Voice of Dance

"From American Idol" producers FremantleMedia North America, the show features stars competing for charity as they pay homage to some of the most famousmovie, musical and pop video dance routines of all time, the network said in a release."

"This film records three days of rehearsals by the Merce Cunningham Dance Company at the Craneway Pavilion in Richmond, Calif., an extraordinary space overlooking San Francisco Bay and the hills beyond."

"Dallas Cowboy great Michael Irvin and "Iron Chef" host Mark Dacascos were each sent home Tuesday night in the second double elimination on "Dancing With the Stars."

"I had a feeling that a certain group would be a quick casualty of the show, and I was right. That group of course is: the tappers. "

"Here is not a sick and drugged man forcing himself through grueling rehearsals, but a spirit embodied by music. Michael Jackson was something else."

"It took death to restore his standing as one-of-a-kind entertainer — to bring him back to life. Jackson is hot again."

"To say that the film, sumptuous in its length and graceful in its rhythm, is a feast for ballet lovers is to state the obvious and also to sell Mr. Wiseman’s achievement a bit short. Yes, this is one of the finest dance films ever made, but there’s more to it than that."

"In addition to everyone’s individual dances, this week also marked the epic group dance battle of the season: Team Tango versus Team Paso."

"Still, for a documentary of any kind to open at number one is quite remarkable."

"Death returned Michael Jackson’s humanity, and in a curious, tentative way so too does Michael Jackson’s This Is It."

"Paula, who has also been linked to Australian Idol since quitting the American version of the show, said she "might need a break from judging for a while".

"While I wish I had learned why the judges chose who they did, I didn't disagree with their results."

"The gold medal of this clip went to Bill Walton, for being able to say “that Mirrorball trophy is going to take everything” with both a straight face and conviction."

"Highlights from the evening were: Ryan Di Lello and Ellenore Scott, who danced a contemporary jazz piece about fallen angels by the incredibly imaginative Sonya Tayeh. "

“Women’s biological clocks have a parallel journey that starts to clash horribly with the their creative journey around age 35."

"Whether presented in stripped-down sequences or as part of developing spectacles that might have been truly magical — a thrilling The Way You Make Me Feel is a standout — the songs remind us that early this summer, the world lost a genuine, if genuinely troubled, star."

One of the greatest dancers and performers who ever lived!

"Airing on Tuesday at 8:30 p.m. ET, MTV's special will showcase inside stories you've never heard before about MJ and his planned concerts. "

..."we asked Michael Jackson's own dancers — the talented men and women working alongside the King of Pop as they rehearsed for his "This Is It" concert series — if they could give us tutorials about Jackson's iconic dance moves. Even if you can't nail 'em all, you'll have a pretty good time trying."

Watch the Pasadena Zombies and others do "Thriller"

“La Danse,” which opens at Film Forum in Manhattan on Nov. 4, is Mr. Wiseman’s second ballet documentary; he observed the American Ballet Theater in rehearsal and on tour for “Ballet” (1995). But he cautioned against thinking of the new movie as a sequel."

“I intend to give it everything I’ve got,” he said. “But I have to be realistic. I don’t know whether we will make it.”

"The company sets out to rouse spectators through a program of nonstop visual astonishment, and the biggest affront wouldn’t be boos but the reverential silence of a ballet recital."

"There are a number of videos from different parts of the globe documenting the so-called “Thrill the World” dancers."

"The pros (including ones already eliminated this season) will also unite to perform an all-out tribute to the late pop/dance icon, Michael Jackson. "

We've reached the halfway point in the competition, ballroom fans ... the "double dance extravaganza," in which contestants performed their first group dance of the season (the Hustle!) along with either the Argentine tango or the paso doble.

New York City Ballet, the Joyce Theater Foundation and the New School are among the 18 cultural organizations that have won the Rockefeller Foundation’s annual New York City Cultural Innovation Fund competition, the foundation said on Wednesday.

Stephen Hanna, the former New York City Ballet dancer who portrays the role of Billy’s older self in that musical, will rejoin the company of City Ballet as a guest artist for its coming 2009-2010 winter season.

Alastair Macaulay writes: "The audience was near fever pitch throughout Tuesday evening at City Center for the first night of the annual Fall for Dance programs."

" Audiences don't want to see the kind of self-indulgent, boring dance that is so prevalent today."

"The segment will pay tribute with a medley of three Jackson songs spanning his career."

"The prognosis for the Oakland Ballet Company looked grim in April when founding Artistic Director Ronn Guidi suddenly resigned (for the second time in a decade). "

"He has no clue what he is talking about," said Chmerkovskiy.

"Heads up!" came the shout, as a guy walking his dog strode unconcernedly through the space, as if dance like this happened every day on the bridge.

"There are a lot of dancers who don't think of themselves as artists, so they come prepared to take dictation. But what I want is to give the dancers straw and have them turn it into gold. I want to give them sentences and have them structure it into poetry."

"Under the discouraging circumstances, ABT used its ingenuity, and commissioned a program of site-specific dances by Alexei Ratmansky (formerly the director of the Bolshoi Ballet, now ABT's Artist in Residence and already a favorite with American dance fans), and Benjamin Millepied and Aszure Barton, whose careers are conspicuously on the rise."

"But before we look forward, I'd like to look back and share with you my five favorite pieces from Mia's five magical years on the show."

"The app is a one-stop-shop for fans who can now use their iPhone or iPod touch for deeper access to the hit show, complete with the latest elimination updates, video clips and other fun, interactive features."

"DWTS" is what it is - a dance competition show with very good production values. No change this season in that regard. Therefore, what’s happening is subtle."

"Aaron appeared as though he was about to toss his cookies by hour's end. Anna, however, looked like she was over it every time the camera panned her way (which was only slightly better than Lacey’s oddly-pursed fish lips), so maybe it was good that she and Chuck were put of their misery."

"You can take any concept and make it good or make it bad. You have to be very careful about how you tell the story with dance -- if it's too literal, it's too corny."

"With their lithe, gravity-defying bodies and their wordless presence, ballet dancers often seem so otherworldly and ethereal that it's a shock to see them looking and acting like the rest of us normal slobs."

"Bollywood is coming to the Palace. Tonight, for one performance only, the world of the Bollywood dance routine — the swirling saris, the gyrating girls, the handsome couples who never quite kiss — will be invading the staid surroundings of Buckingham Palace."

"PETA cited concerns about how great apes are separated from their mothers, beaten and shocked in training, and discarded once they become too large to handle safely. PETA also sent Green this short video, narrated by Anjelica Huston, which illustrates the many problems associated with using great apes on TV and in film."

"With his crowd-pleasing choreography, Chase Brock, at just 26, has set his sights firmly on Broadway. "

"The stars are still dancing on ABC this season, but the crowd cheering them on has thinned a bit."

"Tom DeLay, who performed his samba with stress fractures, announced that he was withdrawing from the competition on the account of his bum feet. Bummer. "

"Forsythe returns with Decreation, a work that challenges our notions of dance in the 21st century and asserts his place as one of the world's most innovative choreographers."

"Lincoln was the only white man I was allowed to love unconditionally growing up..."

"Dancing with stress fractures on both feet, former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay did a red, white and blue samba that earned him a score of just 15 Monday night on "Dancing With The Stars."

Watch the video and judge for yourself

"As the numbers of subscribers and ticket buyers decline, dance groups are looking for enticements, beyond actual performances, to get audiences to queue up at the box office."

"It is Jenkins' particular genius that even on the crowded stage, she leaves a kind of mental space for our minds, for viewers to fill in the interstices with our own memories, experiences, impressions."

"Now, Jenkins, the doyenne of Bay Area modern dance, has returned with another crosscultural project, this one with members of China’s Guangdong Modern Dance Company, fashioned here and in Asia over the past couple of years. "

"I wouldn’t say the remake and I are close, and it’s almost fatally modest. But it has a sweet spirit, and it offers only one true moment of inadvertent camp: a (lame) finale featuring an African dance routine completely at odds with all the white bread we’ve just been served."

Former political friends and foes weigh in on Tom Delay's performance on "Dancing With The Stars."

“One thing I wasn’t prepared for in learning to dance was getting in touch with my feminine side.” We weren't prepared for that either."

"Here’s something else I never would have guessed. That Kelly Osbourne tied for second!"

"Last night Tom DeLay made his comeback, and truly, it was a low moment in our nation’s long and stormy history, by which we mean it was totally and completely awesome in every imaginable way."

"First up: the men. And Macho Monday did not disappoint."

"ABC's decision to invite disgraced former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay to participate in "Dancing with the Stars" may have backfired."

3 hour live episode starts tonight!

"We're energizing our base. We're using all the technology that we can — Twitter, Facebook and websites tracking stuff, gathering emails."

"On to the show. "America's Best Dance Crew" moved into the final phase of the show's fourth season with five dances that should lead to one winner in next week's live finale on Sunday."

“It's very athletic,” she said. “Everybody was into aerobics then. So there's a lot of shuffling and jogging; it's an endurance challenge.”

"From the opening fanfare to the closing processional “Défilé,’’ Boston Ballet’s “Night of Stars’’ was a rousing celebration of the company’s official move to its new home, the Boston Opera House."

Veteran choreographer Margaret Jenkins and her dancers join forces with China's Guangdong Modern Dance Company for "Other Suns," an intersection of cultures and ideas, which premieres Thursday at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

"How great was it to have the choreographer (Mia Michaels) back on the panel last night in Phoenix?"

"Turning 50 this year, the National Ballet of China is showing its range with a slew of imported and original performances such as "Swan Lake" and "Raise the Red Lantern," but what audiences crave are the ballets born during the company's heady first decade, when in the name of revolution, ballerinas with rifles pirouetted across dirt stages."

"He was known for his acting, but it's Patrick Swayze's talent for dancing that's being recognized by a TV show he played a small part in."

"What a thrill that was to actually dance with him! He is a marquee of my childhood memories and I send positive love and energy to his angel."

"Taking class with out a dress-code and getting paid weekly are two things I am really liking about the company life."

"It's both powerfully romantic and deeply sexy, and Swayze clinches it not because of his acting but because he learned dance partnering."

"Fox has announced film director and choreographer Adam Shankman will be added as a new judge on "So You Think You Can Dance" starting Oct. 27."

"The dancers in front of the videos gave the show a mufti-dimensional effect that was smashing."

"I'm interested in the ways we do — and do not — communicate with other cultures, and in what we think we have the right to assume about what people feel," Jenkins says. "I want to create situations in which I'm vulnerable to new ways of thinking and learning."

"Patrick Swayze, the actor and classically trained dancer whose role in the enduringly popular "Dirty Dancing" made him a movie star, one who struggled with the alienation of fame and against being typecast as a leading man, died Monday."

"Hell, anyway, is more or less the subject of “Press,” the hourlong solo that Mr. Rigal is presenting at the Baryshnikov Arts Center this week."

"It's too early to judge, of course, but this season seems to be off to a very promising start."

Why "So You Think You Can Dance" is the top of the heap of dance shows.

"It turns out the tribute will involve 20 backup dancers and Janet Jackson doing a dance tribute to Michael, and will apparently be some kind of monster medley of his hits."

"So the self-professed dance lover pulled out the stops for her season premiere, inviting the Top 10 finalists from last season's So You Think You Can Dance? to perform in a fully choreographed production number with her on the show."

“It’s about artistry,” Ms. Bar said. “You want to carve out your own space, but you’re always building on the people that came before you.”

“It’s about artistry,” Ms. Bar said. “You want to carve out your own space, but you’re always building on the people that came before you.”

"Dancing at 61 a contemporary program titled “Three Solos and a Duet,” Mikhail Baryshnikov doesn't make it easy on himself -- or his audience."

"A difficult choreographer with a popular following, a minimalist with a tendency to dramatise, a reticent person with a lot to say … Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker is a fascinating contradiction."

"A 43-year-old wardrobe designer from Las Vegas was crowned the winner of Oxygen's competition series, "Dance Your Ass Off.""

"Off Kilter will showcase the country's (Scotland's) eclectic dance traditions, and will include new work by choreographers Mark Morris and Ashley Page."

“Arlene has managed to get City Center back to a place dance audiences want to go,” said Alistair Spalding, the artistic director and chief executive of Sadler’s Wells."

"Flash mobs are a group of 10 to 300 people who gather in a crowded, public place and suddenly start dancing, usually a coordinated routine, to music. "

"We came here to dance and enjoy ourselves, without thinking we would win or achieve anything big," said Hiroshi Yamao, 36, after Saturday night's final"

"...more than 12,000 people came together in downtown Mexico City to shake it to Michael Jackson's "Thriller" on the day that he would have celebrated his 51st birthday."

"If you’re interested in the dance theater of Mark Morris, then the fragmentary dramas of his two new pieces, “Visitation” and “Empire Garden,” are strange and fascinating; they show him moving in unfamiliar directions."

"The piece was inspired by some poetry that I was reading by a couple different poets, but they were all about people’s memories and the types of flashbacks you get with memory that don’t have anything to do with the moment you’re living in"

"Rehearsals are now underway for all 16 couples, who will hit the ballroom on Sept. 21 for Dancing’s season 9 premiere on ABC."

“For the first time ever, fans will see Michael as they have never seen him before — this great artist at work. "

“Headed to the studio for my first rehearsal and to meet my partner. Hope it’s not Nancy Pelosi :),”

"Not only would these amateur dancers -- some of them in their 80s -- perform for tens of thousands of rowdy NBA fans, but the NETSationals were to be a hip-hop dance team."

"Led by Mexican Jackson impersonator "Héctor Jackson" (pictured) and choreographer Adolfo Chávez, the group was preparing for an Aug. 29 event in which an estimated 11,000 people in Mexico City will attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the biggest mass "Thriller" dance."

"...Then Cunningham did something really radical, he added performances… dozens of smaller ones at the Mondavi Center, McClatchy high, in art galleries and mostly in the Ballet’s home studios. The revamped season was a gamble. For the dancers, it was grueling."

"We wanted someone sort of iconic and who the audience would have strong feelings about." That would appear not to be a problem, given DeLay's outspokenness on abortion, religion and the environment over the years.

"Shows like ABC's "Dancing with the Stars," Fox's "So You Think You Can Dance," MTV's "America's Best Dance Crew" and Oxygen's "Dance Your Ass Off" are drawing millions of viewers and helping expose audiences to the art of dance."

"Watching Balanchine’s Stravinsky Violin Concerto, I couldn’t help wondering how Chinese audiences, many members of which may be exposed to the choreographer’s angular, hip-jutting vocabulary will respond to the work. "

"exciting for the crews to realize that Beyoncé knows who they are."

After leaving Idol, Paula Abdul is looking at her options coming in.

"As my companion remarked, the first half felt like a Martha Wainwright concert with some dances tacked on. The second half, however, became more substantial in terms of both dance and Ms. Wainwright’s music."

"It’s not yet a culture war, but the sniping at Rocco Landesman, the newly confirmed chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, has begun."

"My chief objection to these visions of ballroom is not moral. (These people choose to do it.) What makes me wretched is that all these stunts, acrobatics, point-scoring and flashy displays of sexual availability are what matter. Musicality, phrasing, intimacy and actual sensuousness are what don’t."

"He's Cuba's second most famous son, but when principal dancer Carlos Acosta brought the Royal Ballet home, there was a shock in store for Havana's classical dance lovers."

"Since 1964, New York City Ballet has called Lincoln Center home. In honor of the campus’s 50th anniversary, the ballet company will present a yearlong retrospective of its repertory."

"The contestants for Season Nine of Dancing With the Stars will be revealed on Good Morning America on August 17, but as usual, casting rumors are fast and furious, with virtually every person who has ever been famous and is currently a bit underemployed being mentioned."

"State government doesn’t normally shut down for ballet, but you wouldn’t have believed it judging by the dignitaries who spilled into the Joyce Theater on Monday night."

"So You Think You Can Dance winner Jeanine Mason knows she can dance — so what's she going to do about it? With her talent confirmed by her win last week, the 18-year-old Miami native has two big plans ahead: touring for the show, and starting college at UCLA."

"Speaking with reporters at the annual Television Critics Association press tour, ABC President Stephen McPherson said that Abdul, who shocked fans last week by announcing that she would not be returning to 'Idol,' would be a welcome addition to the cast of 'Dancing With the Stars,' in one form or another."

"On Thursday and Friday nights the Vail International Dance Festival looked both forward and back. An UpClose evening on Thursday, at the Vilar Performing Arts Center in Beaver Creek, was called 'Wendy Whelan: Dancer and Muse.'"

"A great start to the new season! We are Heroes and Rhythm City seem to be the top two crews after this introductory episode. Unlike almost all previous seasons, where there were always a couple of crews that rose high above the others, anyone can get in this to win."

"a characteristic Cunningham arrangement — was poignant, frustrating and thrilling. " The week following his death, his company performs in New York.

" In June, at a point when Cunningham was still working, the foundation unveiled a "Living Legacy Plan," which broke the difficult news that the dance company and the school would shut down (after one international farewell tour) following Cunningham's death."

"The weekend engagement, scheduled as a regular part of the Evening Stars series in the River to River Festival in New York, will now function as a tribute to Cunningham, who died peacefully at his home on Sunday, at age 90. Shortly before his passing, the choreographer gave instructions for how to assemble the three 'Events' that the company will perform."

"So next week we'll see the top four: Brandon, Evan, Jeanine Mason and Kayla will battle it out for America's favorite dancer. For some reason I think Jeanine will win, but perhaps Wednesday night's performances will change that."

"Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal eschews its native language this week with an all-Italian program at Jacob's Pillow that is as sunny and sensual as a Tuscan summer."

"Since the company has grown in stature and size into a world-class arts organization, so have the artistic responsibilities. For example, right now we have renowned choreographer John Neumeier here, staging his beautiful, dramatic version of the Hans Christian Andersen story, 'The Little Mermaid.'"

"One of the final works by the choreographer Merce Cunningham, who died on Sunday, was a site-specific piece created for Rockefeller Park, where it will be performed on Saturday and Sunday as part of the River to River Festival."

"The effect of Merce's profound creativity will remain as a beacon throughout all of the arts. He was a warm and kind collaborator with a special appreciation for music and musicians. He was constantly working on new ideas and gave so many people the courage to explore."

"After performing in more than 30 countries, ballroom dance company 'Burn The Floor' debuts on Broadway on Sunday."

"Miami City Ballet will make its Vail, Colorado debut Saturday at the Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater with a program of masterpieces by George Balanchine."

"While some are amusing, some attempt to take themselves too seriously. Still others fail to provide enough dancing, and some have taken on a life of their own through the passage of time and nostalgia."

"It was an innovative move in a career marked by innovation. But with Cunningham’s death Sunday, his foundation finds itself in the difficult position of having to fund the $8-million plan as it simultaneously goes into effect."

"Leading the country's third-largest ballet company requires serious backup. Now instead of one right-hand man, San Francisco Ballet Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson has two."

"Singer said the idea to send supplies, announced last year, came from board members of the academy who wanted to help the struggling school, which was bombed several years ago."

"In bowing to a mentor, Ananiashvili was honoring the foundation of ballet, the handing down of technique and experience over the generations...While watching, I began to wonder how often ordinary women are rewarded in such palpable ways as this extravagant exchange."

"No question about it, dance audiences in Manhattan are spoiled. The city offers a cornucopia of free events for dance-o-philes each summer, and some of these freebies include premieres by major artists."

"Merce Cunningham, the American choreographer who was among a handful of 20th-century figures to make dance a major art and a major form of theater, died Sunday night at his home in Manhattan. He was 90.

"Cunningham once typed in his notes that dancing 'is not for unsteady souls.' His soul was supremely steady, but primed to embrace risk and make new discoveries. He woke up our eyes to see dancing for itself—as complex, fleeting, and often irrational as life. I will write at more length when I’ve accustomed myself to his absence."

"Though I’ve had moments recently where I’ve decided to take class on a whim or choreographed a solo for myself, I have never treated dance as something in which I can plainly dabble. For when you immerse yourself so completely in something from the age of eleven it’s nearly impossible to take a step backwards and look at it differently."

"Okay, so Katie Holmes' big 'So You Think You Can Dance' Judy Garland tribute was a big fat mess. Yes, she was lip-synching. And yes, her dancing was just a couple steps up from sitting. You could practically hear the Internet snickering around 8:47 p.m. last night."

"America’s oldest dance festival remains proudly international in outlook. This weekend Merce Cunningham Dance Company honors its founder’s 90th birthday with three unusual works."

"Choreographer Angel Corella has announced the U.S. debut of Corella Ballet Castilla y León, March 17 - 20 at New York City Center."

"Lythgoe said he is excited about the special 100th episode, which, in addition to the best routines from all the previous seasons, will feature a pre-recorded performance by Katie Holmes doing an 'homage to Judy Garland in that iconic outfit from 'Summer Stock' where she did 'Get Happy.'"

"The layoffs have produced a complicated set of responses among these dancers, who, since childhood, have endured grueling hours of cloistered study to achieve a remarkable level of artistry."

"In a news release, producers for the show, which was adapted from the 2000 Stephen Daldry film, said that the tour would begin at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts in Chicago in March. Casting for the touring company was not announced."

"Family will be the focus for the Vail International Dance Festival's opening night as tap dancer extraordinaire Savion Glover makes his triumphant return to Vail July 27-28 for two action-packed performances."

"Wim Wenders has decided to forge ahead with Pina, his 3D dance film about legendary choreographer Pina Bausch, who died last month...At the time, Wenders put the project on hold, subject to consultation with Bausch's company, Tanztheater Wuppertal. Today, both sides confirmed that they would carry on the collaboration, citing letters from the public urging them to do so."

"Broadway-bound dance-a-thon 'Burn the Floor' has added Carrie Ann Inaba, a judge on ABC's 'Dancing With the Stars,' to its producing team. The show, which features Latin and ballroom moves, begins previews Saturday at the Longacre Theater and is set to open Aug. 2."

"Dandelion Dancetheater’s 'MUTT' is mad and maddening, a wild whirl of song, text, visual design and movement whose anarchic energies sometimes seem shot straight out of Dada."

"Five members of Britain's Royal Ballet came down with the H1N1 swine flu virus during their just-ended visit to Cuba, but all have recovered, a spokeswoman for the dance company said on Monday."

"Jessica Miller Tomlinson is kind of choreographer du jour after winning last month's feisty competition, 'The A.W.A.R.D Show,' at the Dance Center of Columbia College. Her new work, 'Architecture: Splintered and Cracked,' unveiled over the weekend as part of Thodos Dance Chicago's "New Dances 2009," suggests that success is no fluke."

"In June, Weeks won a silver medal at the prestigious Helsinki International Ballet Competition in Finland. The competition is considered the Olympics of ballet, and past-winners include Mikhail Baryshnikov."

"To me, there was only one reason to tune in other than the results, and that was the opening dance, a striking performance heavily influenced by Asian culture choreographed by Wade and Amanda Robson."

"Summerdanz (Friday and Saturday) This festival of contemporary dance at Dance Theater Workshop ends with ColleenThomasDance and a program featuring collaborative work by Ms. Thomas and the composer Chris Lancaster."

"The choreographer Jean-Claude Gallotta, no fool apparently, gives the film center stage for several minutes during “Des Gens Qui Dansent,” which had its United States premiere on Wednesday night at Jacob’s Pillow, performed by his troupe, Groupe Émile Dubois, in its first appearance in this country in 20 years."

"Artscape is raising the barre this year, by scheduling more dance performances than ever before in the 28-year history of Baltimore's free summer celebration of the arts."

"'Most of the world believes we are terrorists,' says Ayman Meghames. 'The media is closed to us, so we get our message out through Hip-Hop.'"

"There's nothing like the bustle of Saratoga Springs in the summer, and if there was any fear the recession would put a damper on the atmosphere of indulgence the season normally brings, some preliminary reports show there may not be much reason to worry."

"Emanuel Gat Dance returned to the Lincoln Center Festival with 'Winter Variations' and 'Silent Ballet.' Once again Mr. Gat offered a middling vision of choreography: not too cold and not too hot, his work falls somewhere in the land of tepid."

"Oddly, one of the weekend's best dance performances came from an actress who barely moved. In 'Cover Me With Humanness,' Gwen Grastorf portrays Degas' iconic statue the 'Little Dancer.' The play is about, among other things, what compels people to watch dance."

"LeWitt occasionally froze the action, and when an immense image of Childs appears for the 20-minute solo that separates Dance's first and last parts, it looks like a still shot. Until she blinks. Glamorous, with beauty so severe that she makes Garbo at her stoniest look approachable, the Childs of 30 years ago made it clear that she was not out to seduce an audience, but to present intriguing equations."

"A longtime union lawyer was arrested and charged on Tuesday with embezzling approximately $150,000 from a union representing dancers and stage managers at American Ballet Theater, federal prosecutors said. "

"London's Royal Ballet will devote on Wednesday its second performance in this capital to Prima Ballerina Assoluta Alicia Alonso, and first Cuban National Ballet (BNC) figures will join this homage."

"John Goding, 50, a founding member, ballet master and former principal dancer for the Washington Ballet, whose career with the company spanned more than 30 years, died July 10 at his vacation home in Cape Coral, Fla., after suffering a pulmonary embolism."

"The usual flips and somersaults were ever present as Pilobolus Dance Theater performed to a sold-out crowd at the Joyce Theater on Monday night, but the main attraction was a bit of shadow play."

"Queen Margrethe unveiled the colorful costumes Wednesday for 'The Swineherd,' a ballet based on a story by Danish fairytale writer Hans Christian Andersen."

"'It's an antiquated ordinance that doesn't help anybody,' said Matt McIver, artistic director of the social club, adding that he was elated with the council's decision. The ordinance, which dates to at least 1942, bans public dancing between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. Monday through Saturday."

"Though the phenomenon feels new, it is of course part of one of the oldest trends in human history. People have been congregating to dance since civilization began. The digital means of dissemination are recent, but the act itself is as ancient as eating and sleeping."

"Alexander Vedernikov, who has fought for eight years to revive the fortunes of the renowned opera and ballet house, told the Financial Times on Tuesday he was quitting because of clashes over the theatre’s direction."

"'Dog•id,' which will open at the Joyce Theater this week as part of Pilobolus’s month-long run there, is its most elaborate and longest shadow work yet. And it bears the hallmarks of one of its most unusual collaborators: Steven Banks, the head writer of 'SpongeBob SquarePants.'"

"The sudden death of the German choreographer Pina Bausch last month left a wrenching hole in the lives of the dancers who dedicated themselves to her work in Wuppertal, a small city east of Düsseldorf. And it raised an essential question for all dance companies that exist to serve a lone creative voice: What happens when that voice is silenced?"

"If good design equals the sum of its parts, it’s no question that 30 years later 'Dance' endures."

"After years of teetering on the brink of financial disaster, Ballet Florida filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation in West Palm Beach on Friday."

"The Royal Ballet of London is making its first ever appearance in Cuba for a tribute to Cuba's National Ballet and its founder, renowned ballerina Alicia Alonso."

"The 2009 'So You Think You Can Dance' nationwide tour kicks off Sept. 20 in Manchester, N.H. Tickets go on sale July 25.

"It boasts a good, fresh lineup that showcases quality artists who represent the richness that is Bay Area dance. Including world premieres by experienced artists is always a good programming decision, and these are judiciously chosen."

"Expectation and fulfillment can make uneasy bedfellows: 'Orbo Novo' is not, unfortunately, a dazzler. Hints that it wouldn’t be, at least for the cynically inclined, could be found in the overly stuffed program notes..."

"Aficionados of dance music are used to waiting until the wee hours to catch top-of-the-line talent. But especially in summer an array of early parties, some outdoors, offer a respite from late nights and expensive clubs, allowing people with day jobs the opportunity to hear the latest in experimental beats and still be at the office on time in the morning."

"The summer calendar has been marked for dancing since 1933 when American dance pioneer Ted Shawn and his company of Men Dancers gave their first performances at Jacob's Pillow, his 163-acre farm in Becket, Mass."

"New York City Ballet is back at its summer home, the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. And though the company’s stay will be shortened to a mere two weeks, its 44th season here is not short on terrific dance and music."

"There's a certain unfettered joy, a cinematic moment when your dancing under the stars at Lincoln Center. The music is often timeless and the groups that attend come from various backgrounds and age groups. Its always a sizable, fervent crowd but never over-crowded."

"The Louisville Orchestra and Louisville Ballet are each getting $50,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts in job-stimulus funds, part of a total of $300,000 awarded to seven Kentucky groups."

"The National Endowment for the Arts announced 631 local arts groups have received direct grants totaling $29,775,000 as part of the American Economic Recovery & Reinvestment Act."

"Modern-dance pieces are now widespread in ballet repertories, and Mr. Reinhart said he wanted to pay homage to Mr. Taylor, Ms. Tharp, Ms. Dean and Mr. Morris for their efforts to unite the two arenas."

"The world champion Philippine Allstars will defend their title as nearly 2,000 dancers from around the globe compete for world street dance supremacy in this exhilarating show of talent and athleticism."

"MTV's reality dance competition 'Randy Jackson Presents America's Best Dance Crew' is moving from Thursday to Sunday nights. The series' fourth season will premiere Aug. 9 at 9 p.m. with a special 90-minute episode."

"Emily Molnar, a principal dancer with Vancouver-based Ballet British Columbia has been appointed as the interim artistic director of the company as it reorganizes following the departure of John Alleyne."

"It looks like it's very fitting to see him front a tribute to one who's contributed a lot to dancing, and who's made so many dancers out of these people."

"He told 'Esquire' magazine: 'I'm learning the basics of ballet. The thing is, in a few years I'll be 21, 22, and that's when all the guys who've been at drama school will come out. They've been learning dance or singing and all that stuff and I'm going to need to compete with them because I won't have ‘Harry Potter’ as my safety net any more.'"

"It’s in the full-length ballets that Diana Vishneva offers gifts no other ballerina today can claim. In Giselle, Swan Lake and Romeo and Juliet, this star of the Kirov and of American Ballet Theatre brings her heroine’s imagined past and looming future to bear on the steps.

"On the Town and West Side Story made him the king of Broadway, but Jerome Robbins was a man beset with anxieties, writes Sanjoy Roy."

"I'm not saying you can't tweet a review. You can, and plenty of people do. I'm saying that tweeting a review in its entirety misses out on one of Twitter's major strengths: turning people on to something cool."

"Director Wim Wenders has stopped production on the planned 3D dance film 'Pina' following the death of the film's subject -- the legendary choreographer Pina Bausch."

"At 32, Cherkaoui is a rising star of European dance, and the fact that he agreed to collaborate with Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet on his first piece for an American company, spending months on the process, is a major artistic coup for the bold young troupe."

"Ballet superstar Carlos Acosta is to headline Spring Dance 2010 at the London Coliseum, performing with the whole company of Ballet Nacional de Cuba for the first time in the UK."

"Jackson spoke to MTV News back in 1999 about why he felt music videos are more than just commercials for the artist — they were an important part of the creative process for him."

"Ultimately, Bausch’s gift wasn’t for destruction but creation. She was a tough-as-nails realist ready to see the dark side of things. But whatever falls apart in her work sooner or later gets put back together again. She made catharsis a profound picking up of the pieces. And she was also good for a laugh and for coming up with a tune that stuck with you. How are we going to get along without her?"

"igel Lythgoe announced today that he is teaming up with director Adam Shankman, 'Dancing with the Stars' judge Carrie Ann Inaba and actress Katie Holmes to launch the Dizzy Feet Foundation, a foundation for the dance community that will provide scholarships and assistance to talented underserved youth."

"Pina Bausch, the German dancer and choreographer who died aged 68 on Tuesday, five days after being diagnosed with cancer, was the most influential figure in European contemporary dance for the past 30 years, creating a much-imitated fusion of radical theatre, surreal art, sexual drama and danced body language, known as Tanztheater."

"Forget Man in the Mirror; the man was a mirror. And his precocity, his magpie mimicry, was daring. 'The Origins of the Moonwalk,' the illuminating YouTube compilation you mention, leaves out his most immediate models: the Godfather of Soul and the lesser-known Jackie Wilson and all of the Motown groups Young Michael grew up among."

"Even with the $1,000-plus price tag, Tulanian says the meeting is easily worth it. 'I am a dance aficionado, so I wanted to give a little something back to the community for the many hours of joy that I have received from seeing these incredibly talented artists.'"

"You can count on one hand the number of modern-dance-makers who have changed the landscape – and Pina Bausch was one of them. Even though she never created a style that could be taught in the classroom, as Martha Graham or Merce Cunningham did, her influence went far and deep."

"The festival, which will run from Sept. 22 through Oct. 3, will open with a Boston Ballet performance of Nijinsky’s 'Afternoon of a Faun,' originally created for the Ballets Russes at its Paris premiere."

"Keith V. Goodman, a beloved figure in the Portland dance community, has died of an apparent heart attack. According to his longtime partner, Bill Flood, Goodman lowered himself gracefully to the ground as he concluded a performance outside the Beaverton library around noon Saturday."

"I can’t think how many hours I spent hunched over the video monitors at the library for the performing arts, watching grainy footage of her early, iconic pieces. And then being blown away when I finally saw one of her epic dance-theater works live."

"I had the pleasure of traveling to Jacob’s Pillow last weekend to photograph Avi Scher and Dancers performing in a series called 'Inside/Out.'"

"While the world mourns Michael Jackson – and, yes, the late king of pop played this medieval city in 1988 – there is scant evidence of moonwalking at this year’s annual Montpellier Dance Festival."

"A documentary made about Acosta a few years ago was called 'The Reluctant Ballet Dancer,' and there's no doubt, from the book, that he was."

"The increase exceeds President Obama's budget request by $8.7 million and would be the highest proposed appropriation for the NEA since its peak in 1992."

"On Saturday hundreds of locals and foreign tourists crammed into a viewing area of the prison yard on the island to watch the 1,500 inmates re-enact their performance of the famous 'Thriller' zombie dance."

"Although the beauty and mystique that surround the art often make it easy to forget, that's just what ballet dancing is: a job. A tough and often thankless one. Even if you make it to the top, you'll still be faced with short-term contracts and early redundancy."

"Pop star Michael Jackson was pronounced dead today after paramedics found him in a coma at his Bel-Air mansion, city and law enforcement sources told The Times."

"Last night's episode proved to me that result shows can actually be entertaining, and, in the case of this program, poignant. There is such a thing as good filler, believe it or not."

"Online videos from around the world have begun pouring in showing people singing, dancing, crying, smiling and mourning a man who shared his great talent with the world."

"If you are a fan of the unknown, follow SCUBA, the six-year-old brainchild of small-budget presenters in Seattle, Minneapolis, San Francisco, and (since 2005) Philadelphia."

"The Royal’s opening on Tuesday reminded me of why it helped me fall in love with ballet and showed why it remains a singularly cherishable company today."

"A once time-honored tradition has digressed into a parade of overly made-up children in glittering pageantry. Feisanna are now attracting new over-the-top trends that makes one ask whether the competitions are centered on dance ability or dress-up."

"'Diaghilev's Theater of Marvels: The Ballets Russes and Its Aftermath' opens today at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, following exhibitions at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford and at the Harvard Theatre Collection in Cambridge, Mass."

"Creating iMixes is easy and it's a fun way to promote upcoming performances to the huge number of iPhone/iPod owners. In addition, through the widget, you can encourage fans and online supporters to embed the song list on their websites and blogs."

"Reichlen can't yet lay claim to the sudden plunges from the vertical that made Suzanne Farrell's celebrated interpretation so sensuous and exciting, but perhaps that is never to be."

"Variety is reporting that 'Dancing With the Stars' pro dancer and country singer Julianne Hough will star opposite Chace Crawford on Paramount's upcoming remake of 'Footloose,' contingent on working out scheduling."

"Overall, no single dancer was deemed impressive enough to win the Marina Semyonova grand prix — the competition is dedicated to the legendary Russian dancer — and the $10,000 cash prize that goes along with it."

"This year's six-week program highlights community-based projects, including workshops at El Centro Hispano, ADF's first partnership with the center."

"Dover Beach, Michelson's finest work to date, is also the one with the most dancing. As usual, she has remodeled the performing space, collaborating with Parker Lutz."

"Rainer was a major figure in dance in the 1970s but took a 25-year hiatus to concentrate on filmmaking. In an interview with Susan Josephs that appeared in Sunday's Calendar section, Rainer said returning to dance felt 'like coming home. I have always loved working with dancers, and as soon as I’m around dancers the ideas start to flow.'"

What happened? An article describing the recent VOD outage.

"The Olympic ballet gala, featuring contemporary dance from the two classical ballet companies, is one of 35 new arts projects announced Monday by Vancouver 2010 organizers."

"Her special relationship with ABT, however, comes to a close this season. On June 27, Ananiashvili will bid farewell to the company with a final performance of 'Swan Lake.'"

"What other city in the world has anything like the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival? Residents of the Bay Area perform the dances of their original cultures — from across the globe, styles with radically different purposes — to an audience that does not consist primarily of those already familiar with those forms."

"Chalk up my first unhappy elimination: I think Ashley had shown so much potential in her Wade Robson performance last week, and Max stood out from the other boys."

"Mr. Harris is known primarily as a hip-hop choreographer, though in 'Philadelphia Experiment' he takes his movement vocabulary further, building irregular rhythmic phrases that show more than the brashness of a leap but the way the dancers hover in the air."

"With the move to the Durham Performing Arts Center, the festival gets a major upgrade, but a budgetary crisis has forced the festival to cut a full week — and a quarter of its marquee mainstage productions — from its calendar."

"Dance is a living aspect of culture that, like spoken language, evolves and morphs over time, changing as culture changes. Without ever trumping the sheer joy of its enterprise, the festival is a living museum of dance."

"The idea is to use communal dance as way of healing the earth, a concept and practice as old as humankind. Some hardy souls, event instigator Anna Halprin among them, have been participating since the beginning, 29 years ago."

"After a furious three-week fund-raising effort that included a spectacular gala performance last week, the ballet announced that it has surpassed its $750,000 target, the amount it needed to guarantee that it could continue beyond June 30."

"n case you didn't get enough the first time you watched dozens of (A-for-effort!) dancers in gold lamé MC Hammer pants run into an L.A. store for a rendition of "Can't Touch This," the over-the-top stunt was revived for an encore performance."

"In her remarks at the press conference announcing the upcoming season, Charriere also singled out the ballet dancers’ 'Save the Ballet' fundraising initiative for generating $840,000."

"This dark ending of 'La Sylphide,' which American Ballet Theater performs all this week at the Metropolitan Opera House, hurtles at us with brilliant surprise."

"Adoniou collaborated with dramaturge Talal Al-Muhana on 'Rags al Moza,' a free-associating piece of absurdist dance theater that falls short as cultural commentary, but succeeds as a framework for bits of beautiful movement experimentation."

"Last Tuesday evening, at his last class before the summer break, he joined students more than six decades younger in push-ups, sit-ups and stretches at the barre."

"Here are the numbers (as of yesterday,) for Oregon Ballet Theatre's drive to raise $750,000 by June 30. According to Erik Jones at the ballet, the gala brought in $330,000 of ticket revenue from 2750 patrons. And the total raised is $710,000."

"So, does Katie Holmes think she can dance? The actress reportedly taped a guest appearance for “So You Think You Can Dance” on Monday, Usmagazine.com reports."

"'Swan' is a supernatural thriller set in the New York City ballet. It follows a veteran ballerina (Portman) who finds herself in a tight competition with a rival dancer."

"Of the two kicked-off dancers, I feel worse for Paris, who you could tell was working hard not to be crushed by Nigel's brutally frank admission that the judges' decision to cut her over Asuka had as much to do with the fact that they had a bajillion contemporary dancers and only two ballroom dancers as it did with Paris' performance itself on the show."

"On Wednesday night at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater unleashed some real choreography. It was, blessedly, an all-Ailey program with two important bookends: 'Blues Suite,' from 1958, and 'Revelations,' his 1960 masterpiece."

"Ballet conducting programs are essentially unheard-of and for this reason, violinist, John Stubbs of the San Diego Symphony and music director for California Ballet Company (CBC), has launched 'Conducting Preparations,' a unique mentoring program designed to inspire young music artists in pursuing the art of ballet conducting."

"Its cool surfaces thrum with simmering heat, as well as with often disturbing power dynamics and erotic undertones, particularly in one dramatically lighted section toward the end that features Greg Zucculo partnering the diminutive, terrifically spooky Allegra Herman."

"The ballet is juicy with drama, and character dancers Victor Barbee and Martine Van Hamel will have a field day playing Madge, the venomous hag. The roles of James and the Sylphide, of course, are filled with technical and dramatic challenges."

"You always want to see her next work because you can sense the questioning spirit that leads her into unexpected terrain. Her own nine-year old company, im'ij-re — with its excellent dancers — is the place where she can experiment in the way the tight schedules of more traditional ballet companies (her latest commission was for Colorado Ballet this spring) don't always have the means to support."

"One of the world's most prestigious ballet competitions opened in Moscow's Bolshoi Theater on Thursday, with dancers hoping to pirouette their way to fame."

"Christiana Bennett, principal dancer with Ballet West, has performed to benefit scores of causes over the course of her career, yet she's never danced to save a ballet company from closing its doors."

"Tuesday's Midwest auditions featured crews from the South Side to as far away as Nashville. Comprising young men and women in their teens to their 30s, the crews warmed up with coordinated slides, back flips and scores of traditional and original street-inspired dance moves, hoping to quell judge-induced jitters."

"Based on the BBC1 show 'Let's Dance for Comic Relief,' the series will feature celebs learning the moves to famous dance routines (e.g., Dirty Dancing's sexy pas de deux). Viewers will vote for their favorites on live weekly episodes, with proceeds from the calls going to charity."

"As an actress, Ms. Ananiashvili gives a good impression of spontaneity, but as a dancer she has the thing itself. Her limbs keep glowing and stretching in the air as if helium were entering into them; she becomes newly luminous."

"Several aspects of Ratmansky's choreography enthrall me. He alters the pressure and tempos of ballet's classical vocabulary to affect mood and drama. Even tricky or unusual twists look organic, and, although the stage is almost always awash in dancing, the story keeps unfolding through it."

"Unlike Idol, where you can get away with muscling a Country Night Willie Nelson tune to your own preferred style, the dancers need to stretch themselves to fit whatever genre they're thrown."

"Shrinking the company like this is a major management challenge from a staff morale point of view. And it will be an artistic challenge, too."

"Dancing a character part isn’t like tearing through the fouettés or à la seconde turns of the Black Swan pas de deux — which many corps members are quite capable of performing — but these roles can be absolutely essential to the plot."

"Merce Cunningham, the nonagenarian choreographer, is planning for a world without him. He has decided that when he dies, or when the right time comes, the Merce Cunningham Dance Company will embark on a final two-year international tour and then shut down, the Cunningham Dance Foundation, which supports the company, announced on Tuesday."

"One day, when she was four and a half years old, she found a magazine that had blown against the orphanage gate. In it was a photo of a ballerina. Enchanted, she carefully tore it out and hid it, treasured it. Some day, she thought, she would dance like that woman."

"Oregon Ballet Theatre's three concerts this weekend were just about as freighted as dance concerts get. The company, as Portland Arts Watch readers know, has said that it needs to raise $750,000 by June 30 to guarantee that it can keep its doors open."

"The 11-story building in downtown Brooklyn, which also houses low income artists and the formerly homeless, is a collaboration between a real estate development company and a nonprofit affordable housing project. It will include a performance space, a school, and offices."

"On Sunday evening the mullet-haired businessman – known for his louche dress sense and garish red and yellow boots – was sighted at London's Royal Opera House at a tribute performance to mark the 100th anniversary of the Ballets Russes."

"Here are the biggest ballet-inspired fashions you have actually been wearing since you saw your first Nutcracker. The old-school trend from 'Swan Lake' is clearly the headband."

"'Billy Elliot,' the inspirational movie-turned-musical about a working-class Yorkshire kid who dances away from strife and poverty, dominated the 63rd annual Tony Awards, winning 10 Tony Awards, including the coveted best musical Tony."

"'The biggest thing that makes people stand out (at events) is that they're not even in rhythm with the music,' she says. 'A simple movement that's in tune with the music looks so much better than something frenetic and off-rhythm.'"

"The program began with 'Glass Pieces' (1983). This has always been a hit, but I underrated it when it was new...I find now that its images stay vividly in the head and that, when re-encountered in the theater, they coalesce more powerfully as poetry."

"Ship passengers will have an opportunity to view the documentary and then the young (and not so young) budding dance stars will be divided into teams. Over the course of their vacation, they will learn choreographed routines with a member of the Royal Caribbean dance team in rehearsals during sea days."

"How do you think you might react if you were shopping in a retail store that was suddenly stormed by dozens of people dancing to MC Hammer’s 'Can’t Touch This' while wearing his trademark giant gold pants?

"Ballet BC is facing yet another massive upheaval as it prepares to part ways with its longtime artistic director...The decision is part of a major restructuring plan that will leave the province without its flagship dance company during the 2010 Olympic Games."

"His arrival has many hoping he will revive the flagging fortunes of the famed company, whose audience has slumped in recent years. He will also direct the ballet's school."

"'So You Think You Can Dance' narrowed the field down to 20 contestants Thursday night to wrap up the Las Vegas auditions."

"Though there is nothing overtly political about Brown Ceres' choreography, her dances are forceful and affirming of female identity. At their best, they draw you in because of the complexity of the impulses that generate and control them."

"The arts are where hope lives. And right now, as the very tenets of civil society are being re-written, and as health and human service needs rise, there is legitimate concern about whether the arts will survive, how the arts can thrive."

"Mr. McIntyre taps into the music with vigor, and finally the dancers are more than just spirited performers; they are spirits in the flesh."

"Celebrating the 'screendance' genre, the Dance Camera West festival kicks off this weekend with its eighth year of screenings. More than 30 films -- most made independently -- will be screened at half a dozen L.A. venues during the three-week fest."

"'Dancing Across Borders' is an 88-minute love letter to Cambodia, to ballet, and to hard work. Like every good love letter, it conveys the preciousness of the intangible."

"The free series of events -- yes, all programs are free -- runs Aug. 18-22, expanding from three programs to four and promising the biggest names on the festival's line-up so far: New York City Ballet's Wendy Whelan and Craig Hall."

"We're so close, 'So You Think You Can Dance' fans! Close to learning our top 20 dancers, close to auditions being over, close to the meat of the season!"

"When the show premiered, dance on television was obscure at best, known primarily for background extras in music videos and commercials. Now, dance is seemingly everywhere thanks to the simultaneous hits of 'SYTYCD,' ABC's 'Dancing With the Stars' and MTV's 'America's Best Dance Crew' as well as the success of the 'High School Musical' and 'Step Up' films."

"Frederick Ashton's romantic tale of sea spirits and sailors will be relayed live from the Royal Opera House onto cinema screens across the UK on Wednesday night thanks to a tie-in with Arts Alliance Media."

"It is always exciting to see the curtain rise on a tableau of women who then morph into dancers; to see it done by students is especially thrilling. Their entire lives, virtually, have been pointed toward this goal, itself only a beginning."

"Mr. Ratmansky’s gift here is to make these psychological dances classically beautiful. (Mr. Gomes and Ms. Herrera, in particular, have never danced better.)"

"Diversity, the dance troupe that beat Susan Boyle to win the latest cycle of 'Britain's Got Talent,' will star in the 3D movie 'Street Dance,' the BBC reports."

"The awards, given by the Dance Resource Center of Greater Los Angeles, cite excellence in performance, choreography, design, music and other categories for L.A.-area dance presentations."

"Company staff members were in China last week finalizing details for the tour, which came together quickly after Chinese presenters Citystar Entertainment Ltd. approached the Ballet only two months ago."

"Roth says he works at CSN [College of Southern Nevada]' to preserve the integrity of dance' in a city better known for having dancing as a component of other entertainment, such as stage shows."

"Damrosch's reasons for helping OBT also help us form the basis for thinking about future rescue efforts -- and in this economy, all arts organizations are under stress. Here is her list..."

"Faced with an applicant pool heavily weighted with dance companies last fall, the NWNW selection panel didn't try to buck the tide. They went ahead and stocked both theaters with 10 dance performances."

"A young Riverdance star is among the three Irish women presumed dead in the Air France disaster. A champion Irish dancer, Dr Eithne Walls was from Ballygown in Co. Down and had been living in Dublin where she worked as a doctor."

"Watching Pacific Northwest Ballet’s beautifully danced new production last weekend at McCaw Hall here — staged by Susan Hendl and Ben Huys — I felt more than ever the many layers of Robbins’s achievement."

"First of all, good luck. Dance is one of the most difficult things to document. Photographing fast movement in low light can be challenging."

"The rehearsal process has been really great with him. He is pushing the dancers to their unknown limits, and its great to be apart of it."

"I want to bring to your attention an issue that is very important to me personally; Oregon Ballet Theatre needs your help. If we all don’t pull together and help this company it will have to close it’s doors."

"The ballerina is rehearsing the limpid 'Les Sylphides,' which she and Thomas Edur will perform with English National Ballet at Sadler’s Wells next month, bringing an end to a 19-year association with the company and to a remarkable stage partnership."

"After decades at Ballet Hispanico, the troupe's founder is hanging up her artistic director's hat. But only after her company makes its L.A. Music Center debut."

"Mr. Ratmansky’s first encounter with Ballet Theater dancers came in January, when he observed rehearsals in preparation for casting 'On the Dnieper.' That ballet will have its premiere Monday night at the Metropolitan Opera House."

"Nissinen’s season showcases the Company’s range and skill by featuring classic story ballets as well as works by renowned neoclassical and contemporary choreographers such as George Balanchine, Jiri Kylian and rising talents Helen Pickett and Viktor Plotnikov."

"A commemorative edition DVD of Judith Jamison's Emmy-winning 'A Hymn for Alvin Ailey' television special will be available along with the soundtrack to Alvin Ailey's landmark Blues Suite, on CD for the first time."

"Karl Lagerfeld, creative director of Chanel, has designed an exclusive costume for the 'The Dying Swan' as part of the English National Ballet's forthcoming 'Ballets Russes' season at Sadler's Wells theatre in London. This year marks the centenary of the first performance by Serge Diaghilev's ballet at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris."

"Ballet Florida has canceled its summer classes. Whether the shutdown will be permanent depends whether the troupe can sell its building at 500 Fern St. in West Palm Beach to raise the money to revive the professional company and continue the school."

"The Miami and Memphis auditions too often sacrificed showcasing good-to-outstanding dancing for the sake of silly-to-stupid segments on boringly bad dancers, mildly diverting montages on bad audition techniques, and guest judge Tyce Diorio's general bitchery."

"The winning couple of the six-part series will represent the UK at the Wheelchair Dance Sport European Championships in Israel this autumn."

"Unless the company raises $750,000 by June 30 to cover expenses and pay creditors, it may have to close its doors."

"

"A dancer with strength and elevation that belies her slender frame, a performer who moves audiences with her indelible interpretations of tragic heroines, from Juliet and Giselle to Tatiana in Onegin, Goh is gracefully retiring after 20 years on the stage."

"A 26-year-old man tried to prove he wasn't drunk Saturday on Hilton Head Island with his own field sobriety test -- performing a routine from 'Riverdance,' the Irish step-dancing stage production."

"Bland, a New York native who moved to Paris after a stint in the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, is an exuberant dancer. At Symphony Space on Friday night she alternated the three films with three dances, knitting them together seamlessly without room for applause."

"I spent more than two hours watching Suki Schorer coach students in 'Serenade.' A former Balanchine dancer at City Ballet long since based at the school, she has become the world’s most celebrated teacher of Balanchine technique."

"He’s sorry, says Nigel Lythgoe, a judge and executive producer on the popular reality competition show 'So You Think You Can Dance' according to a statement by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation."

"The event, a street fair that embraces the sounds, colors and positive energy of its Latin America and Caribbean roots, drew tens of thousands of spectators, despite gray skies."

"Anyone inclined to wrinkle his nose in disdain at American Ballet Theatre's star system should first consider a moment in choreographer George Balanchine's 'Allegro Brillante'..."

"As a whole, they suggest that the San Francisco Ballet School - which, after all, aspires to be among the leading ballet academies in the country - is strengthening under Associate Director Lola de Avila and her current faculty."

"This event is the product of an unusual collaboration between Brown and Cave, one that doesn't entail conversation but does fuse the two artists' work."

"Here’s what the youngest 'DWTS' champ had to say about the nail-biting finale, her close bond with partner Mark Ballas and where the shiny Mirrorball trophy will fit next to all of her other hardware."

"'The (economic) downturn may have worked in our favor in that regard,' Cunningham said late last week at the ballet studio. 'The smaller-venue, in-studio works have been very successful for us. We've seen people walk through the doors here that we've never seen before.'"

"It's not break-dance, it isn't rap either. The name is kuduro and its beat is electrifying dancers from Luanda to Lisbon and New York City with elements of rap, break-dance and hip-hop."

"No, 'SYTYCD' isn't perfect. Murphy, the show's airy answer to Paula Abdul, still insists on YELLING HALF HER COMMENTS. But her camera time is brief. The star is always the dancing, and the dancers themselves."

"The same way folks like George Gershwin and Irving Berlin personified the golden age of popular songwriting in New York, Frankie Manning personified the golden age of swing dance."

"Sliding down the banister in companionable two’s, or racing up the steps as if in pursuit, the dancers filled the structure with a sense of pulsating vigor that could dissolve into dreamy lassitude."

"Olympic gymnast Shawn Johnson, the show's youngest competitor ever at 17, was named the new 'Dancing' champ Tuesday, beating out fellow finalists Gilles Marini and Melissa Rycroft."

"Ballet Theater’s spring season at the Metropolitan Opera House tends to be ballet at its most conformist, nowhere more so than in its opening-night jamboree."

"The Royal Ballet will make its first visit to Cuba in July with performances that include a homage to Cuban ballet legend Alicia Alonso, ballet executives said on Wednesday."

"This ambitious, nearly three-hour-long Golden Legend is an extravaganza of images tilted into motion (Williams has been working on it for years, showing various parts of it on other programs)."

"My husband and I believe strongly that art education is essential for building innovative thinkers who will be our nation's leaders of tomorrow," she said."

"After Monday night’s dances, the race toward sparkledom is neck and neck: There’s a tie for first place."

"The contemporary dance world has been accused of 'fawning over' athletic, powerful images of masculinity as projected by artists such as Wayne McGregor and Hofesh Shechter, at the expense of promoting female choreographers."

"He is somewhat serious when he talks about the glue factory. Dancers don’t often get to perform this late in their lives, nor call so many of the shots. Particularly in ballet, stage retirement comes early."

"'Prepare your audition and be great at what you do and have confidence,' she told the Los Angeles Times. 'They have to bring their personality. Dance is the narrative that runs through the show, but the audience connects with the human element.'"

"Fox has confirmed recent reports that 'So You Think You Can Dance's' sixth season will air in the fall as part of the network's 2009-2010 primetime programming schedule."

"Last weekend...as the musicians David Behrman, Robert Black, Shelley Burgon and Matana Roberts accompanied the Cunningham company’s final three Events of an almost two-year series at Dia:Beacon, the lines that came to mind were Caliban’s: 'Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises,/Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.'"

"Palme d'Or winner and digital film enthusiast Wim Wenders' next project is 'Pina,' a collaboration with avant-garde choreographer Pina Bausch on what is being called the first 3-D dance feature."

"The La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival is a three-plus week smorgasbord of samplers, wide-ranging in style as well as quality. While you sometimes hunger for a more rigorous curatorial eye, it is also nice to be surprised by the accidental synergy of shows..."

"The main look of the characters in Mr. Elo’s 'Sacre' is one of sophistication and conformism. What a bizarre dance maker he is. Most choreographers make 'Sacre' their most unorthodox work — but not Mr. Elo."

"The film was to be presented by two of its most illustrious devotees, director Martin Scorsese and Thelma Schoonmaker, Scorsese's longtime editor and Powell's widow."

"When he was appointed resident choreographer of the Royal Ballet in 2006, Wayne McGregor set about creating a formal system to discover and nurture talent within the company’s ranks. That policy seems to be bearing fruit: this is quite the best programme of new dance the RB has produced for ages."

"Maybe you went to the farmers’ market, had brunch with friends or saw 'Star Trek,' but for dance audiences, the past three days will go down in history as the weekend of the dueling Romeos."

"Perhaps the most important point to keep in mind about Mark Morris’s 'Romeo & Juliet, on Motifs of Shakespeare' is that it’s a dance, not a ballet."

"William & Mary students, faculty and staff have broken the Guinness World Record for the most people doing the Michael Jackson's "Thriller" dance simultaneously in one location."

"It's one of the peculiarities of Bay Area dance that so many choreographers are drawn to creating site-specific installations. Some work with an existing space, others add their own touches."

"New York City Ballet’s spring gala on Wednesday night at the David H. Koch Theater began with two world premieres: one by Benjamin Millepied, a rising choreographer whose work is far from familiar; the other by Jiri Bubenicek, a Czech choreographer whose dances are unknown in the United States."

"Rain or shine the parade begins at 1 p.m. down Broadway from 27th, through Union Square, south onto University Place, east onto St. Marks (8th St.) into Tompkins Square Park for DanceFest!"

"'The company laughs at me while I sit on the side of the stage reading American History books,' giggles Sabra Perry, a dancer with Complexions for nine years. A former member of the National Ballet of Canada, Perry works towards her BA Degree at Empire State College between seasons."

"Expression is, indeed, the main issue here. On opening night in New York, it was obvious that the dancers had been rehearsed within an inch of their lives."

"Everything about Christopher Williams’s 'Golden Legend,' is extravagant, outsize: the star-studded cast of 39, the three-hour length, the gorgeous puppets, detailed costumes and 11-member music ensemble, even the program booklet, complete with footnotes and translations.

"Besides growing their family in the last decade, the Massive Monkees have also changed how they've approached their art. The Internet these days makes break dancing more accessible."

"Teenager Tyler Frost has been suspended from his US Baptist school for breaking strict 'no dancing' rules by attending his girlfriend's prom, in a situation reminiscent of the film Footloose."

"Imagine Radiohead, James Levine, Mikhail Baryshnikov and Tracey Emin all collaborating on a multimedia extravaganza produced by George Lucas. That is what the early 20th century performing arts troupe Ballets Russes was like..."

"Renowned choreographer Lin Hwai-min accepted a lifetime achievement award from the International Movimentos Dance Awards in Wolfsburg, Germany, Tuesday."

"After 10 weeks and numerous close calls, the aw-shucks cowboy Ty Murray couldn’t wrangle up another save and instead was sent to ride off into the sunset."

"Mr. Spalding is using the Wells, the Lilian Baylis Studio...and the Peacock Theater...to present dance of all species. Last week, while attending each of these theaters, I caught part of an annual hip-hop festival ('Breakin’ Convention,' at the Wells and the Baylis); a Cuban dance-and-music extravaganza ('Havana Rakatan,' at the Peacock); and an evening devoted to connections between American and British forms of step dancing."

"Ballet West will cut four positions, freeze salaries, request furloughs and reduce pension contributions for its 35-member administrative staff, as part of a plan to reduce $1.2 million from the dance company's operating budget for the 2009-2010 season."

"The performance of the afternoon was Tiler Peck’s astounding debut in Balanchine’s 'Tarantella.' A short-notice replacement for Megan Fairchild, Ms. Peck took instant ownership of this dazzling, virtuosic bonbon."

"At the heart of the piece was Agnès Letestu, chic and shining in the Cigarette variation, her very presence raising the level of the rest of the company. It was a glorious start to the evening."

"Joann Ferrara is a former gymnast and ballet dancer with 25 years of experience as a pediatric physical therapist who works with physically disabled kids, many with cerebral palsy."

"It was a wild semifinal on 'Dancing with the Stars,' complete with singing judges, teary contestants, sentimental journeys and a reminder that if Gilles Marini can't look good in a sleeveless button-down, nobody can."

"As the director Mr. Woetzel lands big names — Savion Glover, Edward Villella and his Miami City Ballet, Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company — but aims for intimacy, inviting a few artists to talk as much as they perform."

"The sums at stake are comparatively small, but a contract dispute between a choreographer and the 92nd Street Y has caused a stir in the field — and provided a glimpse into the fraught relationship between struggling dance makers and presenters."

"Gone, in new work, is theater, spectacle, satire, flesh-and-blood characters, the ache of real life, the escape offered by a sharp, piercing little story. Now more than ever, American ballet, artistically speaking, is a homogeneous entity. We are a thoroughly Balanchine nation."

"In between practicing two routines with partner Gilles Marini, 'Dancing with the Stars' pro Cheryl Burke celebrated the opening of her third Cheryl Burke Dance studio Friday night."

"So the upcoming Graham season will prompt debate, not only about "curatorial" methods, but more radically about the need to preserve historic dances."

"As the curtain falls on the Joffrey Ballet's spring season at the Auditorium Theatre on Sunday afternoon, seven dancers will be taking their final bows with the company. Some plan to continue dancing. Some are heading back to school."

"Len Goodman would like to see Simon Cowell take to the dance floor on 'Dancing With The Stars.' The judge on the U.S. TV show said that, in turn, he would give singing on 'American Idol' a whirl."

"The lights dimmed and I made my way upstage center and felt my back press against the wall. My leg lifted from the ground, foot flexed, and I walked forward as the first piano chord struck; everything that followed is a complete blur."

"Alina Cojocaru, a principal dancer with the Royal Ballet of London, and her partner Johan Kobborg will be principal guest artists for the 2009-2010 season."

"Daniel Dolan is off to the world famous Bolshoi Ballet School in Russia after his dream came true."

"Of the episode’s many highlights, none stood out quite like Andy Bernard’s dance-off, not only because it was amazing, but because finally, in the fifth season of the American Office, the show DARED to do a wacky dance sequence."

"Nominations for the 2009 Astaire Awards were announced last night at Elaine's Restaurant by Michael Riedel of the New York Post."

City Ballet was founded in 2000 with the goal of creating a dance company that represents the diversity of Los Angeles. It offers dance lessons for children, including many from the inner city who can attend under a City Ballet scholarship program at no cost."

"The double bill comes courtesy of SCUBA, the national touring network created by ODC Theater, Velocity Dance Center in Seattle, and the Southern Theater in Minneapolis."

"Thematic or not, there is a certain art to designing mixed repertory programs. Some sort of arc, or juxtaposition, should be present to indicate that intelligent life is guiding the choices."

"With 'So You Think You Can Dance' slated to return on June 3, the judges are hurrying to pinpoint who's worthy of a spot on the fifth season of the show."

"King's unflagging invention, his curious turns of thought, and the dedication of his performers, who risk everything, make this program gripping."

"Head judge Len Goodman said the rapper 'has been one of the best dancers' ever to appear on the show."

"Some of us only dream about flying; Trisha Brown launches her dreams onto the stage."

"In commemoration of the group's 50th season, legendary dancer and Alvin Ailey veteran Renee Robinson reflects on the institution's golden anniversary."

"Ms. Mason confirmed that Ms. Ansanelli, who is just 28, was not simply leaving the Royal Ballet, she was also going to stop dancing."

"Sure, it's hard for lots of people in a down economy, but for some dancers, this year has been a career killer."

"Logic would dictate that Murray, clearly the weakest dancer remaining, would be voted off tomorrow. Logic, however, has little to do with this show, otherwise Samantha Harris would not have a job and people would occasionally wear sweaters."

"'Firebird', however, soars. Mara Galeazzi is feral and imperious in the title role, Gary Avis is at once cartoonish, uncanny and very funny as the evil Kostcheï, and the corps (wayward in Sylphides) are terrific."

"Prom aboard a boat was shut down after students of two private Catholic high schools staged a freak-dancing insurrection."

"With each star bringing their A-game ahead of next week’s semi-finals round, we want to know: Whose solo act brought down the house?"

"The unlikely story of a coal miner's son from Newcastle who becomes a professional ballet dancer has – perhaps even more surprisingly – become one of Broadway's biggest success stories this season, picking up 15 nods, four more than any other show."

"Arts administrators say they are fighting a subsidiary effect of the recession, a creeping perception among their largest and most reliable corporate supporters that contributing to the arts is somehow elitist and excessive at a time of rising unemployment and general economic hardship."

"Approximately 500 sixth-graders in the Shenendehowa School District attended a lecture and demonstration on classical ballet as part of their participation in Saratoga Performing Arts Center’s educational Class Action program."

"They were the leading lights of Serge Diaghilev's company, Ballets Russes - and now, 100 years on, dance companies around the world are marking the centenary of that tumultuous first Paris season."

"Two famous parrots and a bevy of YouTube videos have now convinced scientists that people aren't the only ones who can groove to a musical beat."

"Officials hope to use culture and art to improve America's image by sending the dancers to countries - such as Venezuela, Nigeria and Brazil - where its reputation has suffered in recent years."

"Ms. Cojocaru’s 'Giselle' was one of the great dance renditions of our time, one of those moments when the evanescence of live performance seems unbearably poignant. From the moment she stepped onstage, she was Giselle..."

"For the work, created in celebration of his 25 years in dance, Mr. Petronio opted for something new instead of a retrospective. His bizarre impersonation of a captain marks a departure, but the bulk of 'I Drink the Air Before Me' assembles his usual tools: ferocious speed, rigorous structure and dancers who ravel and unravel like ribbons."

"When Balanchine shook up dance with borrowings from jazz and vaudeville, it was evolutionary, but when Elo takes a page from street styles it's disrespectful. God forbid we should let a little hipness into the opera house."

"Maximova's dancing career at the Bolshoi spanned three decades, from her debut as Masha in 'The Nutcracker' in 1958 until 1988. Called "Ekaterina the Great," or Catherine the Great, for her impeccable technique and versatility, she danced most of the major female roles of classical ballet..."

"It would be good to remain longer in San Francisco, to watch these dancers grow in these roles and to appreciate their versatility across what is more or less the most diverse repertory of any American ballet company."

"This also marks the swan song for partner and real-life girlfriend Julianne Hough, who has said she won’t be returning to "DWTS" next season."

"Ms. Brown, whose newest dance, 'L’Amour au Théâtre,' will have its premiere on Wednesday at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in a program spanning more than 40 years...has undergone several radical transformations of her own, including, most recently, going public as a visual artist."

"The 18-year-old ballerina from Brisbane beat three other finalists on the Network Ten program to become Australia's favourite dancer on Sunday night."

"Ninety-one years after her debut at 14 as Florenz Ziegfeld’s youngest dancer in his extravagantly costumed pageants of feminine pulchritude, Ms. Eaton Travis, of West Bloomfield, Mich., was back on 42nd Street this weekend, keeping a hectic pace."

"This production, exquisite in design and text, is the one that Ninette de Valois staged in 1977 for the Royal Ballet, which danced it until 1992."

"When Corella left Madrid at age 19 in 1995 to join American Ballet Theatre, he quickly realized that he 'wanted to give dancers who left Spain an opportunity to come home and also create a company for pure, classical dance.'"

"The waif-like dancer has been off stage for almost a year, while rumours circulated that she had a broken neck."

"For King, the most significant change over the past quarter-century has been 'the popularity of hip-hop. Towards the mid '90s, we took a chance and took in one or two of the teachers. It has really, really thrived. Now we have equal measures of ballet, jazz, and hip-hop.'"

"On this week's 'Dancing with the Stars' results show, viewers were treated to a mini competition of professionals, making it very much like a performance show."

"Tulsa Ballet has named principal dancer Ma Cong as a resident choreographer. He is the second person to hold this title with company; Val Caniparoli, whose ballets include 'Vivace,' 'Going for Baroque' and 'Gustav’s Rooster,' has been Tulsa Ballet’s resident choreographer since 2001."

"The festival kicks off this weekend, offering free public events, including classes, rehearsals and performances, celebrating dance of every culture and genre."

"Their first work, 'Abjection in America (2007),' a work that 'examines what we don't like about ourselves,' gained the young company an invitation to this year's prestigious Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival in Massachusetts."

"The ballet stars and real-life husband and wife are about to retire from the profession so it will be one of the last times they enjoy a pas de deux together."

"A Cheshire teenager has become only the third British boy to win a place at the elite Bolshoi Ballet School in the Russian academy's 233-year history."

"In what may have been the least contentious elimination of the season, it was revealed that football great Lawrence Taylor received the lowest tally and was booted from the competition."

"Like all of his works, 'Nearly Ninety,' which premiered on his birthday, mates choreography with music, set, and costumes that have been designed independently. The piece is a vivid 90-minute package of profoundly imaginative dancing and phantasmagorical visual and aural effects."

"Ms. Hanayagi is now stricken with Alzheimer’s disease and partly paralyzed, making this tribute, which includes reconstructions of her choreography, an emotionally fraught eulogy of sorts."

"Just one point behind with 28 were Shawn Johnson and Mark Ballas. And their cha cha cha was my favorite routine of the night."

"Students, faculty and staff from the College of William and Mary gathered Sunday in the school's Sunken Garden to break a world record -- by doing the 'Thriller' dance."

"This is not the first sudden retirement from Guidi, who founded the Oakland Ballet in 1965 and led it to international repute with revivals of rare Ballets Russes masterpieces in the 1990s."

"The directors of the Youth America Grand Prix competition have a message for ballet fans on the lookout for star talent: Remember that you saw them here first."

"Home season after home season, Lines Ballet consistently serves up stunningly soul-laid bare dancing, and the spring season that opened Friday is no exception."

"Creating the magazine's Green Issue cover with the dance company Momix."

"'It’s not a big deal to me because in bull riding you see that from time to time, but I guess people aren’t used to seeing a little blood in the ballroom.'"

"Sonic Youth, Jones and Kosugi (a composer associated with the Fluxus movement as well as Cunningham’s longtime music director) composed the work’s experimental score in the same vain that John Cage once used to compose for many of Cunningham’s previous works: sometimes meandering and obscure to sometimes dissonant and fierce."

"In the center of this display sat its raison d'être, in a wheelchair that, with him in it, became a throne, his all-black clothes topped with a shiny jet smoking jacket that suggested 'magician,' playing his role with understated, perfect-mannered elegance."

"Not long after, her family was told the terrible news: Ms. Liu had severely injured her vertebra and was paralyzed below the waist. It was unlikely that she would ever walk or dance again."

"In the January installment of the Sugar Salon series at the Baryshnikov Arts Center, Deganit Shemy presented an excerpt from 'Arena' in which five women waged brutal, stylized combat. It was a terrifically nasty little sucker punch of a fragment."

"The answer to staying healthy and happy as you age may be as close as the nearest dance floor, according to a chorus of studies. Dancing offers mental, physical, and social benefits, while perhaps reducing the risk of illness and even counteracting the ravages of aging."

"In a release the company said that the gift was the single largest it has received from a private donor, and that the money would be used to create the Toni and Martin Sosnoff New Works Fund, which will support all future works that it commissions."

"In a release, the Joyce announced that its summer schedule would begin on June 2 with the New York debut of the Trey McIntyre Project, a Boise, Idaho, troupe."

"The Canadian-born ballet and modern-dance-trained ballerina — whose 'The Little Prince' debuts in Walnut Creek in May — is part of a long but ignored tradition of brainy classical dancers capable of expounding on topics far outside of pliés, developées and pirouettes."

"Some of the most famous work of Broadway choreographer Agnes de Mille will be recreated in the unique biographical 'dance drama,' Dance/Speak, a production by New York Theatre Ballet, premiering in Manhattan April 17-25."

"Canfield is doing away with the previous regime’s hierarchically tiered model, deleting titles of principal, soloist and corps de ballet. In other words, there are no more stars. Every dancer is on equal footing."

"The $2-million movie about actors auditioning for a musical is a multilayered, fugue-like celebration not only of what it means to be a professional dancer on Broadway but also of the iconic musical that captured it so well."

"For 40 years the Dance Theatre of Harlem has helped craft African American dancers into classically trained ballet performers."

"Merce Cunningham, one of the most influential artists of our time, will celebrate his 90th birthday on Thursday, April 16. Cunningham has been at the forefront of the American avant-garde for more than 60 years."

"Part publicity stunt by its producers, part vanity trip by its participants, part opportunity to attract a younger crowd to classical music, the YouTube Symphony Orchestra gathered 93 musicians from more than 30 countries."

"The funnyman faced some rough times on the dance floor. He strained his back during training, then exacerbated the injury with an ill-fated flip during a salsa performance last month. But fans kept him afloat for weeks."

"Scott Black, who has served as executive director of the OK Mozart International Festival for three years, will become managing director of Tulsa Ballet."

"'Glimpse,' like all of Shick's pieces, is richly sensuous, gentle yet robust, and forthright yet full of mysteries. She's attentive to small details and nuances of movement."

"Facing 'a deficit situation' for the first time in years, the National Ballet of Canada has indefinitely postponed its fall tour of Western Canada."

"You don’t get much insight into the birth of the album or how it became a ballet, but you do get short stories from Shatner about his lifelong connection with music and his evolution in the arts."

"American Ballet Theater has promoted Veronika Part to the position of principal dancer."

"Move over, Gilles and Cheryl, because there’s a new sheriff in town! Taking down the longtime leaders were Lil’ Kim and Derek Hough, whose smoking jive set to Elvis Presley’s 'Jailhouse Rock' had enough snarly vim and verve to launch them to the top."

"Last week I had the pleasure of photographing one of my absolute favorite companies: Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet. At the moment, the company is preparing for an upcoming full-length work titled 'Orbo Novo,' which is being choreographed by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui."

"The appointment of Ms. Johnson seems to signal a confidence on the part of the board that there is a future for Dance Theater, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary."

"The sense that Mr. Bensard is intrigued by the personage of Ms. Childs rather than by her choreography subtly infuses the film, although he does a good job of cramming in the outlines of her career."

"Just as he mastered pirouettes years ago as a young dancer, Mikhail Baryshnikov is getting the hang of asking friends and strangers to donate to his nonprofit Manhattan arts center."

"Fifteen years after Michael Flatley and company burst onto the international stage at the Eurovision Song Contest, Bulgaria’s answer to 'Riverdance,' has reached American shores."

"Boston Ballet's 2009-10 season, its first at the Opera House, will feature a mixture of the old and new, ranging from works by George Balanchine to a world premiere by Helen Pickett and revivals of recently staged productions of 'Giselle' and Jiri Kylian's 'Black and White.'"

"His mind is restlessly analytical, working now toward poetic drama, now toward pure-dance intricacy. His main concern is always dance itself."

"People might have thought designing a computer was hard...they haven't tried ballroom dancing."