Mikhail Nikolayevich Baryshnikov is a Soviet Latvian-born Russian-American dancer, choreographer, and actor. He was the preeminent male classical dancer of the 1970s and 1980s. He subsequently became a noted dance director.
Michael Kidd was an American film and stage choreographer, dancer and actor, whose career spanned five decades, and staged some of the leading Broadway and film musicals of the 1940s and 1950s. Kidd, strongly influenced by Charlie Chaplin and Léonide Massine, was an innovator in what came to be known as the "integrated musical", in which dance movements are integral to the plot.
Dame Alicia Markova DBE was a British ballerina and a choreographer, director and teacher of classical ballet. Most noted for her career with Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes and touring internationally, she was widely considered to be one of the greatest classical ballet dancers of the twentieth century. She was the first British dancer to become the principal dancer of a ballet company and, with Dame Margot Fonteyn, is one of only two English dancers to be recognised as a prima ballerina assoluta. Markova was a founder dancer of the Rambert Dance Company, The Royal Ballet and American Ballet Theatre, and was co-founder and director of the English National Ballet.
Lyrical dance is a dance style that embodies various aspects of ballet, jazz, acrobatics, and modern dance. According to Jennifer Fisher, lyrical dance is “strongly associated with clearly displayed emotional moods, fast-moving choreographic strategies, emphasis on virtuosic display, illustration of song lyrics, and, in group form, exact unison.” The style is usually danced at a faster pace than ballet but not as fast as jazz. Lyrical dance is a category typically found in dance competitions.
Daniel Arnold Tidwell was an American dancer best known for being the runner-up on Fox's third season of So You Think You Can Dance in 2007.
Benjamin Millepied is a French dancer and choreographer, who has lived and worked in the United States since joining the New York City Ballet in 1995, where he became a soloist in 1998 and a principal in 2002. He has also created choreography for the company, and choreographed pieces for other major companies. He retired from the NYCB in 2011.
Amar Ramasar is an American ballet dancer and principal dancer of the New York City Ballet (NYCB). Ramasar joined the NYCB as an apprentice in 2000 and joined the corps de ballet in 2001. As of 2010, Ramasar remained the only person of color who was a principal in NYCB.
Sonya Tayeh is a New York City-based choreographer. She has worked nationally and internationally across the worlds of dance and theater.
Fanny Pak is a ten-member contemporary, hip-hop and jazz-trained dance crew from Los Angeles, California that gained popularity after appearing on the second season of MTV's America's Best Dance Crew (ABDC). Often while performing, the crew wears bright clothes and bold patterns reminiscent of the 1980s as well as fanny packs, which is where their crew name originated. In addition, all of the members were born in the 1980s. The crew returned to ABDC on the seventh season, placing fifth in the competition.
Stacey Tookey is a Canadian choreographer and dancer known for her frequent appearances as a resident choreographer and guest judge on the Canadian and American versions of the dance-competition reality-television show So You Think You Can Dance.
Crystal Pite is a Canadian choreographer and dancer. She began her professional dance career in 1988 at Ballet BC, and in 1996 she joined Ballett Frankfurt under the tutelage of William Forsythe. After leaving Ballett Frankfurt she became the resident choreographer of Montreal company Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal from 2001 to 2004. She then returned to Vancouver where she focused on choreographing while continuing to dance in her own pieces until 2010. In 2002 she formed her own company called Kidd Pivot, which produced her original works Uncollected Work (2003), Double Story (2004), Lost Action (2006), Dark Matters (2009), The You Show (2010), The Tempest Replica (2011), Betroffenheit (2015), and Revisor (2019) to date. Throughout her career she has been commissioned by many international dance companies to create new pieces, including The Second Person (2007) for Netherlands Dans Theater and Emergence (2009) for the National Ballet of Canada, the latter of which was awarded four Dora Mavor Moore Awards.
Keith Roberts is a professional dancer who performed in Twyla Tharp's Las Vegas show Sinatra Dance With Me, which opened on December 11, 2010 and ran through April 2, 2011.
Colin Connor is a Canadian–British dancer, choreographer, and educator, based in the United States. With over forty commissions that span the worlds of contemporary dance, ballet and flamenco. Works draws from a large range of influences – musical, literary, social, and scientific – all used to bring attention back to the communicative power of the human body. He frequently, collaborates with artists of other disciplines, including composers, artists, and designers. As a choreographer, teacher and dancer, Connor is currently influencing the next generation of contemporary dancers and dance makers. Dancers who have trained with Connor have gone on to Mark Morris Dance Group, Scapino Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance, The Limon Dance Company and others.
"Jar of Hearts" is the debut single by American singer Christina Perri. The song was released onto iTunes July 27, 2010, a week after its debut on So You Think You Can Dance. The song was included on Perri's debut EP, The Ocean Way Sessions (2010), and appeared on Perri's debut studio album, Lovestrong (2011). The song was co-written by Perri, Drew Lawrence, and Barrett Yeretsian. Perri drew inspiration for the song from a real-life experience with a love interest who wanted to rekindle a broken relationship. After its debut, the song was released onto iTunes where it later rose to the Top 20 spot in one week.
Christina Judith Perri is an American singer and songwriter. After her debut single "Jar of Hearts" was featured on the television series So You Think You Can Dance in 2010, Perri signed with Atlantic Records and released her debut extended play, The Ocean Way Sessions. Her debut studio album, Lovestrong (2011), followed soon after and has since been certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
The Alexandra Ballet is a pre-professional ballet company in St. Louis, Missouri, founded in 1949, that cultivates top dance talent. The company regularly performs classical ballets including A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Pas de Quatre, Les Sylphides, and an annual performance of The Nutcracker. Many guest choreographers have worked with Alexandra Ballet including Marek Cholewa, Petrus Bosman, and Kennet Oberly.
"The Lonely" is a song by American singer-songwriter Christina Perri. The song was first released to iTunes on March 29, 2011, the same day that its accompanying lyric video premiered on Teen Vogue. The video was uploaded onto her official YouTube account the following day. The song is included on Perri's debut album, Lovestrong. It was released as the first promotional single of the album.
Kidd Pivot, is a contemporary dance theatre company based in Vancouver, Canada. The company, currently comprising eight full-time dancers and several guest artists, is led by its founder and artistic director, Crystal Pite. Since its formation in 2002 Kidd Pivot has toured extensively around the world presenting several works, many of which have received awards and accolades from the international dance community.
Alonzo King, born in Georgia to civil-rights activists Slater King and Valencia King Nelson, is an American dancer and choreographer based in San Francisco. King grew up in Georgia and California, and, as an adult, decided his contribution would be teaching and choreography. In 1982, having established himself as a well-respected teacher, he founded Alonzo King LINES Ballet. Believing that everyone has the potential to grow through dance, seven years later he opened what was then known as the San Francisco Dance Center, offering classes for both professionals and the community.
