It was a starry night in the City of Angels on Monday, as dance-world luminaries gathered at the Debbie Allen Dance Academy for the Dance Magazine Awards. Though the annual ceremony is always a festive affair, this year—its first ever in Los Angeles—it had a special Hollywood sparkle. The evening (sponsored by Backhausdance, Bennington College, […]

This week we’re sharing tributes to all of the 2025 Dance Magazine Award honorees. For tickets to the awards ceremony on December 8, visit store.dancemedia.com. Stephen “tWitch” Boss Stephen “tWitch” Boss had a gorgeous smile, an easygoing charisma, a theatrical hip-hop style that was all about fun. Ellen DeGeneres, whose talk-show sidekick he became, once challenged him to freestyle […]

Janet Collins graced the cover of the February 1949 issue of Dance Magazine ahead of her New York City performance debut that April.

Time to let your artistic skills blossom—but this time, we don’t mean on the dance floor. Dancer, choreographer and artist Amber Pickens has used her quarantine time to illustrate a coloring book that celebrates Black dance history. The Juilliard graduate, who recently made her choreographic debut, created Blooming in Motion as a fun, educational way […]

Janet Collins, Raven Wilkinson, Debra Austin, Nora Kimball, Misty Copeland, Francesca Hayward. All of these successful black ballet dancers have something in common: they skew toward the fairer end of the sepia spectrum. Onstage, the duskiness of their complexions can be all but washed out, bleached by the lights. From the audience, they could present […]