Sometimes the Best Way to Move Forward Is to Stop Dancing
12 February 2025

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 times consecutively before going onstage, and my brain concocted endless worst-case scenarios. As a child, I didn’t understand what anxiety was; I also didn’t understand that it can reach a level that exceeds a body’s capacity to manage it. I began dancing at the age of 3 and continued through my high school graduation. In 2014, I moved to […]

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10 February 2025

Meet Yamilée Toussaint, the MIT Grad Introducing Young Girls to STEM Through Dance

As an engineering student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Yamilée Toussaint was sometimes the only Black woman in her class. After she graduated, she decided to change that, and, in 2012, combined her dual passions for science and dancing to create STEM From Dance—an institution based in  Brooklyn, New York, with programs across the country. Toussaint was named a Top 5 CNN Hero in 2024. Dance Teacher spoke with her to learn about her journey of empowering girls in STEM through the power of dance.  Congratulations on your CNN Hero award. How did it feel getting recognized for your hard […]

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6 February 2025

How We Move Offers a New Kind of Intensive Designed for Disabled and Multiply Marginalized Artists

In recent years, the dance world has grown and changed “in really cool ways,” says India Harville, the founder and executive director of disability justice performing arts organization Embraced Body. “We’re seeing more BIPOC dancers, and fat dancers, and queer dancers, and Disabled dancers.” What’s still missing, according to Harville, is the acknowledgment that many artists, like herself, exist across several of these identities at once. “A lot of times, you’ll be in one space designed for disabled bodies that won’t have awareness around race,” she says. “Or you’ll be in a space that’s queer-friendly but doesn’t have a politic […]

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6 February 2025

When dance meets destiny

Dancer Vyshnavie Sainath Prabhu will present ‘Manas Strotah – myriad emotions’, a Bharatanatyam recital to create awareness of cancer and raise funds for the terminally-ill at Karunashraya

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5 February 2025

Why I Charge One Hourly Teaching Rate

We all know the saying “Time is money.” Throughout my career as an educator, my services have expanded from sharing knowledge at the front of the studio to include choreographer, coach, administrator, and more. In the past, I charged different rates for these activities based on factors that felt somewhat random. Though, as I have become more established and gained confidence in my overall value, I have taken a more radical approach by charging the same rate for most services I offer. Performing a range of work activities beyond studio teaching is not exclusive to me. In fact, for most, […]

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Real-Deal Advice on Convention Scholarships
5 February 2025

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 right for? The Scholarship Advantage One of the largest benefits to convention scholarships is perhap­s the most obvious: financial relief. Attending conventions­ can be expensive—for some dancers, prohibitively so. Scholarships typically allow awardees to attend many or all of a convention’s events for free. Beyond financial assistance, one of the biggest benefits to convention scholarships is mentorship—especially for those who win grand prizes and tour with organizations year-round as […]

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