Tag: dance

Dr. Ivan Pulinkala arrived as a dance professor at Kennesaw State University in 2005 with a big job: Build the university a dance department. He started with a dance minor, then a dance major, and then, in 2012, an entire department. It’s since become the largest collegiate dance program in Georgia and highly regarded throughout the dance world.

All five of the city’s major arts Institutions have brought in new leadership that has changed how Atlanta experiences the arts. Meet Rand Suffolk of the High Museum of Art, Tomer Zvulun of The Atlanta Opera, Nathalie Stutzmann of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Gennadi Nedvigin of the Atlanta Ballet, and Tinashe Kajese-Bolden and Christopher Moses of the Alliance Theatre.

This season, Terminus Modern Ballet Theatre will look different on stage. Four of its five founders have transitioned into off-stage careers. New dancers have replaced them, and some wonder how smoothly Terminus will bridge into its next phase. Company Director John Welker plans to keep the company’s heart beating with the same intensity its founders had in its early days.

In 2018, Terence Ng and a few friends formed DanceOut Atlanta, a queer-centered organization that teaches free country dance lessons at the Heretic and the Atlanta Eagle multiple times a week. There’s something for every level of dancer from beginner to advanced, and it’s not just line dancing, either.

Full Radius Dance is the only physically integrated professional dance company in Georgia, bringing together dancers with and without disabilities. How Douglas Scott created the company and what it means to its dancers.

Most professional athletes adhere to strict meal plans. NBA and NFL players rely on chefs and meal coaches who guide their day-to-day nutrition. Ballet is one of the most athletic art forms, yet even the most prestigious dance programs don’t employ personal chefs.

Seven months into his tenure as executive director of Atlanta Ballet, Tom West saw a line item on the pay scale that didn’t seem right. Dancers entering the company under its apprentice program were paid less than $500 a week. Company leaders noted that apprenticeships are standard practice in the field. But the low-paying program was one of several barriers faced by young dancers from historically underrepresented communities—the very dancers Atlanta Ballet has struggled to attract. Atlanta’s population is close to 50 percent Black, and until recently, Atlanta Ballet’s roster had only a token few Black artists.

We teamed up with ArtsATL to create a must-do arts calendar for this fall.

Tickets often have to be secured months before. I’ve likened performances to family reunions. I don’t know everyone’s names, but there is surely a connection: the love of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. From a dancer’s outstretched body, a tip of a hat, and the twirl of an umbrella, to how fabrics flow with every bend and bow, each act is its own happening and affirmation—as if to say, Everything’s going to be all right.

We asked our colleagues at ArtsATL to tell us whose work they are most eager to see this fall. Here are six artists stirring up the city’s arts scene.