Dance Direct Blog. News, Reviews & Advice About Dance

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

With gymnastics predominantly classed as a sport and dance an art, it seems the boundaries of the two are blurring as dancers aspire to more ways to stand out from the crowd. Gymnastics has always had a connection to dance – at the Olympic Games the gymnasts must incorporate an element of ‘dance’ to their floor routines – however gymnastics and acrobatics do now always belong in dance. Continue reading Acrobatics vs dance

Many dancers supplement their training with alternative practices, such as yoga. Alternative training methods help dancers on their way to becoming better and stronger dancers, and yoga provides many benefits for dancers. No matter where you,are in your dance journey, it’s never too late to start yoga! Continue reading It’s never too late to start yoga

The week-long theatre summer school for 8 – 21 years olds, West End Stage, returns to London this August, as the ultimate summer holiday activity for young performers. In 2006, West End Stage began, with the aim of igniting a global passion for theatre, bringing together young people from all over the world through their shared love of performing. In 2018, when the summer school celebrated its 10,000th student, 26% of students attended from outside the UK, coming from 52 countries. Continue reading West End Stage returns to London this August