At the first Oklahoma Indian Ballerina Festival, in 1957, its founder, Moscelyne Larkin, danced Myrtha in Act Two of “Giselle” and Maria Tallchief performed an excerpt from “Swan Lake.” It was a festival created to honor five Native American ballerinas, all hailing from Oklahoma. But it would take 10 years, and the premiere of a ballet, “The Four Moons,” for the festival to really celebrate the dancers’ heritages as well as their artistry. As prima ballerinas in the 1940s through the 1960s in major companies, Yvonne Chouteau, Rosella Hightower, Larkin, and

Esha enters her first Bharatanatyam class hoping to wear a costume and perform on stage very soon or make a video for YouTube like her friend. She has been watching her sister dance and wishes to mimic the beautiful moves one day. However, when she begins to train, she realises her regular classes involve a mundane drill of adavu movements that cause sore legs. The dream of donning a costume and performing seems far-fetched. As a young Bharatanatyam teacher, the challenge is to find new ways to

Anyone who competes on the hit show “America’s Got Talent” has to be battling a ton of nerves in the moments right before they walk on that stage for the first time. After all, they’re on television. It’s a live crowd. Life-changing opportunity awaits if they do well, and a panel of celebrity judges such as Simon Cowell and Heidi Klum are waiting to be impressed. The show must go on, though. You have to be yourself, trust in your limitless talent, and have fun doing what you

Neuromuscular specialist Saurabh Shukla, MD, served his PGY-1 year of residency at Cornell University in New York, completed his residency at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, then moved to the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine for a one-year neuromuscular fellowship before joining the faculty of the University of Mississippi's department of neurology in January of 2019 as an assistant professor and director of the neuromuscular fellowship. Throughout the moves, and apart from his focus on neuromuscular disorder, he has brought one thing with him from

Linda-Denise Fisher-Harrell knows how it feels to be the only Black dancer in the dressing room. “Everyone was friendly, but it was a lonely feeling that nobody looked like me,” says the former star of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, recalling her first dance job 30 years ago, with Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. “So when it came to styling my hair, I couldn’t rely on anyone to help advise me. There were so many little things like that.” Read more @ https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/theater_dance/black-women-dance-leadership-positions/2021/08/16/8fa93de6-f6ff-11eb-9738-8395ec2a44e7_story.html

“I love dancing because when I get into a dance studio all the weight drops off my shoulders and I feel like I can do anything!” The cast was selected in big virtual audition back in July 2020. The young dancers were sent a short audition class to learn and then film themselves performing. The videos were submitted to EYB to choose the cast. There were over 180 young hopeful dancers who submitted videos, from whom 65 were chosen. The cast will have rehearsed for 60 hours over 10 days of

Ballerina Mackennzie Mount is perfectly poised to pursue a career in dance. The Oak Bay teen has been dancing as long as she can remember – she’s told it was age 4 – and left home for studies the first time when she was 10. Time spent away over the years includes prestigious summer intensives with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and the National Ballet. The highest point though, as far as she’s concerned, was when an adjudicator for the recent B.C. Performing Arts festival told her if she

Ayodele is a Yoruba word meaning “joy in the home,” and the Chicago-based Ayodele Drum & Dance imparts the joy of these African arts through adult and youth classes, workshops and performances—all adapted for remote modes during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ayodele is one of eight Chicago companies that are part of the Chicago Black Dance Legacy Project, launched in 2019 in a partnership with UChicago’s Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, the Joyce Foundation, and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. The CBDLP creates a community of artists and gives these historically

Last summer, Jonathan Stafford, the artistic director of New York City Ballet, was feeling isolated and anxious. It was a few months into the pandemic, and the strangeness of lockdown and the turmoil and urgency of the Black Lives Matter protests were on his mind. City Ballet’s performances, programs and plans had come to an abrupt halt — as they had for performing arts organizations across the country. No one knew when or how theaters would open again. Many dancers had fled to family or friends outside the city; most