When you move to a new city, your job hunt might look a little different from the average person’s. Sure, there are some job boards out there. But they’re not the way most dance educators get hired. “When you’re a creative, one of the blessings and curses is that you have to do life creatively,” says Pat “Planet” Opran, a dancer and teacher in Boston.  For dance teachers, getting plugged into the local scene is often the only way to find out what opportunities exist, who has openings, and how to put your name in the hat. This can take […]

India sees festive fervour as garba revellers and others bring in the festive spirit of Navaratri.

Creative Movement classes exploring space with scarves. Teenaged students competing in groups to test their knowledge of ballet body positions and other terminology. Adults experimenting with pirouette tricks in independent class time. These are all ways that “play” can contribute to ballet pedagogy.  Play-based approaches can encourage experimentation, engagement, and self-discovery—and not just for the youngest dancers. Here are some reasons why you might consider incorporating play into your ballet classroom, as well as some ways to get started.   Why Use Play in Ballet?  Deborah Damast, clinical associate professor and director of dance education at New York University’s Steinhardt School […]

Radhikaraje Gaekwad of the erstwhile royal family of Vadodara, who is an advocate for women’s rights and the LGBTQ+ community, has turned Gujarat’s sacred dance into a celebration of inclusivity.   

DTH School Director Tai Jimenez. Photo by Nir Arieli, courtey DTH. Tai Jimenez, born and raised in Queens, New York, began her ballet training with Joan Millen Mesh. She went on to study at the School of American Ballet for four years before joining Dance Theatre of Harlem at age 17. Jimenez was a principal ballerina with DTH for 12 years before joining Boston Ballet as a principal and performing as a guest artist with New York City Ballet and on Broadway. She went on to teach at The Boston Conservatory and Harvard University before being invited to take the […]

The dancer-choreographer’s new work ‘Meenātchi’ will be staged on September 21 at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan in Chennai.

Katherine Horrigan, founder and CEO of Dance Academy of Virginia, started her studio-owner journey unexpectedly at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the studio she’d been directing for 10 years, Adagio Ballet School of Dance, decided to permanently close. She had one month before the fall dance season to decide if she was going to risk opening a new business in order to support the dancers who had lost a home studio. “I realized this was an opportunity to bring everybody back together,” says Horrigan. “I felt very compelled to create an opportunity for the community, and for myself, […]