Teaching Honestly, Teaching Fearlessly: Two Decades of Luna

About halfway to this 20th landmark of Luna Dance Institute, I was asked to speak on a panel about careers in dance. During the Q&A, my mentor and teacher, June […]

The Complexities and Contradictions of Awards Ceremonies

Mikhail Baryshnikov has a slew of honors to include in his biography, and for years listed prominently the “Bessie,” or New York Dance and Performance Award, which he was given […]

Rad Dads

I HAVE A 2-YEAR-OLD SON. He’s awesome. There’s something so basic about raising a kid. it’s an exercise in being present. The moment your attention wanders—your kid calls you on […]

Presence and Liveness in Online Learning: A Lesson in Choreographing Students from Afar

For the past year, I have been working on a new choreography that premiered this past April 17-26 as a part of the annual Berkeley Dance Project (BDP) directed by […]

The Jewish Nutcracker Goes Back in History and Redresses for the Holidays

MAKING HISTORIC COSTUMES for the theater can toss a designer way back in time, but for dancer-designer Jamielyn Duggan it was a quantum leap to 166 BCE for The Jewish […]

Teaching in a Wild Triangle

In my position as Director of Teaching and Learning at Luna Dance Institute, I am often contemplating all that goes on in the teaching of this multifarious art form. Consider, […]

Outer Space to Inner Space: Universal Themes, Very Different Styles

Amara Tabor-Smith/Deep Waters Dance Theater shares a bill with Cathie Caraker and Katarina Eriksson from March 5-7 at CounterPULSE. Upon first reading the descriptions and approaches taken by the artists, […]

Care. Liberation. Now.: Changing Shape, Shaping Change

Dancing Care In April 2021, right after we’d both been vaccinated, I began to meet weekly with a dancer friend and collaborator.  We met, keeping our masks on, in my […]

In Practice: Smith/Wymore Disappearing Acts’ Six Degrees of Freedom

First of all, full disclosure: the Wymore of Smith/Wymore Disappearing Acts is kind of my boss—Lisa Wymore, Chair of the Department of Theater, Dance, & Performance Studies at UC Berkeley, […]

Gaining Perspectives, Changing Perceptions – Article #3: The Illusion of Borders

EDITORS NOTE: In this ongoing series for In Dance Farah Yasmeen Shaikh writes about her experiences as a Pakistani Muslim-American woman Kathak artist and her work teaching and performing in […]