Here are the latest promotions, appointments, and departures, as well as notable awards and accomplishments, from February 2025.

Her career soaring at Miami City Ballet, Taylor Naturkas has ridden on the wings of fabled creatures for her latest successes. After Naturkas performed the titular role in the Balanchine/Robbins Firebird last February, artistic director Lourdes Lopez promoted her to principal soloist. Two months later, Naturkas debuted as Odette/Odile in Alexei Ratmansky’s Swan Lake. This fall she’s ready for a deeper dive into Balanchine’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, after her spring guest appearance in this work with New York City Ballet.

“It feels strange sometimes,” the Ukrainian dancer Stanislav Olshanskyi, who recently joined Miami City Ballet, says of his new life in Miami. “The weather is always nice, there are iguanas and birds, and I can see water from my apartment.” He pauses for a moment, reflecting on his new life. “And yet it’s the same world where there is a war going on in Ukraine, where bad things happen and people are dying.”

Audition classes may not differ much from any other class—but directors have ways of sussing out who has what they’re looking for. We spoke to three artistic directors to get their perspective from the front of the room. Show You’re Adaptable Lopez says that dancers must have a clean, classical foundation. Alexander Iziliaev, Courtesy Miami […]

I want to make an apology because, in my opening speech at the Dance Magazine Awards on Monday, I inadvertently left out one awardee. I said, “Tonight we are honoring four outstanding dance artists who have contributed to the dance field over time.” But then I named only three. How could I have forgotten Lourdes […]

What does it mean to be human? Well, many things. But if you were at the Dance Magazine Awards last night, you could argue that to be human is to dance. Speeches about the powerful humanity of our art form were backed up with performances by incredible dancers hailing from everywhere from Hubbard Street Dance […]

No, she isn’t like other artistic directors, and that’s not just because she’s a woman. Lourdes Lopez, who’s led Miami City Ballet since 2012, doesn’t want this to be taken the wrong way, but as for her vision? She doesn’t really have one. “I just want good dancers and a good company and good rep […]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Press Contact: Jonathan Marder + Company Eve Hodgkinson | 212.271.4285 [email protected] New York, NY (September 2018) – Misty Copeland will open the 61st annual Dance Magazine Awards. The evening will honor Ronald K. Brown, Lourdes Lopez (presented by Darren Walker), Crystal Pite, and Michael Trusnovec (presented by Patrick Corbin). A special Leadership […]