News

Well, this is going to make for one awesome "first dance:" At American Ballet Theatre's gala on Monday night, Ethan Stiefel proposed to Gillian Murphy backstage right after she finished performing Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux. And...she said yes! The couple has been dating for over a decade after a close friendship blossomed into something more. 

Congrats you two!

Last month, severe storms ripped through the South, leaving dozens dead and an estimated 10,000 people in need of a place to live. Alabama was one of the states hit the hardest. To help out their neighbors in need, Huntsville Ballet Company will present two special encore performances of Stars and Stripes on May 31 and June 1 at VBC Concert Hall in Huntsville, AL. Both shows are completely free to the public. Company members are asking for donations to help families affected by the tornadoes and will be collecting non-perishable food items at the theater.

Calling all choreographers! You can win $15,000 towards your own show in NYC. All you've got to do is enter a clip of your choreography in the Capezio A.C.E. Award contest on dancemedia.com by the end of this week. Fifteen finalists will be invited to perform at the Dance Teacher Summit in New York on July 30, where one winner and two runners up will be selected by a panel of esteemed judges. Submit your video here!

For the first time, the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in the Arts is looking for dance artists. This annual award for young foreign-born artists has previously focused on filmmakers, culinary artists and writers. But this year, they're inviting dancers, choreographers, artistic directors and former dancers who teach to apply for the $25,000 prize. (Four finalists will also receive $5,000 each.) Applicants can be from any dance genre. The only requirements are that they must have been board abroad, permanently reside in the U.S. and be no more than 35 years old as of December 31, 2011.

No matter how beautiful they are, every dancer eventually takes a final bow. But what happens once they've given up performing?

In ballet, there's no such thing as perfection—especially when it comes to bodies. In our April/May issues we spoke to top dancers and directors about how shape and size affect their casting in Too Fat? Too Thin? Too Tall? Tall Short? "So You Think You Can Dance's" Melissa Sandvig opened up about being put on weight probation and being chided for eating a banana because it had too many calories.

As a dancer, it's easy to think that all you'll ever need is the music and the mirror. But in a career that depends on your body, you need to have a Plan B, no matter how talented you are.

On Monday night, "Dance Against Cancer" raised over $25,000 for the American Cancer Society. The event, held at Manhattan Movement & Arts Center, was co-produced by Daniel Ulbricht, whose mother is currently battling uterine cancer. It featured several of Ulbricht’s fellow New York City Ballet dancers, along with "So You Think You Can Dance" star Alex Wong and members of Keigwin + Company, Lar Lubovich Dance Company and more. The evening was driven by a strong sense of purpose: We learned during an introductory film that each participant had been touched by cancer in some way.

Senior editor Jenny Stahl recently called New York City Ballet principal Daniel Ulbricht "Superman," and I can't think of a better way to describe the phenomenally talented dancer and teacher, who seems to be everywhere at once these days. (We recently posted a poll asking who your favorite dancer-teacher was, and Ulbricht cleaned up.)

For the past four decades, the Prix de Lausanne has introduced the world to the next generation of ballet stars. Alessandra Ferri, Leanne Benjamin, and Julie Kent all first broke through in the prestigious competition. This year, the Prix is launching a new master class series to offer students across the globe a chance to learn from a former winners.