Month: December 2021
Dance Magazine’s Top 8 Stories of 2021
With its massive ups (live shows back in theaters!) and massive downs (COVID-19 cases and supply-chain issues canceling far too many of those shows), 2021 has truly been a year like no other. Throughout it all, Dance Magazine has worked to cover the trends, the changes and the inspirations that have kept us going. Here…
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Begin Again: Dealing With a Spoonful of Setbacks
Just for today, this column is not what I planned it to be. In an unexpected (or entirely predictable, depending on when you ask me) turn of events, I am not feeling good. How did we get here? How did we go from doing so great that I pitched a comeback story to the preeminent…
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Robert Battle at Full Throttle
When you’re enjoying the easygoing, joke-telling manner of Robert Battle as the welcoming emcee of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, you might not realize there is a ferocious choreographer underneath all that charm. To celebrate his 10 years as artistic director, at New York City Center on Tuesday night the company presented seven works…
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From Billy Elliot to Bernardo: David Alvarez’s Journey to “West Side Story”
It was clear to anyone who saw David Alvarez in the musical Billy Elliot more than a decade ago that there was something remarkable about this teenager debuting on Broadway. Even at 14, he had a gravitas beyond his years. His dancing was both expressive and explosive—it said something about the character’s inner life, and…
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Coming Back to Dance
Part One Life has its seasons — shifting practicalities and needs leading us in different directions. Dance is a pursuit calling for sincere dedication, for hours in the studio full of mental, physical and spiritual investment. Yet, there are times when life guides us elsewhere, and we place that dedication elsewhere. Once a dancer, always…
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