Most dance teachers launch their careers as adults. For many, it is the logical next step after a performance career or receiving a college education. Jamey Leverett, artistic director of The Timothy M. Draper Center for Dance Education in Rochester, New York, is a different breed: She became a dance educator well before graduating high school.  Courtesy of Jamey Leverett. As a young student in Rochester, Leverett quickly proved she had a keen eye for quality instruction. At only 14 years old, she advocated for herself by convincing her mother to let her leave the school her mother built to […]

To Aidan Carberry, choreographing is not just his livelihood, but a game to be played and a puzzle to be solved. Growing up in Los Angeles, Carberry trained at Debbie Allen School of Dance before continuing at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts. Breaking his leg junior year led him to explore movement in new ways, helping him develop his unique style. In 2015, he was accepted into the inaugural class of the University of Southern California’s Glorya Kaufman School of Dance. After graduating in 2019, Carberry co-founded JA Collective with his classmate Jordan Johnson. Together, they’ve […]

Ahead of International Yoga Day, Surupa Sen, the artistic director of Nrityagram, emphasises on the need to embrace both stillness and movement

One recent morning, I opened TikTok to find a video of a man doing a vaguely familiar dance step—something that resembled the whisk, a foundational element of ballroom’s International Latin samba. The video referenced “Blue Shirt Guy” as its inspiration. Soon, TikTok’s algorithm showed me the surprising source material: a 2021 video of the ballroom dance luminary Ruslan Aidaev wearing a blue shirt while teaching whisk technique to a group of young students, set to the song “Assumptions,” by Sam Gellaitry. The bouncy, sweeping movement with Afro-Brazilian roots was on the cusp of a whirlwind pop-culture crossover, soon to be embraced by […]

Summer is a great time to sketch out big ideas for the upcoming school year with unit plans, themes, and cross-curricular projects.  I taught full-time at a middle school in San Francisco for six years, and before that, spent seven years as a specialist at numerous Bay Area K–12 schools. I poured hours and hours into lesson planning, envisioning specific spaces and students, and became curious about what was working, what fell flat, and how to incorporate as many ideas as possible that came directly from the students.  I recently connected with four colleagues to discuss lesson planning: Michaela Minock […]

Young Bharatanatyam artiste Nithyashreee performed ‘Pradosha Arpana’ at VR Chennai

The young Bharatanatyam dancer performed at The Music Academy’s HCL Concert series

Agrippina Vaganova (1879–1951) transformed ballet training, melding French Romanticism and Italian strength and athleticism with Russian expressivity. The publication of her book, Basic Principles of Classical Ballet, systemized her technique that is now the foundation for ballet schools all over the world. Vaganova was born in St. Petersburg with ballet already in her blood: Her father was an usher at the Mariinsky Theatre. At the age of 10, she entered what was then called the Imperial Ballet School; she joined the corps de ballet in 1897. Never a favorite of ballet master Marius Petipa and frequently criticized for her unattractiveness […]

CJay Philip, artistic director of Baltimore’s Dance & Bmore, is full of energy and joy as she sings about James Brown on Pennsylvania Avenue. Her dance classes for ages 65 and over combine live musicians, storytelling, and movement to connect participants with memories of their first concerts. These songs and memories eventually grow into performance pieces that give the students “the opportunity to tell their stories through music and movement.” This is the core of Dance & Bmore’s mission: to create meaningful human connections through movement, music, and theater.  Philip came to Baltimore in 2010, after 18 years in New […]