After joining Heidi Latsky Dance in 2007, Meredith Fages expanded her dynamic range as a performer under Latsky’s mentorship. “When we first started working together, she said to me, ‘Meredith, you have training coming out of your ears. I’m going to help you do something with it. I may not be able to make you […]
When MOMIX’s Rebecca Rasmussen was studying at Moorpark College in California, her professors Dennon and Sayhber Rawles gave her the confidence she needed to pursue a career in dance. “They prepared me through their belief that I could do it. They didn’t necessarily know what I was going to do or who I was going […]
Before joining Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Sarah Daley learned how to find inspiration in everyday life from her mentor Watmora Casey. “I remember when I was getting ready to compete in Youth America Grand Prix in 2002, I was doing the Black Swan Variation. I wasn’t giving enough fire to portray the character, so […]
Before joining RIOULT Dance NY in 2015, Corinna Lee Nicholson learned what a privilege it is to be a dancer from her professor, Myra Woodruff. “She would talk about how special it was to spend our time dancing. Most people don’t have the opportunity to leap and turn during the day. It’s something that is […]
Irish dancer Cara Butler remembers the helpful advice that her teacher Donny Golden gave her as a child to ease her mind before competitions. “I remember that he was really good at calming my nerves as a kid. He would always say, ‘Your nerves are a form of energy. Use it as fuel.’ That was […]
Ae-Soon Kim, a dancer with Carolyn Dorfman Dance for eight years, learned the power of open-ended questions by working closely with Dorfman. “Sometimes, in rehearsal, I feel like I’m in acting class. To help us bring emotion into our bodies, Carolyn poses questions like, ‘What if you didn’t have anything to eat but had to […]
Dance Theatre of Harlem’s Lindsey Croop learned the power of positivity in ballet class with Charla Genn. “One of the things that sets her apart is she’s so positive and funny. She comes up with rhymes for everything, like ‘Lift your chest in arabesque to be the best!’ She also makes them individualized. When I […]
As a dancer with Compagnie CNDC-Angers/Robert Swinston for the past four years, Anna Chirescu changed the way she approached taking on new challenges. “Robert is an American who works in France, where the culture is very different. He says that French people talk and think much, but in America it’s much more about the doing. […]
For 10 years, Paul Taylor Dance Company’s Heather McGinley trained intensively in Cecchetti technique with Lisbeth Brown in St. Louis. Brown encouraged her to showcase her strengths. “She emphasized that the technique was important, but to always keep in mind that it was a vehicle for expression. She always encouraged me to be myself, rather […]
In the 1970s, Janaki Patrik, artistic director of The Kathak Ensemble & Friends, studied with Merce Cunningham in New York City. She remembers the subtle way he would give a correction. “I loved the technique. It was pure and spare, but when he taught the class, it was electric. To make a correction, he might […]