Interviews

In a close up photograph, ten dancers in spaghetti-strap leotards lean in, their eyes covered by a sheer black cloth. The middle dancer, closest to the camera, is mid-scream. Behind the dancer is the newly engraved building signage reading “The Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Center.” Some words are covered by the dancers’ heads.
Photo: Courtesy of The First Amendment Troop
  • Interviews

The Epstein Files and Redacted Bodies 

Megan Mizanty

An interview with choreographer Matthew Steffens on ResistDance vs. Redaction

Two dancers in long-sleeved red tops face away from us with arms round one another’s waists as their free arms reach outwards. There are singular, red feathers extending from their heads many feet into the upwards space. To the left of the duet, we see a large Taiko drum.
Photo: Mike Hurwitz
  • Interviews, thINKpieces

Afterglow: The Dancers of KYL/D Take a Final Bow

E. Wallis Cain Carbonell

‘Anticipating something and hoping it will be everything you wished for’

nora chipaumire, a Black African woman takes the stage in 100% POP with her collaborator, Shamar Watt, a Black Jamaican man in a black Adidas tracksuit and red-green-yellow, Zimbabwe-flag-colored Nike shoes. As he runs through the frame upstage, backgrounded by a grungy, urban wall, chipaumire captures the camera’s focus as she jumps into the air, one knee tucked up to her chest, the other a foot off the ground. Wearing a ripped white shirt, black track pants, and all-white high tops, chipaumire gazes down at the ground while she leaps up, as if stomping her way back to Earth.
Photo: Ian Douglas
  • Interviews

The West Did Not Make Me

ankita

An Interview with nora chipaumire

Georgina Pazcoguin, her short black bob framing her face, wears a white bodysuit decorated with blue and red flowers and holds a classical Chinese fan. Her eyes are defined with lined makeup as she extends into an elongated ballet pose.
Photo: Pentalina Productions LLC
  • Interviews, thINKpieces

About Face: Yellowface and the Cost of Looking Away

Lauren Berlin

To love ballet is to let it evolve

A group of dancers move together in a clump holding toilet plungers, some of which are donning messy black wigs or flightlights-as-eyes.
Photo: Jenna Maslechko
  • Interviews

By the Way, You Can Laugh

Rachel DeForrest Repinz

Brian Golden on disability, play, and humor as access.

A woman with short cropped hair wearing a long white tunic balances on her left leg in front of a large stone pillar and a section of the American flag. She looks over her extended right arm, her wrist gently lifted.
Photo: Meg Goldman
  • Interviews

The Truth Lives in The Body

Lauren Berlin

Reflections from Naomi Goldberg Haas on Movement, Belonging, and the Body as a Place to Return

A giant discoball hangs at the back of the theater, Philadelphia’s “biggest”. The stage is awash in red with a spotlight at the lip of the stage. The theater is empty; there is a sense of anticipation as the discoball takes over the frame of the photo.
Photo: Paige Phillips
  • Interviews

‘Don’t Stop Me Now’: A Philadelphia Dance Extravaganza

Zoe Farnsworth

A community dance extravaganza full of queerness, flirtiness and wild Queen Interpretations.

Three performers stand in a triangle in Studio 34. The camera blurs the background and focuses on their upper torsos and faces. The two dancers in backwear jeans and t-shirts; one laughs and the other holds a serious expression, bracing for impact. Together, they support the front dancer’s hips and shoulders. This third performer looks expectantly forward for the shove of another performer not in the photo.
Photo: Rachel Warriner
  • Interviews

Resistance and Art-Making: ‘Dancing Collective Power’

Zoe Farnsworth

Integrating improvisational dance skills into direct action protest

Matthew Neenan, a white man with light short-cut hair and bright blue eyes, stares forward. He wears a grey-ish blue casual button-down shirt.
Photo: Stephen K. Mack
  • Interviews

Quiet Loves and Potent Griefs: An Interview with Matthew Neenan

Caedra Scott-Flaherty

The beginning of a new chapter, a chance to connect with new people and find new voices.

A group of five individuals, dressed in business attire, all gather together for a selfie in the velvet-carpeted lobby of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Jane, at the front left, is a white, brunette woman with a medium pixie cut. Clad in a magenta blazer and black turtleneck, Jane dons a bright, bespectacled smile. Grinning behind Jane, Mallory, a white woman with dirty blonde hair, wears a black and white gingham dress and holds a silver clasp. Malik, a tawny-skinned Black man in a black button-down and trousers, stands beaming at Mallory’s left. Allison and Chloe, dressed in a white button-down and a floral dress respectively, lean into the photo, offering their smiles as well.
Photo courtesy of Ashayla Byrd
  • Interviews, thINKpieces

The Leaders Behind the Headlines: Conversations with the Kennedy Center’s [Terminated] Dance Programming Team

Ashayla Byrd

What happens when political agendas take precedence over a nation’s desire to feel seen and supported in artistic spaces?