Holding on my feminist values in the dance industry. A personal view from a dancer

Conflating ideas on sexuality and dance is an important, albeit conflicting, issue for any female/professional dancer nowadays; especially in today’s social and political climate and, amidst a profession spent glorifying and often essentialising the human body. As a female and as a dancer, the ever-present reality of displaying sexuality is a constant phenomenon, either in the direction or expectations of others, or the image we believe we are expected to portray.

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How Not to End Up in My Trash Folder, or Gentle Suggestions of What NOT to do When Applying for an Audition

With audition season upon us, I am receiving more and more emails every single day from dancers looking to promote their talents and catch my eye. And trust me, many of you do, but unfortunately, not always through positive means. I would like to help you (and me) out. The following is a list of suggestions to make sure that someone like me does not roll his or her eyes at your careless mistakes, and immediately send your application to the Trash folder…

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Daniel Mariblanca: A transgender voice in dance

I am 36 years old and I have lived 34 of those years as a woman who identified as a lesbian. Those are very solid pillars in me which I have defended with strong emphasis. Then five years ago, I started to get in contact with a lot of Trans people in Barcelona who inspired me deeply. That was when I started questioning the pillars of my live. In some way it was like getting to understand the relation between pieces that weren’t yet connected. We could maybe say that being a woman and being a lesbian was a massive cover up under which I felt encouraged and secure. By then being Trans was an inaccessible idea to me, something difficult to understand.

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In the in-between…how to survive between dance contracts

We’ve all been there, those times when you’ve finished an awesome dance contract; you’re enjoying the rest and looking forward to jumping right back into the next one. Except the next one is taking a bit longer to come along than you would like. With each negative audition outcome comes a reassuring voice in our head, ‘too tall’, ‘not the right build’, ‘they wanted more classical dancers’ etc.

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Being (il)legal #2: A Dancer’s Run-in With the Authorities

If anyone can attest to the throws of bureaucracy in Europe, it is she. Holding a New Zealand passport proved fruitful for Tessa’s arrival in Europe eight years ago, but has since been the bane of her artistic career as a contemporary dance theater artist. She has been through just about every legal scenario to stay in Brussels and pursue her art – only once escaping deportation by a mere 20 days.

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Another Summer of Dance – 10 “Must Try” Summer Dance Intensives for any Experience-Hungry Dancer! (2019)

Another Summer of Dance –  below are the most popular and interesting contemporary dance intensive of 2019. Some of them happening very soon or almost selling out. So, have a read and hurry up before it’s too late.

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Why MIP® 2018 Will Play an Integral Role in Your Professional Dance Education

At MIP® there is no other motive than to grow. There is no contract, scholarship or award to win at the end of the program. Instead, it’s the experience and what’s learned from that experience that’s earned. Nowadays more programs have emerged attempting to emulate something similar, which proves the program’s originality and innovativeness, but MIP® continues to keep its ear to the ground and listen to needs and changes of our ever-evolving community.

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A Call to Sustain Freelance Performance Artists

If we want any sort of live performance art that values the work more than making money, that invites conversation without having to pay for it, there must be another way to allow us artists to live, to make, to collaborate, to attend performances, to fuel conversations, to create change. What we need is time. What we need is sustainability.

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