Only recently has science tried to analyze how dance benefits the brain and brings such joy. One theory holds that, like most exercise, dance releases a cascade of feel-good chemicals in the brain. Dancing induces the release of endorphins, the body’s natural pain killers that increase pain tolerance and boost mood. Endorphins are responsible for the euphoria experienced during a “runner’s high” and have a similar effect on the body during dancing. Read on to see how dance educators are using dance to stimulate these brain-boosting effects in children and teens.

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Joan Myers Brown has had an extraordinary career. The founder of Philadanco!, one of Philadelphia's preeminent dance companies, as well as the driving force behind both the International Conference of Black Dance Companies and the International Association of Blacks in Dance, Myers Brown has lent her artistic guidance, her nurturance of many dancers and choreographers, her visionary leadership and grace under fire to many in the dance field. On June 13, she will be honored by Dance/USA for her contributions to the field. Read this personal account about Joan from long-time Philadelphia dance critic Merilyn Jackson.

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Sharon Gersten Luckman, former long-time executive director of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, will receive the Dance/USA Trustees Award June 13 at its annual conference in Philadelphia. Catch up with Luckman in an interview with arts journalist Karyn Collins on what makes Ailey such a successful dance organization, what other companies can learn from the Ailey company success, and where she sees the field in the future.

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 On Thursday afternoon, June 13, during Dance/USA's 2013 conference in Philadelphia, Barbara Weisberger, respected doyenne of dance, will receive the Ernie from Dance/USA for her visionary leadership and contributions to the field. The prize, named for the first recipient, Ian Ernie Horvath, arts advocate, dancer, and founder of the Cleveland Ballet in his native city, is fitting for Weisberger as Horvath was both a colleague and a friend of hers. Read more about the woman who was Balanchine's first child student and later the founder of the Pennsylvania Ballet.  

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Get to know Aaron Dworkin before he gives the opening plenary on Thursday, June 13, 2013, at 9:30 a.m. at Dance/USA’s 2013 conference.

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Catch up on Dance/USA’s Educating Dance Audiences research and best practices with this report by EDA director Suzanne Callahan.

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This moment of reformation [in the arts field] is not a threat … It’s an invitation for us to think more expansively …. Yes, we have been obsessed with the performance or the exhibit … [and] with contextualizing or introducing audiences to [them] or with talk-backs. But forward-thinking organizations are asking new questions.

— Ben Cameron, program director for the arts, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Speech for Arts Fund, Atlanta, December 2012

Read on to find out more about how Dance/USA through Educating Dance Audiences (EDA) has begun to harness new thinking to create new models for 21st-century dance organizations.

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The word “design” implies both planning and execution.

Many people think lighting design is created in the technical rehearsal. This is not so. Others see the myriad pieces of arcane drawings and paperwork that surround the professional designer and think that they constitute the design. Again, not so.

The lighting design is created in the designer’s head over the course of several weeks before the production loads into the theater. Read on for a perspective on working with lighting designers.

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So! Congratulations are in order. You’re about to graduate from your dance program and enter into the real world. I hope you’re feeling amply prepared, totally comfortable and at ease with the mammoth transition to come.
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Guys? … Oh. You’re freaking out? You feel like you don’t have a clue what you’re getting into? How you’ll get paid / afford rent / find a place to make work / find auditions / get a job / afford insurance / pay off your historically huge student loans?

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Dance/USA remembers Frederic Franklin, one of the United States’ great ballet dancers, teachers, stagers, and ballet masters. His career spanned much of the 20th century. In 2008, Franklin received the Dance/USA Honor award for his “extraordinary leadership in the field through artistic excellence and force of vision.” Franklin died on May 4, 2013. From the Green Room reprints excerpts from an interview by long-time critic and dance writer Mindy Aloff conducted in 2008.

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