There's something powerful that happens when students step onto a stage and the entire community shows up for them. Events like this bring families, staff, and students together in a way that builds pride, connection, and a real sense of belonging.
"Decorative, escapist, imaginary princesses and swans and flowers," said Janet Eilber, a former member of the company and its current artistic director. "And she wanted to dance about real human beings, real human challenges." Graham wanted to use dance to tell American stories, which at the time was a revolutionary idea, when so much of American cultural life was focused on Europe.
All but one of the song titles on Body Sound, the debut album from experimental string trio Whitney Johnson, Lia Kohl, and Macie Stewart, line up nicely-a few words, usually two, usually nouns, separated by a vertical line. The straight line in the middle means different things in different disciplines. In computing, it's called a 'pipe' and serves as a conduit. In poetry, it denotes a pause or break. In music, it marks the beginning and end of measures.
"It has been a bucket-list dream of mine to perform on a New York stage, and I couldn't think of a better way to do that than becoming a part of the 11 to Midnight family," Morris said in a statement.
All this to say that Alexander Whitley can harness the technology that so fascinates him, and equally importantly, that he fully understands, to enhance his primary vocation as a dance maker and produce bewitching work. Unfortunately, Mirror, and its companion piece The Rite of Spring, in the brand new double bill currently at Sadler's Wells East, proved major disappointments.
When I came to America I tried a lot of classes and 90% of them, even if a class was for beginner level, were really difficult. I was thinking, if I were a grown woman who just decided to start, I'm going to get trauma, it's so hard, it's so competitive, and I [said], I need to create something dedicated to women, without this pressure, without this judgmental vibe.
Set during the Roaring Twenties, the show takes place at the Manhattan apartment of Queenie (Jasmine Amy Rogers), a vaudeville bombshell, and her man of the moment, the comedian Burrs (Jordan Donica). Guests include a former prizefighter, a pair of piano-playing twins, an "ambisextrous" playboy, a stage diva past her prime, and someone's kid sister from Poughkeepsie.
Poetry and artificial intelligence can appear as oppositesone deeply human; the other cold and mechanical. Sasha Stiles sees them as expressions of the same impulse. Poetry, the Kalmyk- American poet argues, is one of our most ancient and enduring technologies, a system of meter and rhyme invented to store vital information. She views AI as its natural heir. Stiles's path to AI began with literature, not code.
President Trump overhauled the Kennedy Center's board last year, got himself elected chairman, and installed ally Ric Grenell as president. Then, in December, his handpicked board renamed the venue "The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts" - slapping his name ahead of JFK's on one of the country's most storied arts institutions.
With 'Dance Reflections,' the idea was to give back concretely to another discipline that still gives us a lot. It's the reason why 'Dance Reflections' is a sponsorship program, but also a curatorial program; that's quite rare for a brand to have.
When attending the ballet used to mean lining up at the box office or will-call window for a chance to score seats, you can now buy ballet tickets easily online, through the respective company websites or through third-party sites like Stubhub, Vivid Seats and SeatGeek.
I've been coming to the Art Series since 2022. The after-party is one of the most fun to go to, and tickets are a lower price than usual for ballets. A friend introduced me to it, and that's what I'm doing now-bringing a friend who's never seen the ballet before.
First performed in 1910 by Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes and adapted by George Balachine for New York City Ballet in 1949, Firebird was inspired by a Russian folk tale. The ballet tells the story of Prince Ivan, who captures the firebird, a creature who is part bird, part woman, and then lets her go.
This is an absolute beginners course on the foundations of classical ballet and, a single catastrophic line dance lesson aside, it is also the first dance class I have ever attended. I am in the minority. As we take the barre, it quickly becomes apparent that not being able to tell my left from my right will be a significant deficit over the next 16 weeks. This, however, is a tertiary concern.
On a cool winter night in Los Angeles, dozens gathered to protest the Trump administration's attacks on the arts and the recent federal immigration raids in southern California. But these protestors didn't carry signs or chant in front of a government building they recited poems such as Antifa Tea Party and Love in Times of Fascism. They performed anti-fascist improv to a small but lively crowd at The Glendale Room, a library-themed theater, as part of the monthly show Unquiet: A Night of Creative Resistance.
But instead, they find their way to a small studio, where they join 27 others in strapping on a pair of high heels and throwing themselves into two hours of dance moves. This is the beginners heels class at Vibe Dance Studio, which was started by Izzy Gonzales and her dad Ed four years ago. It's a place where people can show up exhausted, but end up with so much energy they don't want to go home.
It's typical for the Joffrey Ballet to seat a mixed-repertory concert near the beginning of the year. But the 2026 edition of such an evening (a series of loosely connected shorter works packaged together), breaks at least one habit. There's nothing new in "American Icons," running two weekends at the Lyric Opera House. Instead, the Joffrey has dug up a range of works showcasing mid-20th century innovation and the porous kinship between ballet and modern dance during that time.
Being called the best assumes lightning will strike twice, on schedule, and then strike again. I think that's life at the San Francisco Ballet. I heard about many bests recently at its 93rd opening gala. Everywhere I looked, people chattered in polite gossip, and a new room waited for me to find reasons to linger, from macarons and photo stations; or I was catching up with my favorite performer while waiting in line for cocktails.
Dominique McDougal and Carro Sharkey's three-part performance, 'Did4luv'-a tragicomic dance solo performed by each of the dancers, alternating every night-debuted this month at the dual 30th anniversary of Sophiensaele's inauguration as a theater and its renowned dance festival, Tanztage. This year's Tanztage invites its audience to consider the (im)material conditions of artistic production: the body and self as sources for capitalist exchange, the extractive nature of our systems of work and its resulting consequences for marginalized bodies.
Two years ago, the annual Under the Radar festival (which showcases international, experimental and multidisciplinary theater) was unexpectedly canceled by the Public Theater, its longtime presenter, due to financial issues. In response, the festival was quickly reconceived as a citywide effort involving several other theater companies, allowing it to move forward. The festival, now in its 21st edition, returns this month with productions at theaters across the city from Jan. 7 to 25.
Last summer, I did face painting at a block party in my Brooklyn neighborhood. In the sweltering August humidity, I rendered pink butterflies and Spiderman webs on tiny, sticky faces; unsurprisingly, my designs didn't last very long in the bouncy castle. Except for the glitter. For weeks, I found it in my hair, on my cats, in my sink, and in random corners of the house, migrating to and fro like dandelion fuzz.
