"Shows like ABC's "Dancing with the Stars," Fox's "So You Think You Can Dance," MTV's "America's Best Dance Crew" and Oxygen's "Dance Your Ass Off" are drawing millions of viewers and helping expose audiences to the art of dance."
"Though the phenomenon feels new, it is of course part of one of the oldest trends in human history. People have been congregating to dance since civilization began. The digital means of dissemination are recent, but the act itself is as ancient as eating and sleeping."
"The National Endowment for the Arts announced 631 local arts groups have received direct grants totaling $29,775,000 as part of the American Economic Recovery & Reinvestment Act."
"I'm not saying you can't tweet a review. You can, and plenty of people do. I'm saying that tweeting a review in its entirety misses out on one of Twitter's major strengths: turning people on to something cool."
"igel Lythgoe announced today that he is teaming up with director Adam Shankman, 'Dancing with the Stars' judge Carrie Ann Inaba and actress Katie Holmes to launch the Dizzy Feet Foundation, a foundation for the dance community that will provide scholarships and assistance to talented underserved youth."
"Pina Bausch, the German dancer and choreographer who died aged 68 on Tuesday, five days after being diagnosed with cancer, was the most influential figure in European contemporary dance for the past 30 years, creating a much-imitated fusion of radical theatre, surreal art, sexual drama and danced body language, known as Tanztheater."
"Online videos from around the world have begun pouring in showing people singing, dancing, crying, smiling and mourning a man who shared his great talent with the world."
"A once time-honored tradition has digressed into a parade of overly made-up children in glittering pageantry. Feisanna are now attracting new over-the-top trends that makes one ask whether the competitions are centered on dance ability or dress-up."
"Creating iMixes is easy and it's a fun way to promote upcoming performances to the huge number of iPhone/iPod owners. In addition, through the widget, you can encourage fans and online supporters to embed the song list on their websites and blogs."
"What other city in the world has anything like the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival? Residents of the Bay Area perform the dances of their original cultures — from across the globe, styles with radically different purposes — to an audience that does not consist primarily of those already familiar with those forms."
"With the move to the Durham Performing Arts Center, the festival gets a major upgrade, but a budgetary crisis has forced the festival to cut a full week — and a quarter of its marquee mainstage productions — from its calendar."
"The arts are where hope lives. And right now, as the very tenets of civil society are being re-written, and as health and human service needs rise, there is legitimate concern about whether the arts will survive, how the arts can thrive."
"Celebrating the 'screendance' genre, the Dance Camera West festival kicks off this weekend with its eighth year of screenings. More than 30 films -- most made independently -- will be screened at half a dozen L.A. venues during the three-week fest."
"'Dancing Across Borders' is an 88-minute love letter to Cambodia, to ballet, and to hard work. Like every good love letter, it conveys the preciousness of the intangible."
"The awards, given by the Dance Resource Center of Greater Los Angeles, cite excellence in performance, choreography, design, music and other categories for L.A.-area dance presentations."
"A young Riverdance star is among the three Irish women presumed dead in the Air France disaster. A champion Irish dancer, Dr Eithne Walls was from Ballygown in Co. Down and had been living in Dublin where she worked as a doctor."
"A 26-year-old man tried to prove he wasn't drunk Saturday on Hilton Head Island with his own field sobriety test -- performing a routine from 'Riverdance,' the Irish step-dancing stage production."
"My husband and I believe strongly that art education is essential for building innovative thinkers who will be our nation's leaders of tomorrow," she said."
"John Glynn, the Feis chairman, observes, 'Dancing teaches participants discipline, but most importantly, they make life-long friends. I’ve gained the same thing from it. I’ve made friends throughout the U.S. and Canada.'"
"As the director Mr. Woetzel lands big names — Savion Glover, Edward Villella and his Miami City Ballet, Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company — but aims for intimacy, inviting a few artists to talk as much as they perform."
"The sums at stake are comparatively small, but a contract dispute between a choreographer and the 92nd Street Y has caused a stir in the field — and provided a glimpse into the fraught relationship between struggling dance makers and presenters."
"The lights dimmed and I made my way upstage center and felt my back press against the wall. My leg lifted from the ground, foot flexed, and I walked forward as the first piano chord struck; everything that followed is a complete blur."
"Arts administrators say they are fighting a subsidiary effect of the recession, a creeping perception among their largest and most reliable corporate supporters that contributing to the arts is somehow elitist and excessive at a time of rising unemployment and general economic hardship."
"Officials hope to use culture and art to improve America's image by sending the dancers to countries - such as Venezuela, Nigeria and Brazil - where its reputation has suffered in recent years."
"The festival kicks off this weekend, offering free public events, including classes, rehearsals and performances, celebrating dance of every culture and genre."
"The answer to staying healthy and happy as you age may be as close as the nearest dance floor, according to a chorus of studies. Dancing offers mental, physical, and social benefits, while perhaps reducing the risk of illness and even counteracting the ravages of aging."
"The dance troupe is the brainchild of 30-year-old Caroline Duggan, a bright, engaging force of nature who left Ireland seven years ago to teach music at elementary school P.S. 59 in the Bronx."
