Following its premiere on 30 May, the competitors of NBC’s ‘World of Dance’ have tough competition. World of Dance is a new dance competition series which will see 47 dance acts compete in three categories – Upper (groups of one to four dancers, 18 and older), Junior (any size act, 17 years old and under) and Team (groups of five or more, 18 and older). The dancers are competing for a prize of $1 million and will be judged by an all-star panel of experts, including Jennifer Lopez, Derek Hough, NE-YO and host Jenna Dewan Tatum.
Continue reading NBC’s ‘World of Dance’
Tickets for Dance Umbrella, London’s flagship festival of international dance, went on sale last week, with an exciting programme of dance and theatre scheduled for the autumn. Dance Umbrella will run from 11 – 28 October 2017, opening with Satchie Noro and Silvain Ohl’s outdoor performance Origami on a 40ft shipping container at Battersea Power Station, as the UK premiere for the piece.
Barre classes are most definitely in vogue at the moment, with both dancers and non-dancers alike engaging in barre-related activities. They can be a challenging workout, but are they beneficial for dancers to partake in? It seems barre can be so much more than a Sunday morning class, and actually an ideal cross-training complement for dancers. 
London’s New Diorama Theatre recently opened ND2, a 4,000 square metre space, which will act as a creative hub by day and an events space by night. It is the largest rehearsal space in central London, with the theatre having signed a one year lease with London-based property developer British Land.
The month of May saw it confirmed that the production of Harry Potter And The Cursed Child will have its Broadway premiere in spring 2018, at the newly renovated Lyric Theatre in New York. The official opening will be 22 April 2018, with preview performances, casting and all further details to be announced in the coming months. Tickets will go on sale in the autumn.
Evangelia Kolyra is a Greek born, London-based artist and performer. Working within the choreographic realm, her work takes place within theatre spaces, site-specific, film and installation contexts and spans dance, theatre and performance art to explore the performative state. Through her physically demanding choreography, Evangelia’s work bridges contemporary dance and the contemporary visual arts, incorporating the unexpected, humorous and sometimes dark sides to the psychology of human experience.
Birmingham Royal Ballet, in association with Sadler’s Wells, is set to launch a world class ballet development programme in 2017, in order to nurture talent currently on stage. The two organisations are joining forces for a major new concept for classical choreographers, in the form of a five-year programme of professional development, with two commissions made each year. Ballet Now will support a total of six artists per year, with one choreographer, composer and designer per commission.
Cirque Éloize will return to the Edinburgh Fringe this year after an 18 year break: it will mark Cirque Éloize’s second time at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and follows a critically-acclaimed 1999 run of Circus Excentricus. This year the company will present Cirkopolis, an imaginative and humorous show seen by over 450,000 in 100 cities in 30 countries. It won the Drama Desk Awards for Unique Theatrical Experience in 2014.
A report from the House of Lords has deemed the focus on sciences as detrimental to the arts in schools, as a result of the Communications Committee investigating the barriers young people face when attempting to get into the performing arts industry. As part of the report, the committee heard from witnesses including director Indhu Rubasingham and the CEO of the Society of London Theatre, Julian Bird. Aside from supporting the report, they also highlighted the number of performers, directors and writers from more affluent backgrounds, and the under-representation of those from BAME communities.
One Dance UK, the national advocacy body for dance, has released a manifesto ahead of the general election next month on 8 June. The manifesto demands that dance should have the same status in education as subjects such as maths and English, and even the same status as the similar arts subject music.