lincolncenter:

This month, the iconic children’s television series Sesame Street—broadcast in more than 150 countries and seen by over 120 million international viewers—will visit another icon, Lincoln Center, the world’s largest performing arts center, on its popular “People in Your Neighborhood” segment.  Inspired by the classic Sesame Street song “The People in Your Neighborhood,” Murray Monster goes on location to interview real people about their jobs.  The Lincoln Center segments will showcase the New York City Ballet, The Juilliard School, the New York Philharmonic, and the Metropolitan Opera.

The first segment features Murray Monster and Ovejita as they visit Lincoln Center to join four New York City Ballet dancers in the studio to learn about ballerinas. Dancers Kristen Segin, Alina Dronova, Callie Bachman, and Sara Adams explain how dancers use their bodies to tell a story and explain terms like “barre” and “plié.”

Stay tuned for more segments later this month.

 

narcissustea: A professional stage debut is a huge event in the life of any ballerina, but Michaela DePrince’s recent tour of South Africa also marked the end of an extraordinary journey from her childhood as a war orphan in Sierra Leone. “I got out of a terrible place,” says DePrince. “I had no idea I would be here - I’m living my dream every single day.” She was born in Sierra Leone in 1995. Her parents named her Mabinty, but after they both died during the civil war, she was sent to an orphanage, where she became a number. “They named us from one to 27,” she recalls. “One was the favourite child of the orphanage and 27 was the least favourite.” DePrince was number 27, because she suffers from vitiligo, a condition in which patches of skin lose pigmentation. To the “Aunties” who ran the orphanage, it was evidence of the evil spirit within the three-year-old. She still recalls the fierce antagonism of the women. “They thought of me as a devil’s child. They told me every day how I wasn’t going to get adopted, because nobody would want a devil’s child,” she says. Read the rest here, with a warning that it gets pretty horrible in places. Her story is inspiring and I wish her every success! She was one of my favorite things about the recent dance documentary First Position.
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narcissustea:

A professional stage debut is a huge event in the life of any ballerina, but Michaela DePrince’s recent tour of South Africa also marked the end of an extraordinary journey from her childhood as a war orphan in Sierra Leone.

“I got out of a terrible place,” says DePrince. “I had no idea I would be here - I’m living my dream every single day.”

She was born in Sierra Leone in 1995. Her parents named her Mabinty, but after they both died during the civil war, she was sent to an orphanage, where she became a number.

“They named us from one to 27,” she recalls. “One was the favourite child of the orphanage and 27 was the least favourite.”

DePrince was number 27, because she suffers from vitiligo, a condition in which patches of skin lose pigmentation. To the “Aunties” who ran the orphanage, it was evidence of the evil spirit within the three-year-old. She still recalls the fierce antagonism of the women.

“They thought of me as a devil’s child. They told me every day how I wasn’t going to get adopted, because nobody would want a devil’s child,” she says.

Read the rest here, with a warning that it gets pretty horrible in places. Her story is inspiring and I wish her every success!

She was one of my favorite things about the recent dance documentary First Position.

(via livinginthelongrun-deactivated2)

Source: BBC

guardian: Memphis, US: dance student Takeisha Washington, from the Alvin Ailey dance school in New York, demonstrates a pirouette for day camp kids at the Emanuel Episcopal Center. Washington, who is originally from Memphis, is visiting her former dance teacher Karen Zissoff with Dancers Inc and volunteered to talk to the kids Photograph: Jim Weber/AP
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guardian:

Memphis, US: dance student Takeisha Washington, from the Alvin Ailey dance school in New York, demonstrates a pirouette for day camp kids at the Emanuel Episcopal Center. Washington, who is originally from Memphis, is visiting her former dance teacher Karen Zissoff with Dancers Inc and volunteered to talk to the kids Photograph: Jim Weber/AP