CURRENT ISSUE
March 2010
Full Table of Contents
Click here to read our January 2009 cover story "The Pioneers: Inside ABT's New Training Program"
Online-only features
- Lynn Simonson leads a tendu exercise, emphasizing proper pelvic alignment
- Math Dance performance excerpts by Dr. Schaffer and Mr. Stern
- Ballet class with Elizabeth Parkinson at FineLine Theatre Arts
- Marni Thomas teaches Graham contractions
- Ballet class with Summer Lee Rhatigan, director of San Francisco Conservatory of Dance
- Tony Stevens demonstrates jazzy plies
- Mandy Moore's choreography in "Fashion Forward" at the 2009 DT Summit
- Video of Mandy Moore choreographing "Fashion Forward" at the 2009 DT Summit
- DT interviews Kim McSwain about her inspirational life
- Behind-the-scenes interview with Shane Sparks!
- Salsa with Cheryl Burke; a behind-the-scenes look at our October cover shoot!
- Interview with Cheryl Burke
- Dance at University of Michigan in the 1920s, and photos from their recent centennial celebration
- Modern Class with Carolyn Adams and ADF Honors Carolyn Adams, Ruth Andrien and Sharon Kinney
- Aerial Dance: two videos from Nancy Smith's "Frequent Flyer Productions"
- Ballet Class at Juilliard with Lawrence Rhodes
- Tech Rehearsal with Tap City Youth Ensemble
- Inside the NYU/ABT MA program with guest blogger Hannah G.
- Healthy Feet Exercises for Tappers
- Thinking on Their Feet preview
- View youngARTS slideshow
- Behind the Scenes with Urban Bush Women
- On Set with Tyce Diorio
- Behind the Scenes with ABT's Raymond Lukens, Rachel Moore and Franco De Vita
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Happenings
by
Jenai Cutcher and friend Lynn Schwab film Brenda Buffalino.
Thinking on Her Feet
Last month, more than three years of hard work paid off for Ohio State University graduate student, Jenai Cutcher, when her feature-length documentary, Thinking on Their Feet: Women of the Tap Renaissance, premiered at The Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio. Cutcher, who studies dance, was the only MFA candidate to receive a Presidential Fellowship, an award the university hands out to just 15 people a year.
Cutcher discovered tap dance in college, then moved to New York City after graduation and was surprised at how many female tap dancers she encountered in the male-dominated field. In 2005, she began videotaping informal Q&A sessions with some of those women. “I just started shooting. I thought video would be the most accessible to the widest audience,’” says Cutcher. Upon returning to Ohio State for graduate school, she knew that she wanted the documentary to serve as her final project for her MFA degree.
Eventually she narrowed her theme to women of the tap renaissance. These women—primarily Brenda Bufalino, Heather Cornell, Lynn Dally, Anita Feldman, Jane Goldberg, Sarah Petronio and Linda Sohl-Ellison—helped tappers find paying work at dance festivals and onstage during the late ’70s and early ’80s.
Cutcher’s wish is for young girls studying dance—specifically tap dance—to see her film and be inspired. “I always knew that these women were under-recognized, but I never knew how much. I had a sense of what they had done and how their work was benefiting me, but I definitely didn’t understand the scope of their work until we started talking.”
For a preview, click here.
Info: www.jenaicutcher.com
MoveStudio donates space and the teachers donate their time. Additionally, members from the community volunteer to help the dancers navigate through the studio. The volunteers also participate in class, something that Osni didn’t expect.
The students are hungry for more. “It was not me or Hsiao-Ling. The group has made it clear they want this on an ongoing basis,” says Osni. He and Dawson hope to find a permanent facility for ongoing classes. “They made it very clear from the beginning that their visual disability is only minor and demanded to be treated normal,” says Osni. “And you know what?” he laughs. “They can handle the Latin heat.”
Info: www.movestudio.com
“We know from speaking with educators that access to dance films has been a serious problem,” says Barbara Drazin, executive director of the DHC. “This project has the potential to tremendously increase the resources they have to use with their students.”
“We’ve been hoping to launch a project like this for at least 10 years,” says Drazin. “It’s exciting to see it coming to fruition. I think it will be of great use to so many people.”
