Margaret Fuhrer

New York

Features Editor at Dance Magazine

Dance writer/obsessive. Features editor @Dance_Magazine.

Articles

With telescoping crutches and hexapod legs, dance goes new places

4 weeks ago | seattletimes.com | Margaret Fuhrer

What are crutches for? To help an injured or disabled person get from Point A to Point B? Like most mobility devices, crutches are often designed and viewed in a matter-of-fact medical framework. There is a problem to be fixed; the device is the solution. Performances by Axis Dance Company routinely explode that idea.
Why Some Dance Companies Are Moving Away From Social Media

1 month ago | nytimes.com | Margaret Fuhrer

Credit... Illustration by Weronika Marianna Social media seemed to hold enormous promise for the dance field. So why are some dancers and companies choosing to disconnect? Credit... Illustration by Weronika Marianna Wonderbound, a contemporary ballet company in Denver, recently made a choice that would be unthinkable for many arts organizations: It quit social media. Cold. Dawn Fay, the troupe's president, said staff members were nervous about the decision.
Those Sounds (Brrr-ah Bah Bah-BAH) You Hear? Choreographers at Work.

2 months ago | nytimes.com | Margaret Fuhrer

TikTok teems with talented vocalists. One of the most popular is a choreographer. In a TikTok clip that now has more than 5 million views, the dance artist Sean Bankhead leads a tutorial for his routine to Cardi B's song "Up" - doing the steps, but also singing them. "Ooo, ooo, a-bock-a-bock-a BOCK!" he belts, his voice echoing, or maybe summoning, his body's syncopated rolls and digs.
The Choreographer Chris Gattelli Sends Love Letters to His Dance Heroes

Feb 6, 2025 | nytimes.com | Margaret Fuhrer

If Christopher Gattelli's choreography looks familiar, that's probably the point. A veteran of more than 20 Broadway shows and a devotee of movie musicals, he has an encyclopedic dance brain, a catalog of musical theater references he deploys throughout his work onstage and onscreen. Homage is his calling card. For Gattelli, 52, those scare quotes might as well be hugs. Barbed as his dance humor can be, it's underpinned by his affection for the genre, in spite and because of its excesses and quirks.
Celebrating Maria Tallchief: Balanchine Muse and America's Ballerina

Jan 29, 2025 | playbill.com | Margaret Fuhrer

Just before the premiere of Firebird, ballerina Maria Tallchief sensed disaster. She was to dance the title role, but a recent tonsillectomy had left her drained and sluggish. During the final dress rehearsal, a flying lift with partner Francisco Moncion had gone poorly, upsetting Moncion. Tallchief’s costume arrived from designer Barbara Karinska’s studio only a few hours before showtime, and neither Karinska nor George Balanchine were happy with the way it fit.
Celebrating Marie Tallchief: Balanchine Muse and America's Ballerina

Jan 29, 2025 | playbill.com | Margaret Fuhrer

Just before the premiere of Firebird, ballerina Maria Tallchief sensed disaster. She was to dance the title role, but a recent tonsillectomy had left her drained and sluggish. During the final dress rehearsal, a flying lift with partner Francisco Moncion had gone poorly, upsetting Moncion. Tallchief’s costume arrived from designer Barbara Karinska’s studio only a few hours before showtime, and neither Karinska nor George Balanchine were happy with the way it fit.
What It Means to Have That West Coast Swing

Dec 22, 2024 | nytimes.com | Margaret Fuhrer

And it requires that dancers be intimately attuned both to each other and to the music. All partner dancers are expert communicators, but at the highest levels of West Coast Swing, they're practically telepathic. Anderson and Rutland compared a typical social partner dance experience to a segment on a talk show, with the leader as the host and the follower as the guest.
Meet Sarah McCreanor, the ‘Hydraulic Press Girl’ Who Dances the Undanceable Online

Nov 13, 2024 | taustralia.com.au | Margaret Fuhrer |Hollie Wornes

Like comedians, dancers tend to be good imitators. They’re both masters of fine detail, able to pinpoint and replicate the minutiae that make a choreographic phrase, or a sketch character, click into focus. As a dancer and a comedian, Sarah McCreanor, known as Smac, likes to up the ante. Why mimic a dance or a person when you can turn yourself into an emoji? A head-bobbing chicken? An object being crushed by a hydraulic press?
They Helped Build the Temple. Now, They're Bringing It to the Screen.

Oct 13, 2024 | nytimes.com | Margaret Fuhrer

A man is falling from the sky. Even as he plummets, you can tell he's a dancer: There is grace in the twisting of his wind-buffeted limbs. He lands not with a thud but a whisper, on the tips of his toes. That's how the hip-hop fantasy " Once Again (for the Very First Time)" begins. (The movie opens in theaters on Oct.
Dance Performances, Festivals and More Coming This Fall

Sep 5, 2024 | nytimes.com | Margaret Fuhrer