Creating Hula in Response to Climate Change

An Interview with Patrick Makuakāne BY EMMALY WIEDERHOLT Patrick Makuakāne is the director of Nā Lei Hulu I Ka Wēkiu, a Bay Area-based dance company that blends traditional and contemporary forms of Hawaiian dance. He is presenting a new work that addresses climate change at Dance Mission Theater’s upcoming D.I.R.T. […]

March 7, 2019  |  Read Article

The Chitrasena Dance Company Straddles Traditional and Contemporary

The Chitrasena Dance Company is Sri Lanka’s oldest dance company, and was established in the 1940s by Guru Chitrasena, who was instrumental in bringing Sri Lanka’s traditional dances from the village rituals to the modern stage. Today, the dance school and company continue to use traditional dance to create cutting-edge […]

January 24, 2019  |  Read Article

Where Global and Indigenous Meet

An Interview with Jack Gray BY EMMALY WIEDERHOLT; PHOTOGRAPHY BY JINKI CAMBRONERO Jack Gray is the artistic director and founder of Atamira Dance Company, a contemporary Māori contemporary dance theater company in Auckland, New Zealand. In this interview, he discusses the making and the impact of one of his most […]

March 29, 2018  |  Read Article

A Global Discussion

An Interview with Jack Gray BY EMMALY WIEDERHOLT; PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOHN McDERMOTT Jack Gray is the artistic director and founder of Atamira Dance Company, a contemporary Māori contemporary dance theater company in Auckland, New Zealand. In this interview, he discusses how a Māori world-view can be applied through contemporary dancemaking, […]

March 26, 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