Category: ran-&-rave
Trans Artist and Activist Sean Dorsey on How Dance Can Meet This Political Moment
On his first day in office, President Trump issued a series of executive orders limiting the rights of transgender and nonbinary Americans, from stating that the U.S. government would recognize only male and female genders to removing gender options from passports. His orders targeted rights and protections attained through years of courageous advocacy. And award-winning…
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Hip-Hop Dance Theater Company Boy Blue Is Bringing London Energy to New York City
Choreographer Kenrick “H2O” Sandy and composer-producer Michael “Mikey J” Asante met at school in East London when they were 12, bonding over hip hop. After performing in local street-dance battles, they founded the hip-hop dance theater company Boy Blue in 2001, wowing audiences with precision choreography and explosive energy. Their show Pied Piper won an…
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Meet Radha Varadan, the Kathak Dancer Reinterpreting Classic Ballet Variations
Radha Varadan’s ingenious reimaginings of some of ballet’s most famous variations using kathak, a form of Indian classical dance, have earned her serious traction online. Based in India and the U.S., Varadan trained in both ballet and kathak growing up. She later studied postmodern dance (and molecular biology) at George Washington University, and today she…
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Ashley Bouder on the Ballets That Have Defined Her Career
The last few weeks have felt fairly routine for Ashley Bouder—morning class, rehearsal, picking up her daughter from school—until it hits her: Her 25-year career at New York City Ballet is about to come to a close. “I go through little bouts where it’s really real and I feel like crying,” she says. “But I’m…
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How the Federal Funding Freeze Nearly Upended Jody Sperling/Time Lapse Dance’s Egypt Tour
The funding freeze that President Trump instituted earlier this week has had ripple effects in the dance community. Choreographer Jody Sperling, whose company Jody Sperling/Time Lapse Dance often engages creatively with the issue of climate change, was told that the troupe had lost a major State Department grant—just before leaving for the tour that grant…
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For 101-Year-Old Vija Vetra, Dance Is a Symbol of Life Itself
“Dance is the art of movement, and therefore anything that is moving, breathing, growing, or feeling is part of the dance,” says Vija Vetra, a 101-year-old Latvian-born dancer, choreographer, teacher, and lecturer who first earned acclaim as an Indian classical and modern dancer in the mid-20th century. Vetra’s passion for her art has taken her…
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Op-Ed: Should Dancers Say Yes to Every Opportunity?
The reality of a dancer’s life is often more complicated than what we imagined as young students. We must become not just powerful artists but also skilled marketers, social media managers, and self-care experts. This, coupled with the need to pay rent and buy food, can create a heavy schedule of work and art. Time…
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Op-Ed: How to Save a Doomed Geisha
The UK’s The Spectator recently published a piece by the Japan specialist Lesley Downer, historical consultant for the Northern Ballet’s 2020 production Geisha. In her essay, Downer wonders why claims of cultural appropriation so dramatically affected the reception of the work, which has not been remounted since its premiere. You can hear her frustration as…
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Yanira Castro’s Exorcism = Liberation Is a Public Art Campaign for Divided Times
Stroll through New York City, Chicago, or Western Massachusetts in the next month and a half and you might encounter a somewhat mysterious provocation on a poster, or in a window: “Exorcism = Liberation” “I came here to weep” “What is your first memory of dirt?” Yanira Castro, the multidisciplinary artist behind those slogans, hopes…
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Kayla Hamilton on Disability as Method and Access as Artistry
Bronx-based dancer, director, and educator Kayla Hamilton is at a transitional moment in her career. Her largest ensemble project yet, How to Bend Down / How to Pick It Up—a multidisciplinary performance exploring histories of Black disability, while imagining a liberated future—premieres at New York City’s The Shed next week before embarking on a U.S.…
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