Lilach Orenstein wants audiences to be in charge of how they experience her work, whether she’s livestreaming multiple perspectives or offering access points through different mediums, like text. It’s a sign of bravery and boldness, especially considering how deeply personal her work often is, exploring topics like sexual assault and her childhood in Israel. This […]

Maya Billig, choreographer and filmmaker, has loved fantasy storytelling since childhood, her vision shaped by Miami’s clashing cultures and unique weirdness, plus years of her own solitary global travels.

The musical-theater world loves to typecast, but Sam Faulkner (who uses “he/they” pronouns) is hard to classify.

Chicago Tap Theatre’s Sterling Harris is a study in dualities. An effervescent performer and budding choreographer, he’s an amalgam of his training in rhythm tap on Chicago’s South Side and in Billy Siegenfeld’s exuberant, theatrical Jump Rhythm technique via Northwestern University. “Sterling walks in the room and the energy shifts,” says CTT artistic director Mark […]

Myssi Robinson moves from the inside out. It’s as if she has conversations with every breath, registers them in her limbs, and then envelops the space. Whether in works by David Dorfman or Kyle Marshall, she masterfully mixes text and technique. Age: 30 Hometown: Richmond, Virginia Companies: Kyle Marshall Choreography, David Dorfman Dance Training: City […]

Last October, American Ballet Theatre’s Xuelan Lu stepped out of the corps for the first time, to perform a leading role in Twyla Tharp’s Deuce Coupe. As one of two dancers who open the ballet, she provided a kind of throughline from beginning to end. It’s not a role that requires flash, but it takes […]

During Kathryn Manger’s very first Nutcracker season with Pennsylvania Ballet in 2015, an injury and a hunch prompted artistic director Angel Corella to cast her in the role of Sugarplum Fairy. She learned it overnight. “That’s all quite rare for an apprentice,” says assistant artistic director Samantha Dunster, who has known the dancer since her […]

Onstage or off, Madison Keesler has riveting eyes. A bewitching intensity shines from their depths, which are set in a pretty, delicate face. At 21, Keesler, a San Francisco Ballet corps member, has already drawn notice in soloist roles. In Helgi Tomasson’s Giselle, her engaging glances lent a girlish appeal to her strong  technique in […]