Ah, the holidays. For so many Nutcracker devotees, the two hours spent each Christmas with Clara and her candyland fantasies is an event to look forward to. Like Santa, it only comes one night a year. But for the dancers who can chart their Nutcracker evolution from high school auditoriums to 3,000-seat opera houses, the […]
Former New York City Ballet dancer Linda Hamilton, Ph.D., is a lecturer, a psychologist in private practice, and the author of Advice for Dancers (Jossey-Bass). She has been offering advice to Dance Magazine readers since 1992. Does practicing more than one technique cause injuries? I’ve studied ballet since I was a kid, but recently added […]
Former New York City Ballet dancer Linda Hamilton, Ph.D., is a lecturer, a psychologist in private practice, and the author of Advice for Dancers (Jossey-Bass). She has been offering advice to Dance Magazine readers since 1992. All I ever wanted was to get accepted into a major professional school that’s affiliated with a company. Now […]
Former New York City Ballet dancer Linda Hamilton, Ph.D., is a lecturer, a psychologist in private practice, and the author of Advice for Dancers (Jossey-Bass). She has been offering advice to Dance Magazine readers since 1992. All I’ve ever wanted is to be a ballerina. Now, I’ve put in four years at my company performing […]
Former New York City Ballet dancer Linda Hamilton, Ph.D., is a lecturer, a psychologist in private practice, and the author of Advice for Dancers (Jossey-Bass). She has been offering advice to Dance Magazine readers since 1992. Can switching pointe shoes to the opposite foot each day make them last longer? I don’t have much money […]
I’m concerned about a dancer in my company who uses drugs and alcohol. Management has asked him to go into rehab. He admitted he was struggling and entered a program. How can I help? We used to be friends before he had these problems. Can you tell me why this happens? Getting Sober New York, […]
I’m a director of a professional ballet company who’s stymied by the low self-esteem of two of my dancers, in spite of their undeniable talent and my positive input and steady support. I want to suggest therapy, particularly for one dancer who confided to me that she feels so worthless she can barely get out […]
Don’t call her work “activist art,” says choreographer Emily Johnson. Though the endangered natural environment has been her theme in several works, the soft-spoken, slender Johnson says she owes her vision as much to the exploratory vocabulary of contact improvisation as the natural world of her Alaskan childhood. Praised by Minneapolis critics for the […]