Keeping competition routines in tip-top shape is always labor-intensive—but especially when the number is the work of a guest choreographer, who may have set it months ago and probably isn’t available to oversee the cleaning process. Here’s how to polish even the smallest details of a guest artist’s routine without altering the piece’s integrity.

Mentorship amongst choreographers is nothing new: Jose Limón had Doris Humphrey, and Alvin Ailey had Lester Horton. But in a career where there is often scarce training (most college programs still primarily train dancers, not choreographers, for instance) and that can be competitive and isolating, mentorship opportunities that are formalized rather than happenstance are becoming increasingly needed.

Long before a dancer steps into the spotlight for a competition solo, the work of creating the steps that will lead to their success begins. With a strong partnership between dancer and choreographer, this process can be its own reward:

Dancers are taking a closer look at how the dynamics­ among collaborators and creatives seem to be shifting; the boundary between dancer and choreographer is not always as clear as it once was, and the common hierarchy of choreographer/associate choreographer/dancer does not always accurately reflect what is happening in the room.

Most applications—for grants, residencies, teaching jobs, even some performance gigs—ask choreographers for an artist statement. But as common as it is, this kind of writing can feel frustratingly difficult to get right. At its core, an artist statement offers a short description of what your work is, what it looks like and how it functions […]

Most people in the ballet world know the iconic green, pancake-flat tutus of William Forsythe’s The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude (1996). But they might not know that it was principal dancer Stephen Galloway who designed them. For much of his career at Ballett Frankfurt, he was also the company’s head costume designer and style coordinator. Galloway—whose grandmother […]

If you’re an early-career choreographer, your needs are likely many and your resources few. There’s rehearsal space to rent, dancers to gather, schedules to align—and that’s not including the all-important creative labor of making the dance itself. But setting up a supportive working environment where dancers feel safe is a piece of the puzzle that […]

Getting commissioned to create a brand-new piece sounds like a dream to most freelance choreographers. You get to work with talented dancers, in studio space you don’t have to reserve yourself, sometimes with carte blanche regarding choreographic themes, music and even cast size. But, at least in concert dance, these gigs typically operate on a […]