When Hussein Smko was 9, the American military arrived in his hometown, Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s Kurdish region. It was 2003, and Smko, already a survivor of the Kurdish civil war, would chase the American Humvees with other kids. One day a soldier beckoned him over and demonstrated a simple, beguiling gesture: He held […]
Read MoreTag: Dancing
In Justin Peck’s ‘Illinoise,’ Dance On and Feel It
Justin Peck was around 17 when he first heard the Sufjan Stevens album “Illinois,” an epic paean to the state, nearly two dozen tracks brimming with orchestral indie rock, dense, lyrical wistfulness and sometimes obscure local history. This listening experience came long before Peck wanted to make dances, before he was even a professional dancer. […]
Read MoreAlexei Ratmansky Unleashes the Pain of the War in Ukraine at NYC Ballet
How does a body stand upright when the world is spinning around it? Or, worse, when that world is breaking down with such vehemence that the air seems to grow more toxic by the minute? In Alexei Ratmansky’s new ballet “Solitude,” dancers waver and buckle as inner and outer forces wreak havoc on their bodies. […]
Read MoreTwyla Tharp Showcases Two New Dances and a Revival at the Joyce
“OK, is everybody’s gum ready?” It’s not a question most choreographers ask their dancers before a run-through of a work, but Twyla Tharp has always gone her own way. Her career — Tharp is on the cusp of her 60th year as a dance maker — has displayed breathtaking range, from experimental masterpieces (“The Fugue” […]
Read MoreHaunted by War in Ukraine, a Choreographer Steps Into New York City Ballet
For the choreographer Alexei Ratmansky, the last two years have brought an uncomfortable intermingling of life and art. Known for ballets that combine wit with an almost surrealistic imagination, he has found his thoughts drawn insistently toward the war in Ukraine, the country where he spent his early years and began his dancing career, where […]
Read MoreFrom Ballet to Blackjack, a Dance Pioneer’s Amazing Odyssey
Among the blaring lights and all-hours amusements of downtown Las Vegas, in a sea of slot machines at the Four Queens Hotel and Casino, George Lee sits quietly at a blackjack table, dealing cards eight hours a day, five days a week, a job he’s been doing for more than 40 years. Lee, 88, was […]
Read MoreIs TikTok Over?
How much time do I spend on TikTok? I can tell you which chiropractor is demonstrating their technique without even seeing their face. I know which fashion content creator is partial to Rei Kawakubo, and who has a preposterous Carol Christian Poell collection. I know which New York City microinfluencers go on vacation together, and […]
Read MoreChita Rivera’s Ballet Roots Shaped Her Dancing
Chita Rivera grew up to be a Broadway queen, but you can’t leave out that she was a ballet kid. Her training began after a botched jump at her family home in Washington, D.C. Rivera — still Dolores Conchita Figueroa del Rivero at the time — landed on the coffee table. It shattered. Her energy […]
Read MoreNYC Queer Club Throws ‘Saltburn’ Party: Best Outfits
On Friday night at 3 Dollar Bill, a queer club in the East Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, partygoers danced and sang along to early 2000s hits by Fergie, Justin Timberlake and, of course, Sophie Ellis-Bextor whose “Murder on the Dancefloor” is currently having a renaissance. The theme of the night was the movie “Saltburn,” which, […]
Read MoreThe Choreographer Wore Pointe Shoes
During rehearsals for New York City Ballet’s winter season, there was something very unusual about one of the choreographers creating a new dance. It wasn’t just that the person in charge was a woman, though that would have been uncommon until a few years ago. Nor was it that the choreographer, Tiler Peck, was one […]
Read MoreHow Did These Strange Songs Hit No. 1?
When Melanie’s “Brand New Key” debuted in 1971, some people were confused. What did the singer, who died on Tuesday at 76, mean when she sang about having a brand-new pair of roller skates and someone else having a brand-new key? Melanie told one interviewer that she wrote the song in 15 minutes, after ending […]
Read MoreNew (and Old) Moves for a Choreographer to Hip Hop’s Stars
The choreographer Fatima Robinson made her name, at 21, with an epic Michael Jackson video. Two decades later, she orchestrated the moves for 1,000 performers at a Super Bowl halftime show. Then she rose to become Beyoncé’s director of choreography. But among the most meaningful work of her career has boiled down to a series […]
Read MoreAlina Cojocaru: A Freelance Ballerina, Forging Her Own Path
Ballerinas like Sylvie Guillem, Diana Vishneva and Natalia Osipova have also pursued independent paths but turned mainly to contemporary work. Was commissioning “La Strada” about finding a vehicle for yourself that was firmly balletic? I truly believe in classical ballet, and that was part of it. Dancers today are phenomenal, even better than when I […]
Read MoreA Frugal Opera Superfan’s Surprise Gift: $1.7 Million for the Arts
When Lois Kirschenbaum, a cultural aficionado who was a fixture in the standing room section of the Metropolitan Opera for more than half a century, died in 2021 at 88, star singers gave tributes and fellow fans offered remembrances. But that was not the end of Kirschenbaum’s relationship with the arts. Though even her closest […]
Read MoreThe N.Y.P.D. Dance Team Walks the Beat and Feels It Too
Officer Lauren Pagán looked at the line of dancers in the overheated cafeteria at a Queens high school on a recent Monday night and frowned. They were gyrating through moves choreographed to “Mamacita,” a pulsating, Reggaeton-inflected song by the Black Eyed Peas and Ozuna. She had told the dancers to count to eight as they […]
Read MoreBest Arts Photos of 2023
Deadheads, ballerinas and Mick Jagger: As 2023 winds down, revisit a memorable handful of the thousands of images commissioned by our photo editors that capture the year in culture. Winter “I was not so much interested in the way this mother mimicked the Nativity scene because the parallels were evident. I was looking to capture […]
Read MoreAt City Ballet, History Is Made With Two Black Dewdrops
The pressure was on. India Bradley, making her debut as Dewdrop in “George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker,” exited the stage after her first entrance and knew that something had to shift. The spotlight was brighter than she had imagined. She couldn’t see a thing. “I was like, get it together,” Bradley, 25, said in an interview […]
Read MoreSofia Boutella Talks ‘Rebel Moon’ and Madonna
Sofia Boutella knows what it’s like to lose a home. Born and raised in Algeria, Boutella was 10 when she and her family fled to Paris after Algeria descended into civil war. Now 41, she drew on that formative experience for Zack Snyder’s sci-fi epic “Rebel Moon — Part One: A Child of Fire” as […]
Read MoreDancers of All Sizes Hope Change Follows a Discrimination Ban
Not long ago, Akira Armstrong was invited to appear on a new reality dance competition. She was thrilled. The founder and chief executive officer of Pretty Big Movement, a New York City-based company for plus-size dancers, Armstrong had been a vocal proponent of body diversity in dance. Now, a major media platform was recognizing that […]
Read MoreReaders on the Best Movies, TV, Music and Theater of 2023
Best Pop Music One of the albums that had the biggest impact in 2023 actually came out at the tail end of 2022: SZA’s “SOS.” Between their albums and song lists, our three pop music critics agreed “SOS” was one of the year’s best, along with LPs from Olivia Rodrigo and 100 gecs. Beyond that, […]
Read MoreUsing Dance to Tell the Story of Mozambique’s Struggles
A soft voice broke into the dark auditorium, lit only by a projection of a globe bearing the outline of Africa on a screen. “Who said empires don’t exist anymore,” the voice said, as dancers dressed in European colonial-era robes slowly emerged on stage, carrying what looked like crosses or swords. They banged on maps […]
Read MoreAlvin Ailey Presents Premieres by Garner and Roxas-Dobrish
The dancers don’t so much step onto the stage in Amy Hall Garner’s “Century” as burst within it like a glitter bomb, showering the space in pink and gold. For “Century,” her first work for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, performed on Friday at New York City Center, it’s clear that Garner doesn’t merely know […]
Read MoreBest Dance Performances of 2023
When hundreds of dancers converged onstage for a collective bow in honor of the opening night of City Ballet’s 75th anniversary season, it might not have been choreographed with the care that, say, George Balanchine would have given it — the scene was a touch chaotic — but it was astonishing to see so many […]
Read MoreTales of the ‘Nutcracker’ Kids
Siblings, a Soldier from Ukraine and a New Prince: Children are the heart of this New York City Ballet classic. We hung out with four in this year’s production. School was over, but the day was not. There was the walk to her Queens apartment, the greeting and tossing into the air of Pati, the […]
Read MoreJoan Jara, Who Found Justice for Husband Slain After Coup, Dies at 96
Joan Jara, a British-born dancer and instructor who dedicated herself to finding justice for her husband, Victor Jara, a popular Chilean folk singer and songwriter who was killed during the military coup d’état that brought Gen. Augusto Pinochet Ugarte to dictatorial power in 1973, died on Nov. 12 in Santiago, Chile. She was 96. Her […]
Read MoreIt Seemed to Have It All: 9 Dancers, 5 Guitars, 5 Amps
The dance started — or seemed to start — with people walking onto the stage before finding a spot and lying down. The bright, blisteringly white lights made the view murky, yet through the haze random bodies were stretched out on backs and sides, utterly limp. Above them was a suspended zeppelin: Imagine a giant […]
Read MoreWith her Dad, Ben Vereen, by Her Side, Karon Davis Turns to Dance
“I come from show people,” the sculptor and installation artist Karon Davis said in an interview on Wednesday. “The minute I was born, I was handed tap shoes, ballet shoes.” She’s only half joking: her mother, Nancy Bruner, was a ballerina; her sister, Naja, who died at the age of 16, was an aspiring ballerina; […]
Read MoreHow the Rollettes Dance Team Created a Sisterhood for Women with Disabilities
“Transforming Spaces” is a series about women driving change in sometimes unexpected places. When Chelsie Hill dances in her wheelchair, her face tells you everything. She is absorbed in the moment beyond the stage, in the emotions she’s conveying, in her power to hold the audience. Her wheelchair is an intrinsic part of her silhouette, […]
Read MoreAt Paul Taylor, the Music Calls for a Dance. The Men Respond.
It’s not a race, but Lauren Lovette seems to be running, not walking, to create a body of work for the Paul Taylor Dance Company. Last year, after becoming Taylor’s resident choreographer, she presented two new works; this week, as part of the Taylor season at Lincoln Center, she added two more, including the world […]
Read MoreJessel Taank, Sarita Choudhury, and Prabal Gurung Kick Off N.Y.C. Diwali Season
Ms. Acharia emphasized how South Asians have made a “mark in so many different fields,” which was reflected in the range of firsts in attendance: Vanita Gupta, the first Indian American to serve as associate attorney general; Jessel Taank, the first Indian woman cast on “The Real Housewives of New York City”; and Nina Davuluri, […]
Read MoreAt Ballet Theater, a Thrilling Puck and a Moment to Take Stock
Mendelssohn’s music for “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is full of sweet thunder and other wonderful noises. A cartoon sound effect for jumping isn’t among them. Yet when American Ballet Theater performed Frederick Ashton’s ballet “The Dream” last Saturday, every time Jake Roxander’s Puck took to the air, I could swear I heard one: “boing!” Roxander […]
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