Dance & ballet news

• December 2015 | Broadway’s Ben Vereen

  01-12-2015 22:37
  From the outside, it appeared as if the mall’s best days were behind it. Ben Vereen walked casually, quietly, through a side door and into the Wiregrass Church’s auditorium, a surprisingly sleek theater-ready space in Dothan, Alabama, where rehearsal for Patti Rutland Jazz’s weekend show, “Ignite,” would begin momentarily. Continue reading
  
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• December 2015 | 2 Tips for Ballet Teachers | Tombé Pas de Bourrée and Royale

  01-12-2015 22:18
  Tip 1Tombé pas de bourrée is one of classical ballet’s most common connecting steps, and it lends itself to all forms of center work. Yet its importance is often overlooked, and it can wind up being a combination’s sloppiest-looking step. Students may spend most of their mental energy on preparing for the trick that follows the tombé pas de bourrée, forgetting that in dance, every step counts.Tip 2Graduating from changements to royales can leave even the m
  
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• December 2015 | 2 Tips for Modern & Contemporary Teachers | Using the Legs, Encouraging the Individual

  01-12-2015 21:07
  Tip 1Fully engaged legs are essential to classical modern technique. Yet sometimes so much value is placed on the torso and arms in the classroom that clarity in the legs is lost.Tip 2When training is too focused on physical ability, students may miss out on the sense of personal exploration that is one of modern dance’s most important gifts. Especially with codified styles, we teachers may get lost in a sense of achievement as our students advance through the acquisition of vocabulary and
  
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• December 2015 | On My Mind

  01-12-2015 20:29
  As we prepare to head into 2016, I am thrilled to launch a concept that has been dancing around in my mind for more than five years: an international business conference and association for dance school owners. This dream will become a reality with the first I.D.E.A. (International Dance Educators Association) conference, held July 30 through August 1, 2016, at The Phoenician, a luxurious resort in Scottsdale, Arizona. With many respected dance teacher organizations offering high-quality dance c
  
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• December 2015 | Table of Contents

  01-12-2015 20:09
  As Pippin's original Leading Player, Ben Vereen sang about being "On the Right Track." This month, we'll help get your musical theater and hip-hop programs on track. Along with a one-on-one with Vereen, you'll find stories about campus hip-hop clubs, one studio's focus on musical theater, and another's jazz and hip-hop outreach.Plus, hip-hop and rap on Broadway, a studio that focuses on drop-in classes for adults, how to teach dance history in and out of the classroom, and a dance history quiz.A
  
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• December 2015 | Moving Images

  01-12-2015 19:23
  Videos of note (new and not)1. Flex Is Kings2. PS Dance! Dance Education in Public Schools3. Wild Style4. Thelma’s Tap Notes: A Step-by-Step Guide to Teaching Tap—Children’s Edition Continue reading
  
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• December 2015 | Page Turners

  01-12-2015 19:20
  Books of note (new and not)1. Jazz Dance: A History of the Roots and Branches2. What the Eye Hears: A History of Tap Dancing
  3. Hip Hop on Film: Performance Culture, Urban Space, and Genre Transformation in the 1980s4. Hermes Pan: The Man Who Danced With Fred Astaire Continue reading
  
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• December 2015 | 2 Tips for Tap Teachers | Sound Quality

  01-12-2015 19:16
  Tip 1It’s important to teach an awareness of sound quality as well as rhythm clarity. Once students demonstrate good technique in basic movements, challenge them to explore varying volume and tone. Even beginners can learn to regulate volume.Tip 2Using different parts of the tap also affects sound quality. In shuffles, for example, we can choose to produce a full-bodied brush and spank with the full toe tap; a light, high sound with the toe tap’s front third; a sharp, striking sound
  
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• December 2015 | FYI

  01-12-2015 18:59
  What’s up in the dance community.Lessons and Legacy of West Side StoryBeloved Recital Costumes Dance AnewAudience Participation and CreationProtecting a Delicate Past Continue reading
  
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• December 2015 | Bulletin Board: Pin, Post, Share

  01-12-2015 18:42
  Dance in Time: DecemberQuotable: Dancers on Dance Continue reading
  
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• December 2015 | Performance Corner

  01-12-2015 18:39
  Our sneak peek at dance shows we’d love to see Continue reading
  
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• December 2015 | 2 Tips for Hip-Hop Teachers | Geometry and Fundamentals

  01-12-2015 18:35
  Tip 1If students tend to focus internally or stay in one spot while freestyling, or if choreography isn’t moving around the room as planned, turning basic geometric shapes into pathways can help. This exercise encourages students to focus outward and frees their bodies to travel.Tip 2Students can feel overwhelmed when asked to improvise. Focusing on dance fundamentals, basic aspects of movement shared by all dance forms, can help. Continue reading
  
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• December 2015 | Higher-Ed Voice | Hip-Hop’s Campus Communities

  01-12-2015 18:24
  Almost as ubiquitous as hip-hop clubs are breakdancing clubs that focus on b-girling and b-boying. As Geoffrey Kwan, this year’s logistics advisor for Synchronic Dance Team (loosely associated with New York University in Manhattan), explains, in breakdancing, “the individual dancer tries to make an image of his body in space, often in response to a piece of music.” In contrast, hip-hop clubs perform group choreography that emphasizes teamwork with room for individual expression
  
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• December 2015 | Reaching Out With Jazz

  01-12-2015 18:09
  Patti Rutland was done. After 20 years, the Dothan, Alabama, resident had sold her dance studio and was set to retire. Then a dancer she had mentored and befriended, Vincent Johnson, posed a question: “Is there anything you wanted to do but didn’t?” Continue reading
  
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• December 2015 | Thinking Out Loud | Hip-Hop at Home on Broadway

  01-12-2015 18:08
  In 2015, 35-year-old composer, lyricist, and performer Lin-Manuel Miranda won a $625,000 MacArthur “genius” award for his work in musical theater, which makes liberal use of rap. His remarkable new musical, Hamilton, a sung-through piece set in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, courses with the infectious rhythms of hip-hop. Cast almost entirely with young black and Hispanic actors, it transpires on a double-decker set swirling with rebels who move seamlessly from high-class ba
  
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• December 2015 | Name That Dancer

  01-12-2015 17:48
  With so many performances and competitions to prepare for, technique to drill, and choreography to experiment with, teachers often don’t think they have time to teach dance history, a topic often associated with college programs. Some instructors may have only 30 or 45 minutes with a class. Others may not know how to make history relevant and exciting to students, or how to do it while keeping the class moving. And it may seem unfair to require students to read articles or conduct research
  
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• December 2015 | Make Mine Musical Theater

  01-12-2015 16:50
  Does your heart beat faster when taps start clacking a rapid staccato cadence on 42nd Street? Do you dream of waving a flag as leader of the student protests in the Paris Uprising of 1832? Do you hold your breath for the moment when Macavity the Mystery Cat makes (or doesn’t make) his appearance? If so, you’ve been bitten by the musical theater bug—just like students at Front & Center for Performing Arts. This school in Springfield, New Jersey, has catered to musical theate
  
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• Ballet Cymru review – Cerys Matthews joins dancers for mercurial performance

  01-12-2015 15:56
  
  Lilian Baylis Studio, London
  The singer makes a major contribution to a show inspired by her album of Welsh folk music, part of the bold dance company’s mixed programmeWhat a cheerleader Ballet Cymru have in Cerys Matthews. As the company’s patron, she’s not only gifted permission for their work TIR to be based on songs from her Welsh album, but she’s on stage with the dancers, performing the material live.Viewed purely as dance, TIR is a maverick experience. As Matthews
  
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• Carlos Acosta webchat – as it happened

  01-12-2015 15:13
  
  The ballet dancer joined us for a live webchat and discussed making movies, the secrets of his success and whether he would appear on Strictly Come Dancing 2.13pm GMTIt's been great to chat with you. I'm sure it's not going to be the last time. I'll be dancing next week in the Coliseum, and then touring in May 2016 around the UK - I hope to see you there. And don't forget to mention to everyone you know about my foundation, so I can raise all the funds I need for this dance centre in Cuba that w
  
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• Carlos Acosta webchat – follow it live

  01-12-2015 14:34
  
  As the ballet dancer makes his last performances for the Royal Ballet, he is joining us now for a live webchat1.32pm GMTGriselda Corona asks: You mentioned in your book that you were inspired to learn ballet when you saw Alberto Terrero Miller dancing. Do you know where he is now?I believe he is somewhere in Mexico, but we don't keep in touch. 1.31pm GMTGrace Tierney asks:Do you go back to Cuba very frequently? What has changed the most about it since your childhood?Cuba has changed dramatically
  
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• Dancer Vanessa Vince-Pang: 'the audience’s energy feeds us'

  01-12-2015 09:00
  
  On tour, Phoenix Dance Theatre’s performers can play several characters in a single night – you lose yourself in one role then dive into the nextPhoenix is a small company, which means we all know everything about each other, so personality is important. After auditions, Sharon Watson, the artistic director, might invite a dancer in for two or three weeks to see how they relate to the repertoire and also to the company. It’s very much a family – you might bicker, but thre
  
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