Articles from the ‘Essays’ collection

Dancing with the Fullness of Myself

BY EMMALY WIEDERHOLT Like so many little girls, I wanted to be a ballet dancer. This desire did not fade as I approached adulthood, but grew in intensity. College was mandatory, and let’s face it, I wasn’t strong enough technically to get into a ballet company or trainee program, or […]

March 10, 2014  |  Read Article

Ballet from a Beginner’s Perspective

BY EMILY DOLSON These days, whenever I find myself in socks on a hardwood floor, I cannot help stretching my toes over the smooth boards into the firm point of a tendu. Sometimes, I prance around my Brooklyn apartment pretending that I know more steps than I do, but putting […]

March 6, 2014  |  Read Article

Iggy & Roo

Reflections on Teaching Ballet BY SIOBHAN SEARLE TONARELLI Iggy and Roo … Igor Zelensky and Farukh Ruzimatov, affectionately and practically renamed by my family one summer many years ago when the two joined the ever-growing list of dancers I regularly referred to in our ballet discussions. Ballet was an inexhaustible […]

February 24, 2014  |  Read Article

Dear Diva: MOVE It!

By Emmaly Wiederholt She walks into the studio as if we’re all watching her, which, ironically, I am. This will be my third time taking this particular ballet class, and I’m starting to get a sense of who the divas are. It’s over 80 degrees outside, yet she dons heavy […]

February 13, 2014  |  Read Article

What Gives Ballet its Staying Power

By Andrea Thompson It’s ballet, man. Classical ballet stands its ground in the evolution of dance in the same way that classical literature, painting, and music maintain relevancy in their respective fields. Artists in each discipline have been busily innovating and inventing, creating entirely new approaches that actively rebel against […]

February 10, 2014  |  Read Article