Features

Dancers in tutus with arms in the air, dancing.

So You Think You Know The Nutcracker?

December 19, 2018
Chances are good that you’ve seen The Nutcracker —in fact, it might be the only ballet you’ve ever seen. But even if you haven’t, you’ve certainly heard of it and can probably even hum a few bars from Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s famous score, which has been featured in movies, television shows, commercials...
Bebe Miller dancing

#ThrowbackThursday: Bebe Miller

December 13, 2018
"Rather than is there somebody else in the way who's stopping me, [I ask]: Am I stopping myself?" -- Bebe Miller Here's dancer and choreographer Bebe Miller, in her own words, on the body, her legacy, and the most important question she asks herself: https://go.usa.gov/xPuuC...
A dancer wearing virtual reality headgear performs with other dancers in a green room

A Legacy of Innovation

November 28, 2018
How does an artist who emerged in the 1920s remain a guiding light today? How does a vision for American dance, born in the era of vaudeville and silent movies,...
Men and women hold flag poles onstage

Moving Veterans Toward a Place of Healing

November 9, 2018
As the founder and artistic director of the Los Angeles-based DIAVOLO | Architecture in Motion , Jacques Heim is frequently on tour, making airport encounters with military personnel and veterans a common occurrence. “I don’t just say, ‘I thank you for your service,’” Heim said of these encounters...
a headshot of choreographer Michelle Manzanales

Dance as a First Language: An Art Talk with Ballet Hispánico’s Michelle Manzanales

October 16, 2018
For Ballet Hispánico ’s Michelle Manzanales, dance is more than an art form. As she explained during a telephone interview, "Dance is my language; I always think of it as my first language. It's the one that I feel most fluent in and most comfortable expressing things through." A dancer since she...
Woman teaching a dance class to young children

From the Archives: Finding Time for Art: The Challenges of Being a Teaching Artist

September 18, 2018
What if the cost of having a creatively fulfilling job that allowed you to have a measurable impact on your community meant a seven-day work week, no health insurance, and no guarantee that any of the several jobs you were juggling to keep financially afloat were going to exist year to year? That...
Portrait of woman.

Dance as a Connecting Force

August 22, 2018
In the summer of 2002, I found myself in a converted black box theater in Prague watching dancers collide, embrace, then drift apart. That’s the moment I sensed how powerful...
Two dancers suspended against a side of a building with video projections in the background

From a Great Height: Traversing a Public Canvas with Bandaloop

July 20, 2018
As people gathered below the building and looked up, a dancer sprang out from one of the windows. Tethered by mountaineering ropes, she completed a graceful and joyous arc before landing feet first on the side of the building, using it as a stage to catapult herself again into space. Spectators’...
NEA Arts No 2 2018 cover

NEW NEA Arts! Community Art: A Look at Public Art in America

June 27, 2018
When most people think about public art, they think of a mural on a wall or a building, or perhaps a large sculpture in a park. While murals and sculptures are certainly public art, they are far from the only ways that public art can be expressed. Perhaps a better term for public art would be...
Dancer Sean Dorsey caught mid-leap.

Throwback Thursday: Art Talk with Sean Dorsey of Fresh Meat Productions

June 21, 2018
"As a transgender and queer person, I didn’t see anyone like me in dance. Ever. So how could I see my future there?

" -- Sean Dorsey When we think about Americans who lack abundant opportunities to see their stories on stage, we usually think about people of color or women. But LGBTQ Americans...

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