How to Make It to YoungArts Week—and Get the Most Out of It
YoungArts isn’t just a prestigious stage for the next generation’s most talented young artists. The organization also provides awardees, ages 15 to 18, a week of master classes, mentoring, and...
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Olivia Cece’s Career Is Carrying On the Legacy of Her Beloved Late Dance Teacher
Growing up, Olivia Cece had big aspirations for her career, but Broadway wasn’t one of them. For one thing, she didn’t sing or act. In fact, she didn’t know anything about the world of musical...
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ROOTS Dance Summit’s Holistic Approach Is Revolutionizing the Competition...
As an educator and the founding director of Francisco Gella Dance Works, Francisco Gella has nearly 30 years of experience teaching at colleges, conservatories, studios, competitions, and conventions....
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CONTRA-TIEMPO’s Futuro Summer Dance Intensive Prepares Future Changemakers
As the daughter of two labor union organizers, being an advocate for social change is in Ana María Alvarez’s blood. “I have been very clear pretty much my whole life that dance isn’t just something I...
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Meet Ashley Wallen, Choreographer of Disney+’s “Descendants: The Rise of Red”
When Ashley Wallen got the call from Descendants: The Rise of Red director Jennifer Phang about being the film’s choreographer, he was ecstatic. “First of all, it was like, ‘Oh, my god, I’m doing...
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Shifting the Comp Kid Stigma
UPSHAW AS A YOUNG COMP KID. COURTESY UPSHAW. When Kamille Upshaw arrived at The Juilliard School in 2007, she’d been a competition dancer for a decade. “There was still a bit of a stigma about...
View ArticleWhen and Where to Watch the 2024 Olympic Breaking Competition
In just a few days, breaking will make its much-anticipated Olympic debut at the 2024 Paris Games. 16 b-boys and 16 b-girls will compete battle-style to sold-out stadium crowds, the culmination of...
View ArticleHighlights and Takeaways From Breaking’s Olympic Debut
Dance shone in the global spotlight like never before this past weekend as breaking made its long-anticipated debut on the Olympic stage. In a packed amphitheater-style arena at Paris’ Place de la...
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How Anxiety and Depression Can Affect Your Ability to Learn Choreography
Over the course of her career, Tia Ungar, a dancer, cheerleader, and cheer coach based in the United Kingdom, has dealt with chronic anxiety. When her anxiety peaks, it’s a challenge to learn and...
View ArticleChoreographer Mandy Moore Brings Her Creative Vision to Vegas
After choreographing the highest-grossing stadium tour of all time (you’ve never heard of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, have you?), the always-busy Mandy Moore remains as in-demand as ever. A few months...
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English National Ballet Dancer Vsevolod Maievskyi’s Journey to Loving Ballet
In 2018, Vsevolod Maievskyi achieved his dream of joining the Mariinsky Ballet. For four years, Maievskyi was onstage night after night, dancing everything from demanding corps parts to Prince...
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Boston Conservatory at Berklee Launches the Country’s First Circus Arts Minor
Serious circus training hasn’t historically had much of a place in higher education. Sure, some universities have student troupes and aerial classes, but these extracurriculars don’t qualify for...
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Get to Know Commercial Dancer Will West, a “Once-in-a-Generation-Talent”
Featured in two of the past year’s most viral music videos—Jungle’s “Back On 74” and Ariana Grande’s “yes, and?”—Will West transitions seamlessly, sometimes instantly, from style to style. He can...
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A Strike Threat, Scaffolding, and Last-Minute Changes: What It Was Like...
Ballet de Lorraine’s Tristan Ihne has been dancing professionally for nearly two decades. But on July 26, he gave a performance unlike any he’d done before: Along with about 200 other dancers, he...
View ArticleIntroducing M.A.D.D. Rhythm’s Rising Choreographer Andrew Carr
Quintessential to Chicago tap lore is Jumaane Taylor’s Supreme Love, a tour de force that pushes the best of the best to the limit. When Andrew Carr was in the original 2015 cast, he was only 11....
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Former Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader Victoria Kalina Is Ready for NYC
When viewers of the Netflix documentary America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders last saw Victoria Kalina, she had decided to hang up her blue-and-white uniform and move on from the famous...
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Dance Artists Pay Tribute to Michaela Mabinty DePrince, 1995–2024
When news broke earlier this month that ballerina Michaela Mabinty DePrince had passed away at age 29, the dance world reacted with shock, confusion, and profound sadness. She was so young; she had...
View ArticleIntroducing Miami City Ballet’s Rising Star Taylor Naturkas
Her career soaring at Miami City Ballet, Taylor Naturkas has ridden on the wings of fabled creatures for her latest successes. After Naturkas performed the titular role in the Balanchine/Robbins...
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Jakob Karr’s Journey: Pushing the Boundaries of Dance in Theater
At age 12, Jakob Karr stood mesmerized in his first jazz dance class as the teacher demonstrated the mechanics of a ball change and kick. He tentatively mimicked the footing before letting his long,...
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A Day in the Life of 4 College Dance Majors
Despite all the hours young dancers spend in the studio, for many coming out of high school, the idea of dance as an academic discipline—an intellectual as much as a physical pursuit—can be...
View ArticleFrom Gibney Company to “Sleep No More,” Contemporary Dancer Eleni Loving Is...
Eleni Loving unspools movement like a magic trick. Dancing Twyla Tharp’s percussive The Fugue (1970/2024) with Gibney Company, she captures the work’s airy groundedness with precise musicality and a...
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From Rhythmic Gymnastics to Ailey, Caroline T. Dartey Moves With Precision
The path to a professional dance career was anything but linear for Caroline T. Dartey. Born in Geneva, Switzerland, Dartey was originally an accomplished rhythmic gymnast, competing both nationally...
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Recognizing Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome—Plus Exercises for Prevention
When interventional spine doctor and Kuchipudi dancer Pranamya Suri was doing her medical residency, she had less time to dance than usual. When she did get the chance to practice, she noticed a...
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How “Discoshow” Gets Las Vegas Audiences Dancing
Las Vegas’ latest attraction has audiences on their feet—to bust a move. The immersive Discoshow, directed by Steven Hoggett and with choreography by Yasmine Lee, celebrates disco’s revolutionary...
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Announcing the 2024 World Choreography Award Winners
On Sunday, November 17, the World Choreography Awards hosted its 14th-annual event in Los Angeles to celebrate the innovative, original dance works of some of the world’s most talented choreographers...
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How Christopher Scott Choreographed “Wicked”
Christopher Scott. Photo by Sophy Holland, courtesy Universal Pictures. When Christopher Scott became the choreographer for Wicked, he wasn’t in a meeting or on a phone call. He was at the home of his...
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ShanDien Sonwai LaRance Carries On Native American Tradition, Culture, and...
At age 8, ShanDien Sonwai LaRance’s father made it a point for her and her two brothers to train together every day at a recreation center in Flagstaff, Arizona. Different-colored hoops sprinkled the...
View ArticleMeet Beyoncé’s “Black Parade” Choreographer, Jakevis Thomason
Just a few years after his graduation from the Glorya Kaufman School of Dance at the University of Southern California, Jakevis Thomason booked the dream gig for many a commercial dancemaker:...
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GUTS World Tour Backup Dancer Devan Aischa Smith Is Always Evolving
If Devan Aischa Smith could describe working on pop star Olivia Rodrigo’s GUTS World Tour in one word, it would be “evolutionary.” As dance captain, she transformed alongside the show, learning and...
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Kicking Eye-High With Radio City Rockette Karmen Moore
Karmen Moore had always dreamed of joining the Radio City Rockettes. But while completing her degree in dance performance at Southern Methodist University in 2023, she mainly focused on auditioning...
View ArticleI Tried “Make It Dance,” the New Dancer-Friendly Card Game From Cost n’ Mayor
Did your family Thanksgiving celebration include a trio of grandmas dancing to Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road”? A solo act of a vampire rocking out to Elton John’s “Can You Feel the Love Tonight”? If not,...
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A Dancer’s Guide to Seasonal Affective Disorder
When Crystal Nicholls was a dancer in The Lion King on London’s West End, she noticed herself feeling more irritable and unhappy during the fall and winter months. Simultaneously, she was dancing...
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The Pros and Cons of Competing Independently
Most dancers who participate in competitions and conventions attend with a dance studio. But each year, a small group of soloists opt to go for it as independents, without a studio affiliation. There...
View ArticleIntroducing Dance Magazine’s 2025 “25 to Watch”
Where is the dance field headed next? The dancers, choreographers, directors, and companies on Dance Magazine‘s annual “25 to Watch” list offer heartening, imaginative, exciting possible answers to...
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Louisiana State University’s Tiger Girls Are Ready for the “Dance Super Bowl”
If you’re a dancer who uses social media, you’ve almost certainly seen videos counting down to the 2025 “dance Super Bowl.” For those of you who aren’t familiar, these videos are referring to UDA...
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At UDA Nationals, the Wagner Sisters Go Head to Head for the Final Time
Fans of college dance teams are eagerly anticipating the rematch in Division 1A between the University of Minnesota and Ohio State University at this year’s UDA Nationals. Last year, U of M took first...
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Here are the Winners of the 2025 UDA National Championships
January 17–19, college dance teams from around the country gathered in Orlando, Florida, to attend the Universal Dance Association 2025 College National Championships. Teams competed in three...
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Why You Should Consider Festival-Affiliated Summer Programs
Choreographer David Dorfman, a professor at Connecticut College, says students who attend summer dance festival intensives return to campus with something in common: They’ve gone through an artistic...
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How to Make the Most of Summer Breaks as a Dance Major
Even after the whirlwind of Nutcracker season and finals dies down, summer break can feel very far away. Still, because applications for intensives, internships, and jobs open in winter, now is the...
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Alejandro Vargas on Cultivating a Diverse Career
As a lively 6-year-old, Alejandro Vargas had an abundant energy his parents hoped to channel into sports. After cycling through all the conventional options, nothing seemed to stick. Then, to connect...
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A Dancer’s Guide to Navigating Your First-Ever Intensive
Summer intensives offer endless opportunities—to fortify your training, to connect with teachers and other dancers, and to prepare for a professional career. But how do you know if you’re ready for...
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Real-Deal Advice on Convention Scholarships
Many competitive dancers are eager to land coveted convention scholarships. But why are these awards so sought-after? How can dancers increase their odds of winning them—and who might they not be...
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Sometimes the Best Way to Move Forward Is to Stop Dancing
I’ve been an anxious person and a perfectionist for as long as I can remember. I was devastated over an A-minus on a test, I would stretch until I cried, I would go over a dance I knew well a million...
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Viral TikTok Duo The Gardiner Brothers Push the Boundaries of Traditional...
When it comes to choreographing their viral Irish dance routines, the rules merely exist to be broken for The Gardiner Brothers. Professional dancers and content creators, Michael and Matthew...
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How Braylon Browner Balances the Spotlight and the Studio
Since finishing in the Top 8 of “So You Think You Can Dance” Season 18, Braylon Browner has continued to carve out a dynamic presence both on and off the stage. Currently a sophomore at University of...
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How to Learn From Rejection and Prepare for the Next Audition
The first time Jessica Tong auditioned for Hubbard Street’s second company, she made it to the end of the call but didn’t get the job. The next time she auditioned, six months later, she also didn’t...
View ArticleMaycee Steele on Dancing Backup for Tate McRae and Showing Up as Her Best Self
Maycee Steele is never far from the for-you page. From her creation of the mega-popular “Cuff It” dance challenge with Kaitlyn Hardy in 2022 to her presence as a backup dancer in Tate McRae’s...
View ArticleFor Ailey’s Jacquelin Harris, Dance Has Always Been Instinct
As a young child, I was enrolled in dance class by my mother, along with my three older sisters, no doubt in an effort to create some peace in her life. Little did she know that she was creating a...
View ArticleAdam Vesperman Moves From Billy Elliot to Touring the World
At age 11, Adam Vesperman was ushered into an impromptu audition for Billy Elliot: The Musical at a West Coast Dance Explosion Nationals. Despite an off-key rendition of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little...
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6 Trends Competition Judges Are Tired of Seeing in Routines
Competition dance trends become popular for a reason, but even the most exciting fads eventually run their course. Four competition judges discuss the dance trends they believe it’s time to leave...
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