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 […]
To watch Amber Jackson dance is to watch breath in motion. Each movement seems to emerge from deep inside: her port de bras comes from her gut, and her extension starts with a ripple of her spine. One move is a sharp gasp and the next a soft sigh. At 21, Amber has already had […]
Kaitlynn Edgar is classically beautiful, a cross between Kate Bosworth and Marilyn Monroe. She looks like she belongs on the red carpet—but she really shines onstage. Though Kaitlynn is petite, she dances with strength, power and control. Her développés stretch toward the balcony, her pirouettes are clean, her port de bras lifted. And beyond technique, […]