Animation by Jack Tite for Dance Gazette
Issue 8 – October 2023
Digital can be dreamy – but we all need a touch of the physical. After four years away from the stage, and despite an ambitious and successful online competition in 2021, The Fonteyn will once again take place in person this year – just weeks after this new issue of Dance Gazette appears.
Digital can be dreamy – but we all need a touch of the physical. After four years away from the stage, and despite an ambitious and successful online competition in 2021, The Fonteyn will once again take place in person this year – just weeks after this new issue of Dance Gazette appears.
We celebrate with a delightful animated front cover, and also discover how the competition feels from everyone involved – from dancers to chaperones, coaches to RAD teachers, and to the trouble-shooting wonders holding everything together. Even if you can’t join the audience at His Majesty’s Theatre in London – home to The Phantom of the Opera for 36 years – we hope you’ll enjoy peeking behind the scenes.
We also have some tantalising questions for you. Who does the daredevil stunts for action films – and why does dance training help? What is it like to move through the audience in the cast of an immersive dance show? And, as Australian Ballet’s dancers stage protests, and Hollywood’s writers and actors go on strike, how do workers in the creative industries stand up for their rights?
Closer to home, we meet an inspirational RAD teacher in Peru, offering opportunities across family income, body shape and disability. And RAD teachers in the US and Britain describe one of the most common and poignant moments of a dance teacher’s career – the day they say goodbye to students who have outgrown dance lessons.
They say goodbye, we say hello. Welcome to your new issue of Dance Gazette.
David Jays
Editor
Curtain up!
The Fonteyn, the RAD’s flagship ballet competition, returns to the live stage this year. But how does it feel to be part of this cherished event? Rosemary Waugh hears from dancers, teachers and crucial figures behind the scenes.
The long goodbye
What happens when a student decides to move away from ballet? How do teachers feel when someone they have known since childhood leaves their class? Alice Robb explores how to say goodbye to ballet.
High hopes
Ballet classes shouldn’t depend on income, says Peruvian RAD teacher Marícarmen Silva. Dan Collyns visits her school in Lima to hear about resilience and turning trash into opportunity.
ACTION!
Who does the daredevil stunts for action movies – and why does a ballet background help? Veronica Horwell investigates.
Total immersion
Audiences flock to immersive theatre experiences, choosing their own path through action that happens all around them. But what are they like to perform? Writer and dancer Isaac Ouro-Gnao shares a view from the inside.
Strike!
Industrial action is rare in the ballet world – but artists from Melbourne to Paris and London are protesting over pay and conditions. Jane Albert reports on what it takes for dancers to strike.
Sound of The Fonteyn
The Fonteyn – the RAD’s prestigious international ballet competition – took place in person for the first time since 2019. The final was held at His Majesty’s Theatre, the opulent London theatre that is home to Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera – and Dance Gazette was there to capture the evening in sound.
SHORT READS Issue 8 – October 2023
Grand reverence
As he retires from the RAD, Artistic Director Gerard Charles reflects on the lessons of his tenure – and says farewell in model ballet style!
Read more
Safeguarding
The RAD is progressing its safeguarding work, for members and students.
Read more
Susan Coles
Susan Coles was a beloved RAD teacher. Her daughter Emma Tonkin describes the RAD bursary set up in Susan’s memory.
Read more
Aditi Mangaldas
Step into the forest of dance, says the renowned Indian choreographer.
Read more
Alice Oseman
The creator of Heartstopper describes what dance has given them.
Read more
Sonya Lindfors
A transporting playlist from the ‘hiphop head’ and Cameroonian-Finnish choreographer.
Read more
MORE ISSUES
HOLDING ON
Issue 7 – June 2023
How can we protect dancers’ wellbeing and mental health? What connects dance folk from different countries, styles or generations? Dance Gazette stories to remind you that you’re not alone.
BARYSHNIKOV
Issue 6 – February 2023
We pay tribute to Mikhail Baryshnikov as he receives the RAD’s highest honour: one of the 20th century’s defining dancers who continues to explore 21st-century performance.
WHEN CÉLINE MET STEVEN
Issue 5 – October 2022
The RAD has been a thread through the dancing lives of principal dancers Céline Gittens and Steven McRae. Now both RAD Ambassadors, they share hopes and experiences.
HOME
Issue 4 – June 2022
Celebrating the official opening of the RAD’s new London home, we mark this landmark by asking: what makes dance feel like home?
CLASSIC CARLOS
Issue 3 – February 2022
Few dancers delight a theatre audience like Carlos Acosta. The Cuban star is a classical artist and an undoubted charismatic – and although nudging 50, he continues to test himself and to give a frisson to challenging new work.
FACE ON
Issue 2 – October 2021
An issue all about the face we present to the world. Discover portraits, old masters, puppets, an RAD founder and the surprising history of ballet make-up.
FRESH START
Issue 1 – June 2021
The very first fully digital issue of Dance Gazette is all about embracing change. We explore impactful change: on stage, in sustainability, for young dancers entering the profession. Plus, breakdance!