Dance Magazine

3 days ago | dancemagazine.com | Courtney Escoyne

In the June 1975 issue of Dance Magazine, then–managing editor Richard Philp spoke to director and choreographer Michael Bennett about his latest musical, an off-Broadway production titled A Chorus Line that had recently begun previews. “I wanted to do something on dancing,” Bennett said. “I started thinking about the days when my life was really the simplest—when I was very young and I was in the chorus, and I was very happy. I started wondering why I got out of dancing.

5 days ago | dancemagazine.com | Stav Ziv

In the first episode of Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino’s series “Étoile,” a ballet company director from Paris says to another in New York City: “I propose a swap!”They devise a plan—which becomes the premise for the whole show—to rescue both organizations from their post-COVID fragility: They’ll trade artists for a year, a publicity stunt and an artistic experiment rolled into one. If that all sounds a little dramatic and made-for-TV, well, it is.

5 days ago | dancemagazine.com | Courtney Escoyne

Here are the latest promotions, appointments, and departures, as well as notable awards and accomplishments, from May 2025. At Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Grace Rookstool has been promoted to principal. Soloist Corey Bourbonniere departed the company at the end of the season. San Francisco Ballet principal Aaron Robison will rejoin Houston Ballet as a principal for the 2025–26 season.

1 week ago | dancemagazine.com | Chava Lansky

Choreographer Felice Lesser says that her mother, Ethel, was an incredible cook. “She was a concert pianist, and one of those people who could do everything,” says Lesser. “Several times, she catered parties for my dance company.” Lesser—whose company, Felice Lesser Dance Theater celebrates its 50th anniversary this June—says she didn’t inherit her mother’s skill in the kitchen. With a busy schedule and a New York City apartment severely lacking in counter space, Lesser usually prefers eating out.

1 week ago | dancemagazine.com | Sophie Bress

Yuri Grigorovich, a choreographer and ballet master who helped define Soviet-era Russian ballet, died on May 19, 2025. He was 98. Grigorovich was well-known for his choreographic contributions to classical ballet—most notably his 1968 full-length, Spartacus—as well as for leading the Bolshoi Ballet from 1964 to 1995. His choreography moved the Russian style from its pantomime-heavy past to a future that foregrounded pure dance expression. “I think every kind of ballet has the right to exist.