I love the Throwback Thursday (hashtag it: #tbt) trend on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram—especially when my favorite dancers tag themselves in hilarious little kid recital photos. Another thing I love? Getting lost in the internet, re-watching all of my favorite dance performances from “So You Think You Can Dance,” the Dance Spirit Cover Model Search […]
On Saturday evening, Dance Spirit editor-in-chief Alison Feller and I attended one of our favorite summer dance events: The New York City Dance Alliance closing-night gala. It’s always jam-packed with dance celebs (Oh hey, Jakob Karr!) and is never lacking for awe-inspiring talent. Here are a few highlights from the night: The Rockettes opened the […]
The annual Destiny Rising gala benefits the awesome New York City Dance Alliance Foundation, which is dedicated to helping young dancers fund their college educations. So how fitting is it that at last night’s Destiny Rising performance, it was a college dance company that stole the show? That would be the Conservatory Dance Company of […]
Dana Wilson may be one of New York City Dance Alliance’s most popular hip-hop teachers, but it’s hard to put her in just one stylistic box. Yes, she knows how to hit it—hard—but she can also be playful and girly. Sometimes she’ll even go full-on lyrical, composing lush, fluid phrases. Wilson was born in Aurora, […]
Offstage, 9-year-old Kayla Mak is like any other 4th-grader. She’s a happy kid who likes math and watching TV. (Her favorite show is “So You Think You Can Dance,” of course.) But get her onstage and you’ll see a whole different Kayla—a girl who’s anything but ordinary. At the New York City Dance Alliance Foundation’s […]
To most of my friends, summer means days on the beach applying sunscreen and reading magazines. To me, summer brings long nights in chilly convention ballrooms, taking frantic notes about this year’s up-and-coming, OMG-we-have-to-feature-them dancers. And I wouldn’t have it any other way: Nationals season is my favorite time of the dance year. One of the […]
Last night, DS assistant/fashion editor Michael Anne Bailey and I got all decked out —I wore jeans, actually, but she was decked out and looked super cute — to attend the New York City Dance Alliance Foundation‘s Destiny Rising show at The Joyce Theater in NYC. In honor of NYCDAF’s first anniversary, last night’s show […]
Sarah performing her solo, “The Black Hawk Waltz,” at NYCDA Nationals. By ProPix. At last summer’s Dance Awards finale in NYC, superstars including Travis Wall, Nick Lazzarini, Bobby Newberry and Mandy Moore all tore up the dance floor—but it was pint-size Sarah Pippin, now 14, who earned the only standing ovation of the night. Her […]