Dancing for More than the Self

An Interview with Sacred Dancer Stella Matsuda BY EMMALY WIEDERHOLT I recently found myself at a singing retreat with my aunt, and one of the participants was Stella Matsuda, a dancer who runs a sacred dance company. Since, in the handful of times I have attended religious services I have […]

March 20, 2014  |  Read Article

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

Positive Life-Affirming Exercise

An Interview with Ryan Heffington BY EMMALY WIEDERHOLT “No More Words” belts from the stereo. Los Angeles-based dance artist Ryan Heffington hollers encouragement to the forty-ish sweaty people in the room. “Woo! One two three WORK,” he shouts. “Head circle, walk around, strike a pose.” This is Sweaty Sundays, a […]

February 17, 2014  |  Read Article