Pre-Professional Dancers Can Sharpen Their Partnering Skills at BalletMet This Summer

Whether you’re a pre-professional dancer looking for a rigorous—but rewarding—summer schedule or a junior dancer looking to expand your training over the summer, BalletMet in Columbus, Ohio, has an intensive for you. “BalletMet has very versatile intensives, focusing mainly in ballet, but also incorporating other genres, conditioning and dance history into the schedule,” says BalletMet Academy director Dr. Maria Torija. “During our intensive, our students dance from 9 in the morning to 5 in the evening with a 45-minute lunch break, so there is lots of instruction time. But we also like to balance that by introducing them to fun things to do around […]

Philadelphia Ballet’s Summer Programs Focus on Professional Experience and Wellness

For pre-professional dancers, a summer at the School of Philadelphia Ballet means choosing your own adventure from its roster of expertly crafted experiences, led by school director Davit Karapetyan and Philadelphia Ballet artistic director Angel Corella. During the five-week Summer Intensive Program, Karapetyan advocates for a balanced, holistic practice that starts well before morning pliés. He emphasizes that SIP students should learn to “eat properly, have the right amount of nutrition, develop strength and well-being, and sleep enough to recover and prevent injuries.” To that end, Philadelphia Ballet has tapped a team of wellness experts in everything from nutrition to physical therapy, Pilates, strength training, and sleep science for workshop sessions […]

ShanDien Sonwai LaRance Carries On Native American Tradition, Culture, and Legacy Through Hoop Dance

At age 8, ShanDien Sonwai LaRance’s father made it a point for her and her two brothers to train together every day at a recreation center in Flagstaff, Arizona. Different-colored hoops sprinkled the floor as the LaRance children prepared for their hour of after-school training in Native American hoop dance. Although she wanted to go downstairs to play with her friends, her dad affectionately said “Practice now, and one day, this dance will open doors for you.”  He was right. Through hoop dance, LaRance has become an advocate for Indigenous communities, sharing her Native American culture with the world. She […]

Office Hours With Ishmael Houston-Jones

Ishmael Houston-Jones has built an illustrious career on a willingness to take risks, push boundaries, and improvise. A performer and dancemaker who primarily works in the postmodern dance world, he says he brings that sense of curiosity and spontaneity to the classroom, too—something he hopes to impart to the students he teaches at colleges and universities throughout the nation.  “For the last several years, I have been ‘The Roving Adjunct,’ ” Houston-Jones says of the breadth of his teaching practice. “This fall, I was a mentor for MFA-in-visual-arts students at Columbia University, and I will be teaching one day a week […]

Tommy Wasiuta Has Created a Solo Album With an Unexpected Instrument: Tap Shoes

Tap dancer Tommy Wasiuta grew up with a drum set in his basement, playing around with it anytime he got the chance. When he discovered solo drum albums in college, he fell in love with the idea of listening to just one drummer on one drum set. And it sparked an idea: “I was like, ‘I want to do the same thing with tap shoes and see how musical I can get them,’ ” he says.  With this in mind, he started experiencing tap through a new lens, hearing grooves he made with his feet rather than thinking about how the […]

My Lineage: A Tribute to the Dance Educators Whose Shoulders I Stand On

Sometimes, when I look at where I’m currently at in my work in dance education, I’m reminded of poet Rupi Kaur’s quote, “I stand on the sacrifices of a million women before me, thinking: What can I do to make this mountain taller so the women after me can see farther?” While it would be dismissive of my own hard work to not recognize the great effort I put into my learning and earning of opportunities, it is important to acknowledge where I’ve come from and how I’ve arrived where I happen to be.  Lineage in dance allows us to […]

How Bennington College Saved University of the Arts’ Dance Programs After the School’s Sudden Closure

On a Friday afternoon on the last day of May, Donna Faye Burchfield was sitting on her deck in Philadelphia when a newspaper notification popped up on her friend’s phone: University of the Arts, where Burchfield had been dean of the School of Dance since 2010, was closing its doors in a week—for good. Were Burchfield and her colleagues given any warning? “Of course not,” she says with a laugh, still incredulous months after the fact. “And we had 31 students scheduled to leave for France in less than two weeks for the low-residency MFA program.” Burchfield spent the rest […]

Letter From the Editor: Happy Holidays, Dance Teachers!

When the casting sheet goes up, there’s one role that few students are excited to see their name next to: understudy. Some of us know what that feels like (at least I do), but as educators, it is our job to help our students navigate this responsibility and encourage them to put in just as much effort as if they were first cast. Luckily, we’ll have tried-and-tested strategies from experienced educators on DT+ this month. We’ll also be offering tips on structuring a dance class for K–12 general-education students that strikes a balance between creative exploration, choreography, and technique; discussing […]

Educator Moves: Shifts in the Dance Education Landscape From Fall 2024

From director shifts to faculty appointments and beyond, here are the major dance educator moves you should know about from fall 2024. Kelli David-Low has been appointed dance education director at Deeply Rooted Dance Theater. Amy Marshall has been named associate director of education at the Paul Taylor Dance Foundation. April Ball, Phillip Broomhead, and Emily Nicolaou have joined the full-time faculty of University of North Carolina School of the Arts’ School of Dance. Hansuke Yamamoto has joined the faculty of San Francisco Ballet School. Eric Tamm has joined the faculty of the American Ballet Theatre William J. Gillespie School […]