1. Who was Talley Beatty’s first dance teacher? 2. Beatty’s choreographic genius was transforming experiences of _____ _____into brilliant physical expressions of the _____ _____. 3. True or False: Beatty rejected ballet for Afro-Caribbean and modern dance. 4. What is the name of the first dance that Beatty created for his company? 5. What part […]
Tap dancing on the balls of one’s feet hardly seems like a novel idea, but the technique is due largely to beloved hoofer Bill “Bojangles” Robinson (1878–1949). He revolutionized the previously popular style of flat-footed shuffling with up-on-his-toes tapping and a swinging rhythm. Born Luther Robinson in Richmond, Virginia, he was given the nickname “Bojangles” […]
The American Dance Guild’s 2022 Online Festival, which runs from Monday, January 31, through Sunday, February 27, presents 18 historic modern dances from the New Dance Group—offering you and your students a unique opportunity to engage with enlightening, rarely seen dance works and delve deep into the rich heritage and diverse subject matter of modern dance. Four successive programs, which are set […]
Before there was Martha Graham or Isadora Duncan, there was Loie Fuller (1862–1928), the toast of Paris nicknamed “La Loïe.” Poets like William Butler Yeats lauded her, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec painted her and sculptor Auguste Rodin allegedly captured her in marble. Although plump, plain-faced and untrained, not a tall and lovely sylph as she was […]
George Balanchine’s version of The Nutcracker premiered February 2, 1954, in a flurry of last-minute disasters. Maria Tallchief, Balanchine’s original Sugar Plum Fairy, found herself in the middle of the mess: Not only did her mint-green tutu arrive just hours before curtain, but her cavalier, André Eglevsky—who, in typical Balanchine fashion, had no understudy—suffered a […]
Alvin Ailey founded what would become one of the world’s most famous modern dance companies. From its earliest days, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater performed dances that reflected the African American cultural experience to concert dance audiences. Ailey’s iconic work Revelations continues to resonate over 60 years later. The company has performed for more […]
Since their establishment in the 1920s, many college dance programs have worked to adopt an integrated approach to theory and practice—technique classes happen alongside history lessons, compositional methods and contextual analysis. “Dance has really been a leader in this idea, that there’s not as much separation between practice and theory as in other fields,” says […]
Having a lighter dance schedule these days means more time to dive into your dance history— including the broader social and political issues that have influenced dancemakers past and present. Katiti King, a faculty member at Barnard College and Gibney in New York City, shares her list of who and what to read and watch […]
Even dancers who love their isolations and hip rolls might be totally unaware of where jazz dance comes from. Uprooted: The Journey of Jazz Dance, which premieres at the Dance on Camera Festival on Sunday, July 19, aims to change that. Directed by Khadifa Wong and produced by Lisa Donmall-Reeve, the feature-length documentary is a […]
The dance world is brimming with superstitions. One of the most common is never to say “good luck” before a show, since everyone knows uttering the phrase is, in fact, very bad luck. Actors say “break a leg” instead. But since that phrase isn’t exactly dance-friendly, you and your dance friends probably tell each other […]