When your role is to be part of the background—less center stage, more scenery—it can sometimes feel like what you do onstage doesn’t matter all that much. But it’s actually an essential role: These dancers can set the tone, help move the story forward, and give the audience something rich and layered to look at. […]

It’s my personal belief that at the center of every electrifying dance performance is a story. Even the works that are supposedly plotless have something evocative going on behind the eyes—in the way the body floats, jabs, crumples, and reaches. Sure, dancers tell their own tales from time to time, but more often than not, […]

Whether playing a saucy soubrette or an imperious swan, Irina Dvorovenko was always a formidable presence on the American Ballet Theatre stage. Since her 2013 retirement at 39, after 16 seasons, she’s been bringing that intensity to an acting career in roles ranging from, well, Russian ballerinas to the Soviet-era newcomer she plays in the […]