A host of leadership changes has rolled across the dance world over the past several months, including in the dance education sphere. From director shifts to new executive directors and beyond, here are the major educator moves you should know about from winter 2021–22.
Four dancers have been selected as 2016 U.S. Presidential Scholars in the Arts, an annual award to 20 National YoungArts Foundation finalists for outstanding achievement in academics, in addition to artistic excellence in dance, theater, music, visual arts and writing. Modern dancers Jared Brown and Kaylin Sturtevant of Dallas, Texas, classical Indian dancer Pavithra Nagarajan […]
William Forsythe teaching ballet class to BFA students It’s a good time to be a USC dance major. The USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance’s inaugural class of BFA students have some exciting opportunities coming their way this spring. Check out the agenda: – This month, students learned technique and repertory from RUBBERBANDance artistic director […]
Al Blackstone’s Not For Me For its 21st annual gathering in July, the Fire Island Dance Festival raised a record-breaking $544,555 for Dancers Responding to AIDS. Complexions Contemporary Ballet co-founder Desmond Richardson hosted the festival this year, which included world premieres by Al Blackstone (winner of the 2011 Capezio A.C.E. Award), Joshua Beamish, Pontus Lidberg, […]
Now in her fourth season with Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Ashley Mayeux values co-artistic director Desmond Richardson’s hands-on help with tricky partnering. “I can always count on Des to come in and try movement with me. Then, I can go back and tell my partner, ‘OK he’s doing this, and it really works for me.’ Desmond […]
Sections of Fall to Rise were filmed at the Baryshnikov Arts Center in New York City. The impending retirement of New York City Ballet’s 46-year-old star Wendy Whelan (who this morning announced her final performance date), has, over the past few months, sparked many discussions about the inevitable impact of age on a dance career. Fall […]
As teachers and dancers, we’ve all fallen victim to needling perfectionism that can derail our confidence, and Desmond Richardson is no exception. Although he’s now co-artistic director of the hugely successful Complexions Contemporary Ballet, he was once a freshman at the High School for Performing Arts in New York City, obsessed with comparing himself to […]