Category: News

An event as eclectic as Eurovision is tricky to predict, however certain factors of the competition could help audiences make a decision between one country and another. Recently Dance Direct analysed which factors appear in winning performances to understand what goes into the ideal Eurovision Song Contest combination. Continue reading Who will win Eurovision 2019?

This Spring the UK’s original graduate dance company – Transitions Dance Company – embarks on a tour of UK and European venues with a newly commissioned triple bill from choreographers Karole Armitage, Hetain Patel and Marina Collard. The three works From Dirt To Soil (Karole Armitage), many much, many much too many (Marina Collard) and You Tube Made Me (Hetain Patel) range from graceful precision to the wry and mischievous in a programme that showcases this year’s superb company of international dance artists. Continue reading Jasmine Rose Man of Transitions Dance Company

Stage fright can be a common occurrence for dancers – or any performer – whether they are amateur or professionals, ballet dancers, contemporary dancers or even singers and actors. Everyone can experience stage fright at some point, which can begin as plain nervousness while they are performing. With dancers fully fledged stage fright could mean you can’t remember the steps or are frightened to present yourself on the stage, and it can cause extreme emotions. Continue reading Overcoming stage fright

Scottish Ballet will be joined by Senior Guest Artist Cira Robinson from Ballet Black for the world premiere of Helen Pickett’s The Crucible, starting at the Edinburgh International Festival. The production will then embark on a tour, enabling even more audiences to experience the collaboration of performance. Continue reading Scottish Ballet and Ballet Black

There are a multitude of barre fitness classes popping up throughout both the dance and fitness industry, tapping into the ever-hungry market for something new to try in the name of health and wellbeing. There has been some debate as to whether these classes can be defined as dance, or whether they sit purely within the fitness remit. Whilst there are often elements of dance in these classes – whether their aim is to tone, stretch or raise the heart rate – it is arguable that they fall under the fitness guise when looking at the credibility of the dance content. Continue reading Barre fit

The musical theatre genre, which helps populate West End, Broadway and many other theatres across the world, is hugely important to the training of an aspiring performer. Without the skills of acting, singing and dancing, alongside everything else today’s musical theatre courses offer, there is less chance of success for that performer. While the phrase ‘it’s not what you know but who you know’ often rings true, in performing arts there needs to be a certain level of skill too. Performers who excel in all three areas are known as triple threats, and often have a competitive advantage against their counterparts if they are, for example, a strong singer but weak dancer. Continue reading The importance of musical theatre training

For performers, the risk of doing too much and pushing the body too hard is known as burnout. It is a state of consistent or unexplained tiredness, poor performance, negative mood and an increase in illness or injury. It is often seen when dancers’ training, rehearsing and performing schedules do not give them time to rest and recover. Continue reading The danger of burnout

It is becoming more and more common to see ballet dancers swapping the stage for screen, and vice versa, such as Sergei Polunin and Misty Copeland starring in the Nutcracker film last year, alongside Keira Knightly. Many film and TV stars aspired to succeed in ballet before they graced the big screen too, such as Lily James of Arts Ed Tring, practising pliés and grand jetés in a studio long before the film studio. Some may be more well known than others, but they all reinforce the foundations training in ballet has for so many. Continue reading Actor dancers

For both dancers and dance teachers, knees are one of the most well-used parts of the body, and are usually the parts to wear out quickest, along with hips. Knee problems are common but that is not to trivialise knee pain or niggles in any way. Continue reading Knee nightmares

Yorke Dance Project celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, at Clore Studio Upstairs, Royal Opera House with TWENTY. New works by Robert Cohan CBE, Sophia Stoller and Yorke-Edgell feature alongside the first restaging of Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s Playground since its Edinburgh Festival premiere, by Sadler’s Wells Ballet in 1979. Continue reading Yorke Dance Project’s 20th anniversary