from battling while exploring freedom—both what restricts it and what allows it to flourish. Oct. 1. theford.com. —CE

Hear Them Roar

NEW YORK CITY AND ONLINE
Women Defining Butoh, a series from New York Butoh Institute, pays homage to the women pioneers of the form Oct. 1–30. The series kicks off with virtual performances from early practitioners Natsu Nakajima, Saga Kobayashi, Hiroko Tamano, Yumiko Yoshioka, Minako Seki and Yuko Kaseki, continues with Eugenia Vargas, Cristal Sabbagh, Joan Laage/Kogut Butoh, DAIPANbutoh Collective and Anzu Furukawa, and builds to in-person shows from Vangeline at Brooklyn’s Triskelion Arts Oct. 27–30. Digital and in-person master classes will take place throughout the month. vangeline.com. —CE

Beyond Borders

NEW YORK CITY
Poets, filmmakers, musicians, visual artists and, yes, dancers come together at Judson Memorial Church for Movement Without Borders, a day of performance celebrating four organizations dedicated to humanizing the U.S. immigration system. Dance artists scheduled to perform include Ernesto Breton (in a work by Rudy Perez), Francisco Cordova, Edivaldo Ernesto, Francesca Harper, Horacio Macuacua, Jimena Paz, Shamel Pitts and Mariana Valencia. Oct. 2. movementwithoutborders.com. —CE

Back At It In The Bay

SAN FRANCISCO

ODC Theater welcomes back live audiences with a head-turning slate of shows. The season kicks off on Oct. 2 with the premiere of Funsch Dance Experience’s 12-hour EPOCH, a defiance of Doris Humphrey’s “all dances are too long” edict. Kathak troupe Chitresh Das Institute premieres Mantram, exploring resonance and connection, Oct. 15–17. Kinetech Arts debuts Passage, a multimedia, immersive performance work that explores the relationship between entropy and time, Oct. 23–24. Physical theater company inkBoat premieres Ann Carlson’s These Are the Ones We Fell Among, Nov. 5–7, taking audiences from circuses to alternate universes in a work inspired by the behavior, movement and mythology of elephants. Virtual productions from Amy Seiwert’s Imagery (SKETCH 11: Interrupted, featuring new works by Seiwert and Ben Needham-Wood, Oct. 22–24) and RAWdance (premiering a film version of Ryan T. Smith and Wendy Rein’s Shadow (part 1) alongside Katerina Wong’s The Healer, Oct. 29–30) will join simulcasts of many of the in-person performances online. odc.dance. —CE

Gwen Gets Her Due

NEW YORK CITY 

Fall for Dance, New York City Center’s annual grab bag of a dance festival, has a knack for piquing dance lovers’ curiosity. One titillating treat on the table: a trio of made-for-television dances originally performed by Gwen Verdon, now being taken on by New York City Ballet soloist and Broadway vet Georgina Pazcoguin, as reconstructed by Linda Haberman. While the dances were ori­ginally credited to Bob Fosse, Fosse’s and Verdon’s daughter, Nicole Fosse, believes them to have been actually choreographed by Verdon herself, with assistance from Fosse, and has dubbed the collection Sweet Gwen Suite, in her mother’s honor. nycitycenter.org. —CE

The Politics of Dancing

PITTSBURGH
In the other shoe, veteran dancemaker Beth Corning and noted actor/director Kay Cummings take a deep dive into political and social commentary. “It is one of the most puzzle-pieced works I have ever done,” Corning says. Both deliver incisive monologues on the turbulent state of current events, paired with solos for Corning by award-winning choreographers Donald Byrd, Martha Clarke, Li Chiao-Ping and Max Stone, in this humor-tinged, thought-provoking dance theater work. Oct. 20–24. corningworks.org. —Steve Sucato

The post The Performances We're Penciling Into Our Calendars Over the Next Month appeared first on Dance Magazine.

We’ve been interested in ANB since its debut was first announced in April—not only was it a brand new company, but one with close to 50 dancers, and some major names attached, like Rasta Thomas, Sara Michelle Murawski and Jessica Saund. The founders, Doug and Ashley Benefield, had few ballet credentials but they made an encouraging promise to highlight diversity, hiring dancers of different body types and races. A story in Charleston’s The Post & Courier reported that they had a strategic business plan to support the company through for-profit ventures such as a licensing enterprise, a dancewear line and an academy.

So what happened? Here’s what we know so far:

Many Dancers Were Let Go on Monday

Beth Bogush, the company’s chief operating officer, executive director and artistic adviser says that seven corps members and 10 second company members were laid off, although several sources, including The Post & Courier, have said the total number is 23 (11 company dancers and 12 apprentices and second company members). “The company was formed with a large amount of dancers,” says Bogush. “But some of the commitments for funding fell through.”

She says all the dancers let go have been encouraged to stay and train at the school, and have been invited to take company class for free. (However, the dancers we spoke to said the company class offer is only good for the next two weeks.) Some corps members were offered second company positions, which pay a stipend. Administrators are also trying to reach out to local contacts to see if they can set the dancers up with jobs teaching or guesting in Nutcracker productions.

A Merger Will Soon Be Announced

The main reason for the layoffs is that ANB is planning to merge with another company. Bogush says details on that will be made public in a couple of weeks.

“We had to let go some of the dancers who didn’t meet the criteria for the new company, which will perform classical ballet, neoclassical ballet and musical theater,” she says. According to Bogush, the company that ANB will merge with plans to relocate to Charleston, and the combined company will have about 30 dancers, including those that ANB has kept.

Company members were told of the merger on Friday and asked to sign a nondisclosure agreement. One dancer who spoke on condition of anonymity says that she didn’t understand what the agreement was for. “We were under the impression that it was in regards to the company merge, but that was never confirmed,” says the dancer, adding that she did not receive a signed copy back from management. A second young dancer, who also did not want to be identified, says she found the language vague and confusing, and adds that they were given the choice to sign or leave the room. “So everyone signed. I didn’t understand a word it said.”

Monday’s announcement came as a surprise. “We knew in advance that there were going to be some changes made, but we weren’t expecting a mass firing,” says the first dancer. She added that those whose contracts were terminated were not offered severance pay.

There Has Been a Revolving Door of Artistic Directors

Unfortunately, this turnover isn’t altogether surprising. Octavio Martin, a former principal with Cuban National Ballet and Sarasota Ballet, was originally named artistic director last spring. In August, however, ANB’s website suddenly announced that Rasta Thomas would be artistic director, with Martin leading the second company. Both names were removed a few weeks later. Bogush says the new artistic director will come from the company that ANB is merging with, and Alexandre Proia will lead the second company.

Part of the reason that so many changes have happened so quickly is because there was a transition in management this summer, which Bogush says was due to personal issues. “The new management represents a new vision,” she explains.

“The company was founded by a group of people with an idea in mind to highlight diversity, so we—close to 50 dancers—signed on for that,” says former ANB dancer Christopher Charles McDaniel, who resigned earlier this month. “But between being hired in June and arriving in September, that group shifted. That left us dancers with new management that had never seen us, and were confused about what to do with us.”

He adds that for the first pay period, the dancers were paid in cash. Their second check came from a company in New York City.

When we reached out to founding executive director Ashley Benefield, she told us that she has been out of state on maternity leave for the past few months and had limited contact with anyone at ANB—and only found out about the firings second-hand. “They have destroyed everything we worked to build, and I no longer want anything to do with the company,” she says. “It makes me sick. My heart goes out to all these dancers.”

Performance Plans Are Still In The Works

As of now, planned performances include a Salon Series next month and a gala at Charleston’s Gaillard Center in December.

Bogush says choreographers including Broadway’s Warren Carlyle, Complexions’ Dwight Rhoden and the second company’s artistic advisor Francesca Harper will be setting work on the ANB dancers in the new year. The company will also be working with the RKO Stage catalogue to produce musical theater works.

The Repercussions

On Tuesday night, principal dancer Sara Michelle Murawski, who has been the face of the company since its founding, shared her letter of resignation on social media.

For those who have been let go, many are trying to figure out their next step, in terms of finding work and breaking their leases. Both of the anonymous dancers we spoke with say that they believe management is assisting those with leases in an apartment complex that the company partners with.

“I really hope for those who are still here, that the new company can turn into something great,” says the first dancer. “It was such a beautiful group.”

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