Articles from the ‘Professional Dancer’ collection

Dance is Definitely Work

ERIN MALLEY has worked as a dancer, performer, choreographer, director, video designer and filmmaker. In 2015, she and her husband Doruk Golcu began teaching and performing Argentine Tango internationally, and Erin took her film projects on the road with her. Here, she shares her staunch perspective that getting paid is […]

January 29, 2018  |  Read Article

Questioning the Professional Paradigm

JESSICA PERINO is co-artistic director of 20MOONS. Based in Durango, Colorado—a town of 17,000—the company offers a contemporary and explorative approach to dance-making. Here, she offers several questions and concerns about the way society conceptualizes professional dance. Her responses are part of a larger series dissecting what it means to be […]

January 25, 2018  |  Read Article

Delineating Professional Belly Dance

DEBORAH NEWBERG is an oriental dancer (aka belly dancer, Raks Sharqi dancer, or Middle Eastern dancer), choreographer, director of the Saltanah Dancers, and a belly dance instructor at Santa Fe Community College and DanceSpace. She discusses the question of what makes a professional through the lens of belly dance, and […]

January 22, 2018  |  Read Article

Permeating Community with Professional-Level Dance

JOANIE GARCIA is one of the founders of Dark Sky Aerial, an aerial theater and performance art company in Flagstaff, Arizona. She describes her personal ambiguity toward the term “professional dancer,” and recognizes the more comprehensive role dance can play in a person’s life. Her responses are part of a […]

January 18, 2018  |  Read Article

Expanding Access and Equity in the Dance Profession

MARK TRAVIS RIVERA, founder of marked dance project and an award-winning activist, choreographer, dancer, speaker and writer, shares his perspective on what makes a professional dancer and how his intersectionality being Latino, gay, gender non-conforming (femme) and disabled informs his point of view. His responses are part of a larger […]

January 15, 2018  |  Read Article