Category: Pop Culture
Real Dancers, Really Dancing: The Making of Just Dance 2024
When you imagine a video game studio, you probably think of rows of programmers at rows of computers and a fleet of gaming consoles, rather than mirrored dance studios. But at Ubisoft Paris, there are both: The Paris branch of the video game company leads the creation and development of Just Dance, a game in which…
Read More
Beach Reads: 4 Recently Released Novels Set in the Dance World
There’s no shortage of dance-based nonfiction on seemingly endless topics, but fiction shelves have seen a recent influx of stories set in the studio and backstage. Whether you’re craving an escapist romance or a historical thriller, a dreamy fantasy or a piece of contemporary literary fiction, these novels keep one toe in the dance world…
Read More
Tara Nicole Hughes on How The Little Mermaid Brings Dance Under the Sea
Bringing Disney’s animated classics to live-action life has taken more than a dusting of pixie dust over the years. The latest adaptation, The Little Mermaid, may be the most extravagant yet: It features a star-studded cast that includes Halle Bailey (Ariel), Daveed Diggs (Sebastian), and Melissa McCarthy (Ursula). But the finished product has been a…
Read More
Ballerina Onscreen: Madison Keesler Guest-Stars in “FBI: International”
You may recognize freelance ballerina Madison Keesler from her former positions with San Francisco Ballet, English National Ballet, and Hamburg Ballet. But this Tuesday, April 11, at 9 pm EST, you may be surprised to see her on television as a guest star in the CBS police procedural “FBI: International.” In reality, there’s little reason…
Read More
Most Memorable Dance Moments: The 2023 Academy Awards
The 2023 Academy Awards ceremony was a particularly memorable one—and not just because the iconic “red carpet” was, for the first time in decades, not red. With outstanding stage performances, history-making wins for talents of underrepresented communities and tight races across the board, last night’s broadcast kept viewers on the edge of their seats. As…
Read More
Jamal Sims on Working On “Beauty and the Beast: A 30th Celebration”
Disney lovers, this one’s for you. On December 15, Belle, Lumière, Mrs. Potts and the rest of the crew behind the 1991 classic returned to the screen in “Beauty and the Beast: A 30th Celebration,” filmed before a live audience and airing on ABC at 8/7c. The special, which blends the original animation with live-action…
Read More
Dance Finds a Place in Baseball With the Savannah Bananas
Zachary Frongillo thought he had left dance behind. Then, one fateful day last summer, the owner of the Savannah Bananas, a Coastal Plain League baseball team, asked him to coach first base. Reluctantly, the former Erick Hawkins Dance Company member agreed, and, in addition to telling Bananas base runners when it was safe to steal…
Read More
Beyond Dance Challenges: 4 Choreographers Share Their Unique Approaches to TikTok
Can you remember the last time you thought of a clock when you heard the word “ticktock”? We can’t either. The TikTok app has brought new meaning to the word—and a new space for dancers to create and share the moves they’re making with the world. TikTok has definitely evolved since it first launched in…
Read More
Meet Sam Chouinard, Choreographer for Olympic Gold Medalist Figure Skaters
Have you ever watched figure skating and wondered who choreographs the athletes’ programs? Well, meet Sam Chouinard, a Canadian choreographer who works with some of the world’s highest-ranking skaters. For the Beijing 2022 Olympics, he’s collaborated with athletes from the U.S., Canada, China, Spain, France, Great Britain and Japan. Most notably, Chouinard choreographed the “Rocket…
Read MoreJason Brown Is the Ultimate Dancers’ Skater at the Winter Olympics
For dance-inclined fans, singles figure skating can be a frustrating sport to watch. Sure, choreography, music and costumes are part of it; but over the past decade, they have often felt like an afterthought in the race to pack programs with increasingly hard (meaning quadruple) jumps. At the Beijing Winter Olympics, which opened today, technical…
Read More