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Students of JIgyasa Giri performed ‘Kaalam Uruttum Dhaayam’ on the concluding day of the ‘Mahal’ festival, held at Sri Krishna Gana Sabha, in Chennai.

Many, but not all, of the most sought-after open-class teachers in cities like New York transition to teaching from high-profile performance and choreography careers. Their built-in fanbase fills classrooms with students who aspire to similar stages. For teachers who have a different path, though, building a teaching career in a major city can be a challenge. For Kate Loh, a popular ballet teacher at Steps on Broadway, Ballet Arts, Broadway Dance Center, and other studios, finding her footing as an open-class teacher took years, as well as some key pivots. As a teen, Loh supplemented her pre-professional training at Steps […]

Sreelakshmy Govardhanan has conceptualised the documentary, Curtain Call, which sheds light on how her guru Pasumarthi Rattaiah Sarma is striving to preserve the legacy of Kuchipudi Yakshagana

Katie Drablos has spent 16 years as a professional dancer, choreographer, and artist in New York City. Her career is full of remarkable achievements, but beyond that, Drablos is a profoundly impactful teacher. Known for her warmth, generosity, and rare ability to make dancers feel seen, she creates safe, joyful spaces where they can flourish freely. Originally from Dallas, Texas, Drablos discovered her love of teaching at a young age. After graduating from Southern Methodist University, she auditioned for the Rockettes on a whim, booked the job, and moved to New York at 22. Since then, she has performed in […]

Meenakshi Chitharanjan performed ‘Guruguho Jayati’ as part of the centenary celebrations of Janaki C.S. Ramachandran along with her disciples to show how the composer’s work is relevant even after 250 years of his birth

An award-winning performer, choreographer, artistic director, and educator, amara tabor-smith taught at University of California, Berkeley, for more than a decade and, since 2017, has been an artist in residence at Stanford University, designing both courses and productions. “Everything is connected,” says tabor-smith about balancing priorities as a teacher and an artist. Expanding on the common model of dance in higher education that focuses on training dancers to be performers, tabor-smith asks how teaching dance can foster future leaders, politicians, and changemakers. For me, teaching is a collabo­ration­. I love when I get questions that I don’t know how to answer and […]

I started wearing a sports bra under my leotard when I was 12. At first, the extra support helped me feel more secure in my rapidly changing body. But I was the only one at my school wearing one, and the same was true at my first intensive the next summer. While no one ever explicitly told me as much, to me, one message became clear: In the pre-professional space, sports bras did not belong—and neither did dancers who wore them.  I decided to abandon the bras. But ever since then, I’ve continued to think about the fraught topic of breasts in […]