Every dance artist begins their journey as a product of the community in which they began. While attending an all-Black school in the South, Cornelius Carter was asked by his high school dance teacher to choreograph for the school’s dance company. She noticed he had a natural talent for movement and saw the possibility of […]
Tracie Stanfield doesn’t want students to just dance to music. She wants them to partner with it. “It should be a duet,” says the contemporary lyrical and contemporary jazz teacher. “I want it to look like they inspire the music—not that they’re dancing to the lyrics.” Dancers of all backgrounds take Stanfield’s fusion classes at […]
The 2023 Dance Teacher Awards will take place on Thursday, August 10 at the Sheen Center for Thought & Culture in New York City, and you’re invited! Click here to buy tickets. Sheila Barker is vivacious, filled with a magnetic energy and infectious laughter. It’s no wonder that the popular jazz teacher at Broadway Dance Center and […]
Demi Remick was born to be a tap dance sensation. At 3 years old, she began dancing at Broadway North Dance Studio in Belmont, New Hampshire. Though she trained in all styles, it was immediately clear she had a natural talent and passion for tap dance as she trained with tap dancer Aaron Tolson. “It […]
April Cook never planned on becoming a dance teacher, but it seems her unexpected career path was meant to be. After all, her natural tap talent and thoughtful teaching practices have made her a wildly popular tap educator at Broadway Dance Center (BDC) in New York City. Cook grew up dancing at a school in […]
As a performing artist, I have lost two gigs due to the pandemic. Both would have started just weeks after New York City’s shutdown. The first was the leading role in one of my favorite musicals, playing opposite my significant other, and the second was an iconic featured role in a workshop for an upcoming […]
Every dance educator owns some version of this story. In the first two months of 2020, I managed to create and stage 80 minutes of choreography for the debut of my new troupe, Movement Headquarters Ballet Company. I also traveled to Colorado and Mississippi to judge for Youth America Grand Prix and Dance Teachers United. […]
As every educator knows, it’s just as important to keep up with your teaching craft as it is for your students to keep up with their dancing. The best way to do that? Teacher-training workshops. Get away for a couple of days to interact with your peers in the industry. You’ll not only learn new […]
When most people think of dance students, they imagine lithe children and teenagers waltzing around classrooms with their legs lifted to their ears. It doesn’t often cross our minds that dance training can involve an older woman trying to build strength in her body to ward off balance issues, or a middle-aged man who didn’t […]
When New York City–based dancer Dan Lai began choreographing Figure 8, he had a specific vision in mind. Inspired by a song by FKA Twigs, he wanted the movement to represent the music’s “dark and twisted vibe.” “My thought process was to make shapes and phrases that were abstract and unique that complimented the intricate […]