Rachel Straus - Dance Writer

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Juilliard Dance

 
Published: March 4, 2014
Category: profile

The Shortstop Who Slid Into Choreography

By Rachel Straus

Takehiro “Take” Ueyama was on the road to professional baseball until his team lost the nationals. Then he discovered Michael Jackson, the Moonwalk, and, much to his dismay, wearing tights.

Takehiro “Take” Ueyama fell in love with baseball as a boy growing up in Tokyo, but when his team didn’t make […]

Published: April 6, 2013
Category: review

Paul Taylor Wows New York Audiences

By Rachel Straus

M. Trusnovec in “Sacre du Printemps (The Rehearsal).” Photo: Paul B. Goode

NEW YORK–Paul Taylor Dance Company’s second season at the former New York State Theater (March 5 to 24) exceeded expectations. With 21 works performed in three weeks by just 16 dancers, it would be only human for the troupe […]

Published: December 1, 2011
Category: history

Isadora Duncan: Mother of modern dance

Isadora Duncan

By Rachel Straus

The moment when Isadora Duncan throws her head back in ecstasy as she dances at the Theatre of Dionysus in Greece (preserved in the 1903 photograph above) captures Duncan’s archetypal performance qualities: supple, improvisatory, transcendent. Arguably the most important American-born dance artist of the early 20th century, Duncan forged her […]

Published: August 1, 2008
Category: technique

Improving your plie

By Rachel Straus

Like a recipe for quality of life, Risa Steinberg’s description of a good plie combines a philosophical approach, a touch of physics, and common sense: “It never ends. Once you know it’s going to help you do something better, you’ll love it.” She believes that the most constructive plies are passionate and […]

Published: January 1, 2008
Category: profile

Carol Walker: Ambassador for Dance

By Rachel Straus

If she hadn’t fallen madly in love with dance in high school, Carol Walker says she might have followed a career in international relations. But as a performer, teacher, and choreographer for 27 years, and then a college dance dean with connections to companies and schools worldwide for the next 23, […]

Published: September 14, 2004
Category: review

The Magnificent Tapper of Our Time: Savion Glover

By Rachel Straus

Tap virtuoso Savion Glover moves loose as a shoestring to produce a razor-sharp sound. He sings bebop with his feet. And he considers himself a drummer more than a dancer, though he has won at age 31 more awards than any other tap dancer of his generation.

Mr. Glover opened the sixth […]