Students on the move

A couple of my students have been up to some fun outside the STUDIO this past month. Alston Macgill just got back from the finals for YAGP, (where she brought the house down!) and Angela Novelli returned from Miami where she was chosen to perform her own choreography at the National High School Dance Festival. I am really proud of these kids for continuing to believe in themselves and reaching new heights. Angela is going to the Complexions Summer Intensive this year and Alston will be at SAB. I hope all my NY friends will be looking out for ...

Israeli to Compete in Youth America Grand Prix Finals

Gaya Bommer.  Photo by Yossi Zveker.Israeli contemporary dance has gained international renown over the last two decades, but the country’s small ballet scene is barely known abroad. Yet next week, one of the world’s most prestigious youth ballet competitions, the Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP), will include an Israeli: the 11-year-old Gaya Bommer. Gaya Bommer started dancing as a young child at her mother’s studio, the Nadine Bommer Dance Academy, and became more serious about her training at the age of 7. Now, under the tutelage of Nadine and ballet teachers Jay Augen and Roz Sobol, Gaya is bound ...

Never An Easy Way

The battle to become a professional ballerina is tough enough for a middle-class European girl. For [Isabella] Coracy, it often feels like an insurmountable challenge. “These are not one-night wonders,” Finzi says. “This is not The X Factor.”  Dom Philips and Sarah Maslin Nir reporting on “Only When I Dance” for The TimesWhile we wait for biopic Mao’s Last Dancer to hit UK screens and for Carlos Acosta’s own No Way Home to be filmed, documentary Only When I Dance (Vida Ballet), screened at the Barbican’s Brazilian Film Festival last October, provides a  present-day look at the challenges faced by ...