For choreographers, the name of the game is, frequently, collaboration: with dancers, with designers, with composers. But what about the choreographers who find artistic soulmates, making long-term collaboration central to how they create work? That kind of partnership can transcend disciplines, decades, and dynamic approaches, leading to a distinctly exciting kind of art-making.

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.

“Is everyone okay?” was my most used sentence during my time with American Ballet Theatre. There I was, leading world-class ABT dancers through my own choreographic process. I knew that it was unlike anything they’d ever experienced, but I think half of the time I was asking that question, it was really directed to myself. […]