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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A Change in the Weather

NEW YORK CITY  In Faye Driscoll’s latest, a cast of 10—dancers, singers, crew—create an ever-morphing sculpture from bodies, sounds and scents, slowly shifting as a raft-like stage, too small to contain them and embanked by the audience, moves beneath them. Weathering, named for the process by which weather conditions cause the physical disintegration of features on the earth’s surface over time, draws attention to the subtleties of touch while investigating the ways events larger than ourselves impact and move through us. Commissioned through New York Live Arts’ Randjelović/Stryker Resident Commissioned Artist program, the work’s debut runs April 6–8 and 13–15. newyorklivearts.org. —Courtney Escoyne

Movers and Shakers

NEW YORK CITY  This year’s delightfully busy edition of La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival offers disparate visions of what contemporary dance can be. Norwegian choreographer Kari Hoaas premieres Shadowland, a response to the instability of the world after the start of the pandemic. Nela H. Kornetová’s Forced Beauty, which explores power structures and violent aesthetics, gets its U.S. premiere, while Bobbi Jene Smith’s Broken Theater, developed at La MaMa and featuring a cast of a dozen contemporary dance who’s whos probing the lines between who they are as performers and as people, makes its New York debut. Also on the docket: a shared evening of three Arab American choreographers (Nora Alami, Jadd Tank and Leyya Mona Tawil), Dance Magazine editor at large Wendy Perron’s recent collaboration with Morgan Griffin (Wendy Perron: The Daily Mirror; 1976/2022), and works by Kayla Farrish and Baye & Asa. April 6–30. lamama.org. —CE

Caves, Comedians and Commissions

NEW YORK CITY  Martha Graham Dance Company returns to The Joyce Theater with a slate of programming mixing the old with the new. Premieres by hard-hitting dance theater duo Baye & Asa and Gaga-influenced dancemaker Annie Rigney rub elbows with Graham classics—Cave of the Heart, Embattled Garden, Dark Meadow Suite, Every Soul Is a Circus—and more recent endeavors, like last year’s eight-choreographer reimagining of Canticle for Innocent Comedians (led by Sonya Tayeh) and Hofesh Shechter’s­ nightlife-inspired CAVE. April 18–30. joyce.org. —CE

Harlem Heads to Midtown

NEW YORK CITY  Dance Theatre of Harlem brings a pair of major new works home for their New York debuts: Tiffany Rea-Fisher’s Sounds of Hazel, a celebration of jazz icon Hazel Scott that premiered in Washington, DC, in October, and William Forsythe’s latest entry in his Barre Project, Blake Works IV, which debuted in January at Penn Live Arts. Joining those ballets for the New York City Center engagement are a revival of Balanchine’s Allegro Brillante and Christopher Wheeldon’s This Bitter Earth, while a second program offers existing repertory by Helen Pickett, Stanton Welch, Nacho Duato and artistic director designate Robert Garland. April 19–23. nycitycenter.org. —CE

Think Green

Choreographers turn their attention to urgent environmental concerns.

The Future Is Now

SALT LAKE CITY  Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company artistic director Daniel Charon collaborates with theater director Alexandra Harbold for a new evening-length work. To See Beyond Our Time takes climate change and humanity’s necessary reckoning with the clear and present danger it presents as its subject, inspired by the impact of diminishing water levels in the Great Salt Lake on the area’s ecosystem. April 13–15. ririewoodbury.com. —CE

Nor Any Drop to Drink

PITTSBURGH  Corningworks artistic director Beth Corning concocts masterful dance-theater explorations that draw from the conundrums of human existence. She provokes us with questions, but says, “I don’t have the answers.” The fisherman, the butterfly, eve & her lover – a parable, created for her award-winning­ Glue Factory Projects series, which features artists over age 45, boasts a cast of four savvy performers alongside water, turf and 7.5 tons of sand. With her latest evening-length opus, Corning dives into the global climate crisis and takes the 50-member audience with her to ponder “How much do our little personal efforts really matter?” April 15–23. corningworks.org. —Karen Dacko

Naming the Lost

LONDON  Nederlands Dans Theater tours to Sadler’s Wells, bringing the UK premiere of Crystal Pite’s latest creation for the company, Figures in Extinction [1.0]. The work, which touches on melting polar ice caps and extinct animal species as it questions whether humanity can truly name all that is being lost in this age of extinction, debuted last year and is the first of a planned trio of premieres created in collaboration with theater director Simon McBurney. Rounding out the triple bill are Jiří Kylián’s “unfinished” 100th work, Gods and Dogs, and Gabriela Carrizo’s disconcertingly dreamlike La Ruta. April 19–22. sadlerswells.com. —CE

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Kylián’s first Nederlands Dans Theater commission premiered in 1973, the same year as Cranko’s untimely death; he remained at Stuttgart until 1976, when he was invited to become co-artistic director of NDT with Hans Knill.

Kylián’s arrival and the 1978 premiere of his Sinfonietta at Spoleto Festiva U.S.A. marked the beginning of a new era for NDT. During his tenure, which lasted until 1999, Kylián established NDT II (for younger dancers) and NDT III (for older dancers) and encouraged the choreographic careers of Jorma Elo, Alexander Ekman and Nacho Duato, in addition to creating iconic works such as Falling Angels and Petite Mort.

In the October 1979 issue of Dance Magazine, he told us, “What I really like are the very simplest things that you can think of, and I like to put them together in a way that they create something different, something maybe complicated, or something that creates another dimension, and when you see my choreography, you see that it is built that way. Though it sometimes seems complicated, you can see it is the simplest things put together. It is the relationship of the things that is important, rather than the things themselves—the movements, steps, lifts.”

The recipient of numerous awards for lifetime achievement, Kylián has crafted over 100 stage works, though in recent years he has focused more on film and photography. 

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What’s next? Our annual list of dancers, choreographers and companies on the verge of breaking through offers several answers to the question of where our field is headed. We’re betting we’ll be seeing—and hearing—more from these 25 artists not just this year, but for many more to come.

Ogemdi Ude

If there’s a throughline to the genre-bending work of choreographer Ogemdi Ude, it’s how Black folks’ experiences—especially their grief—lives in their bodies. 

It shows up in Living Relics, a collaboration with visual artist Sydney Mieko King that asks participants to locate grief in their own bodies and then physicalize it by making plaster molds of those places, and in her tour-de-force solo Nothing Like That Is Ever Going to Happen to Me Again, where she searches for memories of those she’s lost, desperately piecing together bits of movement and text.

But there’s also joy to be found in Ude’s work: Though she claims she isn’t tech-savvy, she’s been playfully exploring video and multimedia since long before virtual work became the norm, and she often sources memories from her Atlanta upbringing, where her first exposure to dance was majorettes. Ude works as a doula, as well, which she sees as deeply interconnected to her dance practice—especially in the form of AfroPeach, a collaboration with fellow dancer/doula Rochelle Jamila Wilbun that offers postpartum dance workshops.

Through a pandemic defined by collective grief, Ude has been prolific—and she’s gotten her due notice. In addition to continuing to perform with choreographers like iele paloumpis and Marion Spencer, her 2022 and 2023 are stacked with commissions and residencies, including at Abrons Arts Center, Gibney, Danspace Project, The Watermill Center and BRIC, plus more to be announced.

—Lauren Wingenroth

Adriana Pierce

Adriana Pierce’s career thus far looks like a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-many laundry list of dream gigs: dancing in Miami City Ballet, the 2018 Broadway revival of Carousel, FX’s “Fosse/Verdon” and the new West Side Story movie, plus choreographic opportunities that continue to grow in scale. Though she came out while a student at the School of American Ballet, it wasn’t until she gathered a group of fellow queer women and nonbinary dancers over Zoom in 2020 that “I really felt a sense of community about my identity and sexuality through ballet,” she says. Pierce doesn’t want the next generation of queer dancers to have to compartmentalize their identities as she did. Enter #QueerTheBallet, an ambitious producing and education initiative she launched last year to get more queer stories onstage.  

Pierce’s own choreography interrogates what equitable partnering looks like and how pointe work might be divorced from its gendered history, research she put into practice in 2021 with a piece for American Ballet Theatre dancers and a virtual commission for The Joyce Theater, both duets for two women. Next up is a Carolina Ballet commission in the spring. Odds are, Pierce will continue pushing ballet forward in ever more eclectic ways—her bucket list items include creating immersive ballet work, directing and choreographing on Broadway, and creating a full-length queer narrative ballet: “I want people to feel as used to seeing queer stories on a ballet stage as they are used to seeing Giselle.” —Lauren Wingenroth

Ballet22

There was something special about the Odalisque pas de trois that Ballet22 performed in its summer 2021 digital season. It wasn’t the crisp pointe work, the crystalline turns or the vibrant musicality, all of which were abundant. It was that the Ballet22 dancers in the traditionally all-female variation from Le Corsaire were male—and not men in drag hamming it up for laughs, but, quite simply, male dancers expressing their artistry on pointe. 

Founded as a pandemic project by artistic director Roberto­ Vega Ortiz and executive director Theresa Knudson, Ballet22 invites male, mxn, transgender and nonbinary dancers to train and perform on pointe in their authentic gender identity. The company grew out of Zoom classes offered by Vega Ortiz and his close friend Carlos Hopuy of Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo in early 2020, and gained an international following so quickly that Vega Ortiz and Knudson were able to launch the performing company in December 2020. Ballet22 has drawn dancers like New York City Ballet’s Gilbert Bolden III, Boston Ballet’s Daniel R. Durrett, San Francisco Ballet soloist Diego Cruz, and the Trocks’ Duane Gosa, and commissions by choreographers like Myles Thatcher, Ramón Oller and Ben Needham-Wood. As the greater cultural conversation around gender goes on, Ballet22 is overturning ballet’s rules about who gets to dance, what they get to dance and how they get to dance. 

—Claudia Bauer

Christina Carminucci

Although the pandemic limited the in-person audience to just 25 people, when Christina Carminucci improvised to Thelonius Monk’s “Bemsha Swing” last summer as part of The Solidarity Series, she performed with as much energy as if inside a packed theater. There’s no doubt that everyone livestreaming the show also felt the joy she radiated while mimicking pianist Michael King’s playful licks or executing tight turns on a narrow tap board. But her unbridled glee wasn’t just a result of her rhythm-making: She had produced the event herself. It was the second iteration of The Solidarity Series, an evening of live tap dance and jazz music that Carminucci, 27, conceived during the pandemic. 

The New Jersey native has also performed with Dorrance Dance and Christopher Erk’s Tap Factor, and in Tap Family Reunion at The Joyce Theater. Her burgeoning popularity comes as no surprise to those who have seen how she comes alive when the first notes of a jazz tune begin to play, dancing with the ease and control of a mature practitioner. She’s as comfortable with a sinuous, sultry Latin groove full of heel drops as she is with a rhythm time-step sequence garnished with multiple turns. There’s always an infectious grin on her face, and after a challenging year in which she still managed to find new opportunities for producing and performing, she certainly has many reasons to keep smiling. —Ryan P. Casey

Courtney Nitting

Courtney Nitting attacks choreography with catlike quickness. In Kansas City Ballet artistic director Devon Carney’s 2021 work Sandhur, her rapid-paced turns and leaps electrified. “I love speed,” she says. “Petit allégro is my favorite, and I feel it can never be fast enough.”

The 24-year-old speed demon was born in Lafayette, New Jersey, and began her training at New Jersey School of Ballet. She then attended School of American Ballet before joining Pennsylvania Ballet II in 2017 and Kansas City Ballet a year later. “Courtney is a force to be reckoned with,” says Carney. “She has a diverse dynamic range with spectacularly fast footwork. Every time she enters the stage, she lights it up with intensity and joie de vivre.”

Having already danced featured roles in Sandhur and in William Forsythe’s In the middle, somewhat elevated, Nitting’s career, which has also included choreographing for Kansas City Ballet, is beginning to switch into high gear. —Steve Sucato 

Maxfield Haynes

Illuminating possibility comes naturally to Maxfield Haynes. The nonbinary phenom has carved out a brilliant career for themself, demolishing machismo stereotypes while blitzing across the stage in pointe shoes or heels, and playfully partnering their fellow dancers with aplomb.

Haynes learned to embrace their multifaceted identity early on and came to reject the binary gender presentations they encountered during their classical ballet training. This “do-everything” spirit helped them juggle apprenticing with Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo while studying at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. It continued to serve them well as they performed soloist roles with Complexions Contemporary Ballet—both on pointe and off—dispatched crisp batterie as the bird in Isaac Mizrahi’s Peter & the Wolf, and, this fall, made a triumphant return to the Trocks. But the Kentucky native had a true awakening this past summer as part of Ballez’s Giselle of Loneliness. Their solo blended bursts of traditionally feminine sweetness with soaring leaps, all while illustrating that dance is love—regardless of one’s race or gender presentation. —Juan Michael Porter II

Adriana Wagenveld

Grace, grit, athleticism and versatility are what garnered Adriana Wagenveld soloist roles in Trey McIntyre’s Wild Sweet Love and Alejandro Cerrudo’s Extremely Close in her first season as a full company member at Grand Rapids Ballet. They are also what have the 22-year-old on the cusp of company stardom.

Originally from Puerto Rico, Wagenveld began her dance training in Crete, Illinois. After attending Grand Rapids Ballet’s 2015 summer intensive on scholarship, she was asked to join the company as a trainee. She became a main company member in 2019. “There is a lot of emotion behind her eyes, and she takes on roles with verve and determination,” says artistic director James Sofranko.

Wagenveld has hypermobility in her joints from Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, which leads to exaggerated lines that she says are both a blessing and a curse. Countering that hypermobility with strength, she says, has made her project “more of a powerhouse-dancer vibe than a princess one.” —Steve Sucato

Imre and Marne van Opstal

Individually, siblings Imre and Marne van Opstal have accrued­ impressive performance resumés: Both danced with Nederlands Dans Theater 2, and Imre also performed with NDT1, Norwegian company Carte Blanche and Batsheva Dance Company. United, they’re an exciting brother–sister choreographic duo, creating work that is at once virtuosic and thought-provoking.

Having developed several works for NDT’s main stage, including Take Root (2019), which was nominated for a Dutch “Zwaan” award for most impressive dance production, it wasn’t until last year that the duo received their first commission from outside of the Netherlands. A piece about the politics of nudity created for London’s Rambert Dance Company, Eye Candy features eight dancers dressed in synthetic breastplates that make them look like Greco-Roman sculptures. Performing a mixture of fluid and rigid mechanical motions, the performers often look more akin to dolls, dummies or clones than thinking, feeling individuals, making a powerful statement about the paralyzing pressures of contemporary beauty standards.

The duo’s choreography is the perfect marriage of elements from the van Opstals’ respective performance careers: Notes of Ohad Naharin’s luscious Gaga movement language are infused with the classical lines and technical prowess for which NDT is known, all sprinkled with the siblings’ unique perspective and artistic flair. —Emily May

Arielle Smith

Whoops of joy greeted Arielle Smith’s Jolly Folly when it closed English National Ballet’s return to live performance in London last spring. The ballet bounced giddily along to classical pops remixed by a Cuban big-band, its tilting, tumbling ensemble dressed in black tie and tails. It was an absolute blast, delivering a genuine jolt of delight.

The Havana-born Smith, 25, previously honed a storyteller’s instinct under the mentorship of Matthew Bourne, who made her associate choreographer on his 2019 Romeo + Juliet. Smith’s early work has emerged with life-enhancing wit and assurance. Her voice is already distinctive—who knows how it will develop and where it will take her? She’s more than just a fistful of fun. —David Jays

Sienna Lalau

Sienna Lalau just turned 21, yet her “25 to Watch” nomination sparked some debate among the Dance Magazine editors: Did she qualify for this list of emerging talents? Was she already too…established?

Reasonable questions, given Lalau’s abundant choreographic credits. Born in Hawaii, she first earned national notice for her work with the Los Angeles–based creative arts studio The Lab, helping lead its junior team to victory on the TV show “World of Dance” in 2018. Since then, she has made internet-melting dances for Jennifer Lopez, Missy Elliott and Ciara, and become one of the K-pop world’s go-to choreographers. Her work for BTS’ “On” video, with its punk spin on the drumline, earned a 2020 MTV Video Music Award.

Lalau is also the first person you see in “On.” As gifted a mover as she is a maker, she often ends up sharing the stage or the screen with her famous collaborators, bringing a scene-stealing mixture of complete control and complete abandon to her own choreography. From both behind and in front of the camera, Lalau is shaping the look of the entertainment world. —Margaret Fuhrer

Bo Park

Bo Park is challenging the dichotomy between “masculine” and “feminine” with her hip-hop–inspired choreography. “What I experienced was that ‘female’ should be a certain way,” Park says. “I couldn’t really book jobs if I wasn’t giving ‘femininity,’ and I wanted to change that.” In 2017, she founded her own company to provide dancers with a safe space to express their authentic selves, unhindered by gender-­based­ expectations. The company’s name, SHINSA, is a play on Korean words. It means “gentleman” but also references the famous 16th-century artist Shin Saimdang, who left a lasting cultural legacy despite the restrictive gender roles of her time.

Pairing full-bodied and intricate movements with meticulous musicality, Park’s imaginative choreography resonates across diverse platforms. In 2019, SHINSA’s electrifying Mulan-themed number earned first place at the hip-hop competition ELEMENTS XIX. In 2020, its immersive production DAYDREAMERS was extended to a four-week run after selling out its first five shows. Park has also worked with pop music artists, such as LANKS and Loona, and choreographed theatrical productions, including Hideaway Circus’ 2021 show Stars Above. In every project, Park’s nuanced yet powerful choreography highlights the individuality of her performers—however they choose to express themselves. —Kristi Yeung

Ashley Green

Ashley Green was a standout dancer—and actor—throughout Whim W’Him’s all-digital 2020–21 season, her first with the company. Artistic director Olivier Wevers, who discovered her soon after her graduation from Point Park University, says her vitality is “a rare gift. She’s a creative soul, radiating joy, an extraordinary collaborator with an innate­ way of approaching movement that pulls you in.” The 23-year-old picked up a 2021 Princess Grace Award last summer, and shortly thereafter moved across the country to join Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. “Explosive, in a word,” describes Ailey artistic director Robert Battle. “She’s not trying on the movement, she’s living it. Even in a little Instagram improvisation, she jumps through the screen.” This unpretentious, passionate dancer has staying power, predicts Battle. “She’ll continue to grow.” —Gigi Berardi

Carter Williams

Ballroom phenom Carter Williams’ fluidity and striking stage presence have landed him accolades you don’t expect to see on a 19-year-old college student’s resumé. He’s already been a four-time World Latin Dance Finalist and a two-time National DanceSport Latin Dance Champion. On screen, his credits include the first two seasons of NBC’s “World of Dance” and three seasons of “America’s Got Talent.” His longtime private coach Afton Wilson says it’s not just Williams’ extreme versatility, but also his super-sensitive partnering and precision turns that make him stand out on a crowded floor. He’s racking up even more wins as a member of Utah Valley University’s dance team as he works towards a degree in marketing and aims for a professional career. With his easy, self-assured air and clean, quick moves, he already dances like a pro. —Gigi Berardi

Ilya Vidrin and Jessi Stegall

Ilya Vidrin and Jessi Stegall are experts both in the practice and theory of partnering. Vidrin has a doctorate in the ethics of care in relation to partnering; Stegall is an applied ethicist who works with performing arts organizations to facilitate healthy relationships among artists, directors and educators. The two collaborate frequently through the Partnering Lab, an applied research initiative that investigates emerging technologies of motion capture, art and public health projects, and creative pedagogies. The outcomes of this work range from the development of novel choreographic methods to writing in support of ethical practice. They also have individual careers: Vidrin was recently commissioned to create a new work for Ballet Des Moines, and Stegall’s dance film, Salty Dog, premiered at the Motion State Dance Film Series in the fall. Vidrin and Stegall’s shared, careful consideration of partnering seems apt for our COVID moment, wherein the relationship of our bodies to those around us is particularly fraught and tangible. Their work suggests that partnership is not an abstraction, but the embodiment of care performed repeatedly. —Sydney Skybetter

PARA.MAR Dance Theatre

PARA.MAR Dance Theatre bolted out of the gate fully ready to steamroll the status quo. Stephanie Martinez’s new contemporary ballet company debuted with performances of her fierce kiss. atop a red carpet in a Chicago parking lot in October 2020. With a cast of fearless dancers, the piece captured the restless angst of isolation and the languishing sensuality of pure explosive action, along with a hard to define quirky charm.

Martinez, who has created works for The Joffrey Ballet, Ballet Hispánico and Nashville Ballet, among others, formed her troupe in the midst of a pandemic when dancers desperately needed to work and the field desperately needed to diversify. With the motto “together, with, and for,” Martinez’s mission includes elevating BIPOC voices in contemporary ballet. PARA.MAR premiered works by Jennifer Archibald and Lucas Crandall in Chicago last spring and performed them at the inaugural Carmel Dance Festival last summer; next up are commissions by Robyn Mineko Williams and Keerati Jinakunwiphat, among others, along with a new work by Martinez. —Nancy Wozny

Baye & Asa

Dance duo Baye & Asa know how to land a surprise. It might be a droll little hip shimmy or a gentle moment of eye contact amid a whirlwind of propulsive, full-bodied movement. Using African forms and hip hop in an expansive view of “contemporary” dance theater, the pair’s choreography avoids falling into any predictable pattern.

Sam “Asa” Pratt and Amadi “Baye” Washington were both introduced to dance in their New York City grade school when African dance was offered as an alternative to gym class. They began collaborating professionally in 2015 in between jobs that have included touring with Akram Khan (Pratt), dancing with Gallim (Washington) and performing in Sleep No More (both).

Second Seed—a project responding to the 1915 silent film The Birth of a Nation and interrogating America’s white supremacist lineage—blossomed over six years from a duet into a group performance and, in 2020, a bone-chilling 15-minute film. The pandemic gave them time to delve even deeper into their partnership; now, their 2022 calendar includes commissions for BODYTRAFFIC, Martha Graham Dance Company and BlackLight Summit, plus a residency and a main-stage production at 92nd Street Y, a duet presented by Pioneer Works in Brooklyn, and more.

—Jennifer Stahl

Sierra Armstrong

Back in her ABT Studio Company days, Sierra Armstrong’s luxuriant lines and keen emotional intelligence piqued the interest of ballet fans. But after joining American Ballet Theatre’s main company in 2017, Armstrong had few chances to develop those gifts, tasked with a slate of ensemble parts that kept her both busy and in the background. 

When the pandemic shut down the ABT machine, Armstrong found space for self-discovery. “I was in the studio a lot by myself, dancing by myself, doing all these things by myself,” says Armstrong, now 22. “It was a lonely time, but a time where I really came into my own, too.”

Featured roles in a series of small-scale, COVID-friendly projects showcased that growth. Last February, she brought a new depth of artistry to Adriana Pierce’s Overlook, a tender pas de deux with fellow female ABT corps member Remy Young. Armstrong became a particular muse to ABT star and choreographer James Whiteside, originating a lead in his bubble-residency premiere City of Women, and taking on a principal part in his New American Romance during an outdoor performance at Rockefeller Center. Here’s hoping those opportunities will lead to more, at ABT and beyond it, as the world reopens. —Margaret Fuhrer

Brianna Mims

During her sophomore year at University of Southern California’s Glorya Kaufman School of Dance, Brianna Mims found herself at the intersection of dance and abolition. She was part of the JusticeLA Creative Action team, led by Cecilia Sweet-Coll and Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrice Cullors, where an installation work called “#jailbeddrop” was created in protest of an L.A. County jail expansion plan. Mims felt so passionately about the work that she decided to expand “#jailbeddrop” into a performance piece and interactive installation as her senior project—and it became a guiding light for her career, too. In the nearly five years since “#jailbeddrop” started, she’s presented it in venues across L.A. and moved the project online following lockdowns.

“I learned so much from my body about how to do abolition work, and so much around abolition informs the dances I’m making,” Mims says. She recently finished a Toulmin Fellowship with the NYU Center for Ballet and the Arts & National Sawdust Partnership, where she began developing a world-building game focused on abolition and community activation. Her other recent work includes a dance film called TriKe and Letters from the Etui, a digital platform and accompanying series of workshops that support abolitionist frameworks, from personal to political practice. —Sophie Bress

Simone Stevens

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago rarely hires from the Windy City’s freelance circuit. But former freelancer Simone Stevens made her company debut at Dance for Life last August, three years after moving to Chicago with her sights set on the company. Stevens grew up dancing in the Atlanta suburbs and began working with various choreographers in Chicago after graduating from Kennesaw State University. She has it all: flawless technique, impassioned emotional sensitivity and brazen versatility, the latter developed as she floated between wildly diverse projects. Katlin Bourgeois’­ contorted choreographic cryptograms suited her just as well as the full-throttled, jazzy style of Monique Haley, who created a feverish solo on her during a brief stint with Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre. Now, Stevens has gotten what she came for, and it’s Hubbard Street’s gain. 

—Lauren Warnecke

Darvensky Louis

Every move Darvensky Louis makes is multilayered and arresting. In Omar Román De Jesús’ Muerte Cotidiana, he breathes into a leisurely open stance, arms spreading as if yielding into the expansive feel of a sunset. Suddenly, he drops into rumba-flavored weight shifts, then spills to the floor and springs weightlessly to his feet. His legs restlessly turn in and out, hands wiping down his face and chest, torso rippling, as if simultaneously hating and enjoying the skin he’s in.

It’s this smoldering inner drive and visceral intelligence that have helped him secure roles in works by several of Atlanta’s leading contemporary dance groups, including staibdance, Fly on a Wall and Terminus Modern Ballet Theatre, within a year and a half of his graduation from Kennesaw State University.

The long-limbed, Haitian-born artist recently brought his electric blend of contemporary and hip hop to creating the dance movement for Bob Cratchit’s solo in Terminus’ Marley Was Dead, To Begin With. Terminus artistic director John Welker says Louis’ solo was so extraordinary they don’t know of anyone else who could perform it. “It was on another level,” Welker says. “It just blew us all away.” Louis is also creating his own company, Sequence One, intended to provide recent college graduates opportunities to perform and tour. —Cynthia Bond Perry

Johnathon Hart

“Naturally gifted” best describes Johnathon Hart. After being­ accepted to the Chicago High School for the Arts at age 15 with no formal dance training, he attended San Francisco Ballet School’s summer intensive on full scholarship, followed by two years full time at the school before joining BalletMet in 2020. “He is a huge talent,” says BalletMet­ artistic director Edwaard Liang of the 21-year-old. 

In Karen Wing’s 2021 Verbena, Hart coupled his enviable facility and squeaky-clean technique with a bold stage presence. He soared in leaps that devoured the space and swirled his body in artistic brushstrokes to riveting effect. While most at home in contemporary works, the versatile Hart says he is looking forward to dancing more classical roles in 2022. —Steve Sucato

Joya Jackson

Joya Jackson doesn’t hold back. She infuses each movement with texture and shading, never sparing a note of music. At only 21, Jackson has been featured in several performances that have made a big impact on recent pop culture conversations, including the music videos for Cardi B’s “Up” and Ariana Grande’s “34+35,” as well as the Savage X Fenty shows in 2020 and 2021. “In no way did I imagine that during the pandemic, I would receive the opportunities I did,” she says.

Her buzziest breakthrough came last summer, when Jackson was chosen to be Normani’s­ double, dancing alongside her in the music video for “Wild Side.” Appearing as an ensemble dancer in the rest of the video, Jackson shifted effortlessly between Sean Bankhead’s sleek, jazz-infused choreography and sharp, dynamic movement, her ability to absorb nuances while adding her own flavor making her a standout. —Lydia Murray

Darian Kane

Darian Kane hadn’t planned to choreograph. But when the pandemic hit, and Atlanta Ballet artistic director Gennadi Nedvigin called for company members to create works on fellow dancers, Kane stepped up and choreographed her first piece, Dr. Rainbow’s Infinity Mirror. She discovered what she lightly dubs an “indie-pop contemporary” style that’s worlds away from her regal classical ballet persona.

To nostalgic piano and eerie melodies reminiscent of early sci-fi movies, dancer Sujin Han appears in black tuxedo tails and rainbow toe socks—think Charlie Chaplin meets The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. With elastic développés,­ ­Han takes exaggerated strides forward and steps through an invisible frame. She whirls, leaps and moonwalks, her arms striking lines through the space around her as if painting a more vivid realm. Though light on the surface, Dr. Rainbow expresses a full range of human­ experience—especially struggles with mental health. 

Dr. Rainbow was so well received last spring that Atlanta Ballet is producing an expanded version, set for a February premiere. And Kane, now 25, has fallen in love with choreographing: “It’s the first time I’ve had a voice in my own industry.” —Cynthia Bond Perry

Mthuthuzeli November

Mthuthuzeli November is pushing the boundaries of whose stories are given a voice in ballet. Born and raised in Cape Town, he moved to the UK to join Ballet Black in 2015, creating his first piece for the company in 2016. The same year, he established M22 Movement Lab, his own choreographic platform, and devised Point of Collapse, an emotive solo performed by Precious Adams for English National Ballet’s Emerging Dancer Competition. It wasn’t until 2019, however, with the Olivier and Black British Theatre Award–winning work Ingoma, that November really started to attract international attention. 

Inspired by the paintings of South Africa’s Gerard Sekoto, Ingoma imagines the struggles of Black miners and their families in 1946, when 60,000 of them went on strike. Wearing a mix of wellies and pointe shoes, the dancers create percussive rhythms that drive the piece forward, their powerful motions poetically juxtaposed with moments of pleading, anxiety and vulnerability. Fusing ballet with African dance and singing, the work saw November develop a distinctive, gesture-filled movement language that is entirely his own. 

November has since been in increasing demand, even during the darkest days of the pandemic: He created an online version of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater for Cape Town Opera and a dance film for Northern Ballet. Ballet Black also returned to live performance in October with the premiere of his work The Waiting Game. With November’s unwavering motivation, abundant talent and timely topics, audiences shouldn’t have to wait long to see more from him. —Emily May

Genevieve Penn Nabity

National Ballet of Canada artistic staff, choreographers and fellow dancers alike heap praise on 21-year-old second soloist Genevieve Penn Nabity. “The joy she finds in movement is translated through every fiber of her being,” says choreographic associate Robert Binet, who has been casting her in his works ever since her days at Canada’s National Ballet School. Her full-bodied performance style and versatility have also been showcased in Skylar Campbell’s eponymous collective. He adds, “Her quality of movement, and ability to mold into any style thrown her way, is a constant source of inspiration.”

Penn Nabity joined NBoC as an apprentice in 2018, and was promoted to the corps de ballet and received the RBC Emerging Artist Award in 2019. Associate artistic director Christopher Stowell fast-tracked her career after seeing how she took possession of even minor roles in ballets like The Dream and The Nutcracker. “Genevieve connects movement with articulation and finesse while bringing a seamless ease to even the most challenging technical hurdles,” he says.

Penn Nabity has since danced in The Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, Études and, just before the lockdowns, Crystal Pite’s Angels’ Atlas. During the pandemic, she performed in the digital premiere of Binet’s The Dreamers Ever Leave You, reprising­ her role outdoors for a live audience last summer shortly after her promotion to second soloist. Next up is a new ballet by principal dancer Siphesihle November, set to debut in March. “I feel the stars have aligned,” Penn Nabity says. “Nothing is holding me back.”

—Deirdre Kelly

Header photo credits, left to right, top to bottom: Raina Brie, Courtesy Carminucci; Umi Akiyoshi, Courtesy Baye & Asa; Ray Nard Imagemaker, Courtesy Grand Rapids Ballet; Courtesy Mims; Kaylee Wong, Courtesy Green; Jennifer Zmuda, Courtesy BalletMet; Alexander Irwin, Courtesy Ballet22; Christina Massad, Courtesy Terminus Modern Ballet Theatre; Elizabeth Snell, Courtesy Kansas City Ballet; Brian Wallenberg, Courtesy Atlanta Ballet; Tom Clark, Courtesy English National Ballet; Frank Ishman, Courtesy Hubbard Street Dance Chicago; Sue Murad, Courtesy Vidrin; Todd Rosenberg, Courtesy PARA.MAR Dance Theatre; Banvoa, Courtesy Jackson; Skye Weiss, Courtesy November; Karolina Kuras, Courtesy National Ballet of Canada; Rose Lu, Courtesy Park; Chidozie Ekwensi, Courtesy Ude; Steven Vandervelden, Courtesy Haynes; Rosalie O’Connor, Courtesy Pierce; Alex DiMattia, Courtesy ABT; Rahi Rezvani, Courtesy the van Opstals; 24 Seven Dance Convention, Courtesy Williams; Joe Toreno                      

           

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Yet dancers at almost all of the world’s leading mixed-rep ensembles take ballet classes before rehearsals and shows. Most companies rarely depart from ballet more than twice a week and some never offer alternative classes.

“The question, ‘Why do you take ballet class to prepare you for repertory which is not strictly classical?’ has been in the air since Diaghilev’s time,” says Peter Lewton-Brain, Monaco-based president of the International Association for Dance Medicine & Science. “What you’re doing onstage is often not what you’re doing in class.”

The post Why Do Mixed-Rep Companies Still Rely on Ballet for Company Class? appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Daniel Boud, Courtesy Australian Ballet

Rahi Rezvani, Courtesy NDT

The post News of Note: What You Might Have Missed in March 2020 appeared first on Dance Magazine.

The Lost Episode

Erin Baiano, Courtesy NYCB

NEW YORK CITY When Martha Graham and George Balanchine collaborated on Episodes in 1959, they borrowed each other’s dancers. Graham supplemented her troupe with four New York City Ballet members for the first part; when crafting the second, Balanchine included a solo for a young Graham dancer named Paul Taylor. Last performed by NYCB in 1989, the “Variations” solo is being revived in tribute to the late dance legend—and in a poignant touch, Taylor veteran Michael Trusnovec has been invited to dance it on Feb. 6 and 9. Also of note during the winter season: the premieres of Alexei Ratmansky’s sixth work for the company and Justin Peck’s first collaboration with composer Nico Muhly. Jan. 21–March 1. nycballet.com.

A Collective Chorus

Ian Douglas, Courtesy Danspace Project

NEW YORK CITY
Danspace Project’s annual Platform series accumulates works across genres to astonishing, thought-provoking effect. The 10th edition promises to be no different. PLATFORM 2020: Utterances from the Chorus, co-curated by Okwui Okpokwasili and Judy Hussie-Taylor, questions how the voice and the body can be sites of both resistance and transformation, and what becomes possible through collective song and gesture. The five weeks of programming feature choreographers Nacera Belaza and Meryem Jazouli alongside a weekly performance of Okpokwasili and Peter Born’s Sitting on a Man’s Head, as well as poetry, music, workshops and artist gatherings. Feb. 22–March 21. danspaceproject.org.

Update:
As of March 12, the remainder of PLATFORM 2020: Utterances from the Chorus events have been cancelled due to coronavirus concerns.

Make Some Noise

Chelsea Hoy, Courtesy Auditorium Theatre

CHICAGO Trinity Irish Dance Company is all but guaranteed to make this Leap Day a memorable one. On Feb. 29, the Chicago-based Irish step company debuts American Traffic, a new work created by lauded tap choreographers Michelle Dorrance and Melinda Sullivan. But that’s not all: Listen, by Colin Dunne, and Home, by artistic director Mark Howard and associate artistic director Chelsea Hoy, are also slated to premiere. Rounding out the Auditorium Theatre program are the Chicago debut of Seán Curran’s Goddess and a few other classic rep pieces. auditoriumtheatre.org.

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A Balanchine Festival Will Bring 8 Elite Ballet Companies

Though Lincoln Center’s David H. Koch Theater has long been known as Balanchine’s house, the choreographer actually founded New York City Ballet at New York City Center. The venue will celebrate him from Oct 31 through Nov 4, inviting American Ballet Theatre, Joffrey Ballet, Mariinsky Ballet, Miami City Ballet, New York City Ballet, Paris Opéra Ballet, The Royal Ballet and San Francisco Ballet to perform both works created at City Center and performed as part of NYCB’s regular seasons there from 1948-1964.

Sara Mearns Will Take on Musical Theater

As part of the Encores! series, City Center will revive Rodgers and Hart’s 1938 musical I Married An Angel, starring none other than NYCB’s Sara Mearns. The show originally featured choreography by Balanchine, and starred his then-wife Vera Zorina. So naturally, Mearns’ soon-to-be husband Joshua Bergasse will choreograph this production.

Fall for Dance Will Be As Exciting As Ever

Now in it’s 15th year, the festival aimed at bringing dance to the masses (all tickets are $15) always brings a fun mix of old and new works, fresh and familiar companies. We don’t know the whole lineup yet, but the commissions are enough to have us counting the days till October: Gemma Bond, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Justin Peck, Sonya Tayeh, Caleb Teicher and Jennifer Weber will all create new works.

Plus, A Ton of Our Faves Will Make Appearances

Highlights include: Dorrance Dance with their largest solo engagement ever, David Hallberg and Natalia Osipova performing a new Alexei Ratmansky piece, appearances by Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Dance Theatre of Harlem and Nederlands Dans Theater 2, the annual Flamenco Festival, a tour across the five boroughs featuring tap artist Ayodele Casel and a revival of A Chorus Line with choreography by Bob Avian.

The post New York City Center's Anniversary Season Is Gonna Be Epic appeared first on Dance Magazine.

While her company, Kidd Pivot, toured the globe recently performing Betroffenheit—its acclaimed collaboration with Jonathon Young and fellow Canadians Electric Company Theatre—Pite herself launched three productions at three of the world’s foremost dance companies: Nederlands Dans Theater (The Statement, February 2016), the Paris Opéra Ballet (The Seasons’ Canon, fall 2016), and London’s Royal Ballet (Flight Pattern, spring 2017).

Increasingly, her projects are at a scale to match their prestige, with roles for as many as 54 dancers (The Seasons’ Canon) or, in the case of Polaris, more than 60. We caught up with Pite while she was at home in Vancouver.

It must be nice to be home. You’ve been quite busy.

It was intense, but wonderful. I kept pinching myself and thinking, Is this for real? After every hurdle, I had to just say, “Check. Done. Survived that. What’s next?”

Does it still feel like the first day of school, to begin with a company that’s new to you?

On my way up to the Paris Opéra studios I was so nervous! Literally shaking. But within about eight minutes, I was reminded, “Oh, yeah: This is the same old thing. It’s just dancers in a studio, dancing.” [Laughs]

Crystal Pite rehearsing with Paris Opera Ballet dancers. Photos by Julien Benhamou, courtesy POB

It must’ve helped that the other pieces on that program were contemporary.

I always benefit from being at a company during or right after the dancers have been immersed in contemporary work. They had just recently worked with Bill Forsythe in Paris when I started The Seasons’ Canon; in London, for Flight Pattern, I had the benefit of following Hofesh Shechter.

I noticed that there was an openness, a willingness, a kind of articulation and understanding in their bodies that maybe would not have been there otherwise. Dancers just keep growing, keep gaining more information and dimension; the more people they work with, the better they get. It really is that simple.

True, but the body can only adapt so quickly.

That’s an important point too. When I was in London, they were with me during the day but performing The Sleeping Beauty at night. I would literally have dancers running into the studio for my rehearsals and taking their pointe shoes off at the same time—hopping in on one foot, shimmying out of a practice tutu, throwing on a pair of socks and sliding into the center of the room into some deep, deep position, with their weight completely dropped and a rounded spine.

Royal Ballet dancers in Flight Pattern. Photo by Tristram Kenton, courtesy Royal Opera House

The Royal Ballet’s dancers and the artists of the Paris Opéra are like the Swiss Army knives of dancers.

That’s such a good way to put it. Which part of the Swiss Army knife do you think I am? The toothpick, maybe? The scissors? Oh, I’m the corkscrew, aren’t I? [Laughs]

What do you fear?

Laziness, I suppose. That doesn’t mean I’m not willing to sit with an idea for a while and give it time to evolve if it needs to, but laziness—complacency—is something else. It would be easy at this point for me to rely on what I already know. But I can’t allow myself to be lazy.

What are you reading?

Jonathon Young gave me these great books by Robert Bringhurst; one of them is called Everywhere Being is Dancing: Twenty Pieces of Thinking. He has beautiful things to say about polyphony and polyphonic music, which have to do with coexisting differences and equal valuation of all voices.

There’s something profound there, something to aspire to, that polyphony is possible, beautiful—and demanding. Worth striving for in our work and in our world.

Where are you today in terms of collaborating on new choreography and music at the same time, versus interpreting a score that already exists?

I really like working with existing music as a script, following its lead and dreaming of how I might bring it to life inside a body. I also love the experience of creating work together in parallel, from the first impulse right through to the very end. With a new work, it’s a lot more work to build something from scratch, but that also leaves space for new discoveries and being nimble for new decisions. This month I have a new creation at NDT to the music of Caroline Shaw, who wrote an incredible piece for eight voices called Partita.

A theme that’s emerged for me, especially in your bigger pieces, is that of the individual within the group; of the ensemble as a “body” of its own.

There’s something energizing in that tension. It stems from my interest in connection, my desire to connect with the people I’m working with, for them to connect to each other, and then, also, for them to connect to the audience. I want to cultivate the sense that we’re all one and that we’re all connected.

National Ballet of Canada in Emergence. Photo by Bruce Zinger, courtesy NBoC

As in nature. Vancouver is so beautiful—do you consider yourself outdoorsy?

I should do something sporty. It might be time for me to try rock climbing or swimming or martial arts or something—to change it up. I’m in this weird limbo, no-man’s-land with my body, where I feel like I’ve lost touch and connection with my dancing self, and feel like I have to rediscover my relationship with the physical in a new way, or in a parallel way. Maybe skiing—cross-country, though. Not downhill. I don’t like to go too fast.

Anything we should keep an eye out for next season?

I’m looking forward to Revisor, which Kidd Pivot premieres in February 2019 in Vancouver. It bubbles away as I go about my day.

The post Even Crystal Pite Gets Nervous Before a First Rehearsal appeared first on Dance Magazine.

But we needn’t have worried! The happy news came out yesterday that our favorite day of the year is back: World Ballet Day LIVE 2017 is officially scheduled for October 5. Clear your calendar for a serious bunhead binge of live behind-the-scenes footage from the Australian Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet, Royal Ballet, National Ballet of Canada and San Francisco Ballet—plus special video broadcasts from other top companies.

The news got the Dance Magazine staff all nostalgic. We started reminiscing about our favorite highlights from past World Ballet Day LIVE events. Our top picks?

1. When Steven McRae Wore A GoPro for Ballet Class

Why is Royal Ballet principal Steven McRae wearing a GoPro for company class? Apparently, to show viewers at home class from the point of view of a dancer. “I’m going to try not to do too many pirouettes to make you feel ill!” McRae told an interviewer. (We would love to know where we could find the full footage from that GoPro.) Side note: Major kudos to McRae’s then-8-months pregnant wife Elizabeth Harrod, who was still killing it in class alongside the also very pregnant soloist Laura McCulloch.

2. When We Peeked in on David Dawson’s New Swan Lake

This 16-minute transmission from the Scottish Ballet in 2015 gave us an insider’s look at the creative process of David Dawson, a choreographer we’ve long been intrigued by but rarely see in the U.S. We fell in love with his twitchy, gooey reinterpretation of what classifies as “swan-like” movement.

3. When We Found Out NDT Sets Up Their Barres Like a Boxing Ring

We love that Nederlands Dans Theater was invited to participate last year. Of course, rehearsals with Paul Lightfoot and Sol Leon were just as mesmerizing to watch as we’d expect. But what struck us most were actually the short opening clips of company class, in which the teacher appears to be surrounded on all four sides by ballet barres, as though he were in the middle of a boxing ring!

4. When We Met Leanne Cope

Okay, we know this was not technically part of World Ballet Day, but its precursor: Royal Ballet LIVE. That event marked the first time that many dance lovers outside of London were introduced to Leanne Cope, then part of the Royal Ballet’s corps. Liam Scarlett had chosen her as a lead in his new creation, Sweet Violets, and the Dance Magazine editors were all asking each other, Who is that girl? Of course, before long, Christopher Wheeldon handpicked her to be the lead in Broadway’s An American in Paris—and we didn’t hesitate to put her on our December 2014 cover.

5. When We Got to Watch Svetlana Zakharova and Denis Rodkin Rehearse

The ballet itself—Yuri Grigorovitch’s A Legend of Love—may not be our favorite. But the footage of the Bolshoi’s Svetlana Zakharova and Denis Rodkin working out its details in the studio (starting around minute 57) is simply epic.

6. When Helgi Tomasson Coached SFB in Giselle

Sofiane Sylve. Yuan Yuan Tan. Mathilde Froustey. Tiit Helimets. Carlo Di Lanno. So many of our favorite San Francisco Ballet principals were put through their paces by artistic director Helgi Tomasson in this clip of the company rehearsing Giselle‘s second act (which starts around minute 3:45). It’s like a master class in romantic ballet.

7. When Marianela Nuñez Was Surprised With Birthday Cake

Royal Ballet LIVE happened to fall on principal Marianela Nuñez’s 30th birthday. Which of course required a post-rehearsal celebration, which obviously garnered an adorably happy reaction from the exquisite ballerina. Ballet + cake = our new favorite combo.

The post Watch: Our 7 All-Time Favorite World Ballet Day Moments appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Ignoring basic needs can ultimately damage your technique and performance. We could all use some tips from these 10 professional dancers who know how to practice self love.

American Ballet Theatre principal Alban Lendorf won’t deny himself some red wine and sorbet as a post-performance treat:

Miami City Ballet’s Nathalia Arja can often be found lounging on the beach, like any true Miami girl:

Akua Noni Parker of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater spends quality time with her dad by going shopping for sunglasses:

Chloé Albaret of Nederlands Dans Theater takes time to step outside of the studio and enjoy nature:

Pacific Northwest Ballet corps de ballet dancers Elle Macy and Dylan Wald make time for hobbies, including painting:

Broadway’s Thayne Jasperson and other Hamilton original cast members enjoy a night out, in celebration of their hit musical:

New York City Ballet principal Lauren Lovette knows that pets can make the best of friends:

Pennsylvania Ballet couple Nayara Lopes and Sterling Baca take care of their bodies with some stretching and foam rolling—and plans for brunch:

Jacob Dickey, also known as Aladdin in the hit Broadway musical, appreciates getting lost in a good book:

Giordano Dance Chicago performing associate Arielle Israel indulges in a delicious meal:

The post 10 Pros Show Us How to Prioritize Self Care appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Get Nederlands Dans Theater’s Silas Henriksen’s look.

Anne Jung and Chloe Albaret of Nederlands Dans Theater sport sensible and functional monochrome looks.

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When Nederlands Dans Theater announced last May that it would stop performing Jirí Kylián’s work for three years, comparisons were made to a Balanchine-less New York City Ballet. But as artistic director Paul Lightfoot started factoring the decision into planning the next season, the company ran into another identity-altering change: In the fall, the city will tear down NDT’s longtime performance space, Lucent Danstheater in The Hague, to build a larger venue. Without its signature rep or home stage, what will become of NDT’s slick contemporary brand?

Kylián, who was NDT’s artistic director for 24 years and resident choreographer from 1999–2009, suggested shelving his work because he was concerned that the troupe was becoming dependent on his rep instead of focusing on progressive choreographers—the core ethos that defined the company many years ago. “Repertoire has weight, and he believes that the identity of NDT is rebellious and creative,” says Lightfoot. Initially upset by the proposal, Lightfoot says he understands that Kylián’s decision is in the best interest of the company. It will also give Kylián more creative freedom to work on smaller-scale projects. Others, including some NDT dancers who came to the company specifically to perform Kylián’s dances, have mixed emotions.

New commissions will be the focus of the reimagined NDT. In addition to his own work with Sol León, Lightfoot planned 10 world premieres in 2013–14. Going forward, associate choreographers Crystal Pite, Alexander Ekman, Johan Inger and Marco Goecke will stage at least one new piece or revival per season. Favorites like Ohad Naharin and Hofesh Shechter will remain regular guests. And the troupe’s dancers will be encouraged to create, as Lightfoot once did under Kylián, in evenings dedicated to young talent.

Lightfoot’s pressing concern, though, is finding a new performance space for the company, which has been at the Lucent Dans­theater, the largest Dutch theater designed specifically for dance, for nearly 27 years. “It’s a very dangerous decision, and our main worry right now,” he says. “They’re going to destroy our home.” The city has offered NDT a temporary location during the three- to five-year construction period for the new theater that will rise on the Lucent’s site, but as of press time, the company has not yet decided whether to take it.

Above photo: NDT in Kylián’s Tar and Feathers
. By Joris-Jan Bos, Courtesy NDT

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