ANIMECHAN

When I first imagined choreographing a dance about the connection between the Grand Canyon and how humans explore the solar system, I figured the idea was a little too “out there” to be taken seriously. And yet, last month, I stood at the rim of the Grand Canyon as the park’s official Astronomer in Residence. Perched on a ledge of Kaibab limestone, I began the first gesture phrase that would…

The groundbreaking musical La Cage aux Folles opened on Broadway 40 years ago last August. As part of the anniversary celebrations, members of the original Cagelles—the dancers who formed the drag ensemble at the heart of the show—organized a series of events in conjunction with Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. It’s fitting that the group marked the occasion by raising money to fight HIV/AIDS. La Cage took Broadway by storm just…

It’s 2009, and my high school self is in the studio choreographing a new duet with my best friend to Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here.” The company director pokes her head in and disparagingly tells us the song and movement choice makes us look like “a couple of lesbians.”  We stand in stunned silence. I grew up in a performing arts family and had never once correlated being gay…

Let’s talk about stage fright. Whether you’re new to performing or you’ve been in front of audiences for years, everybody can admit it’s at least a little nerve-wracking. And yet, it’s the culmination of all the work dancers do! So, as a teacher or studio owner who teaches your dancers all about technique and artistry, how can you coach them through the practicalities of performing, like performance anxiety?  Andrea Kolbe,…

Malak Shoeira went to her first pole dance class half-jokingly, after a friend’s suggestion. At the time she was a ninth-grader in Egypt, and almost everything she knew of pole came from American TV. But that was in 2017, when pole dancing was relatively new to Egyptian gyms and dance studios.     She ended up discovering a new passion. “I had never really found myself in something, and pole was…

As I’ve been rediscovering as I return to dance, auditioning is an inherently vulnerable act. Even the most accomplished performers will tell you they hear “no” more often than they hear “yes.” When we get a callback or book a job, we are on top of the world. When we get cut, we are forced to pick up the pieces of one lost dream so that we can be ready…

How do we respond to recurring accounts of an acclaimed choreographer’s damaging relationships with dancers, especially women? Recent podcasts (Erika Lantz’s The Turning: Room of Mirrors) and books (Alice Robb’s Don’t Think, Dear) have contributed to a narrative that’s been emerging for decades: Throughout his career, George Balanchine employed power dynamics that controlled and hindered some dancers’ choices and opportunities. On April 5, 2023, The New York Times published a…

It’s my personal belief that at the center of every electrifying dance performance is a story. Even the works that are supposedly plotless have something evocative going on behind the eyes—in the way the body floats, jabs, crumples, and reaches. Sure, dancers tell their own tales from time to time, but more often than not, they embody a character onstage (think Giselle or the Sugar Plum Fairy, for example.) Ultimately, dancers are actors.…