The Dance Club at the University of Iowa will have their 16th annual Benefit Show on Saturday, April 11 at 5 p.m. at the Coralville Center for the Performing Arts. Proceeds from ticket sales and donations will go towards various community nonprofits and UI student groups — including the Des Moines nonprofit Dance Without Limits, […]
Des Moines dance
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Review: Ballet Des Moines’ ‘Nothing Holds Still’ featured veiled dancers, intricate partner work, the Belin Quartet and a painting danced onto the canvas
Ballet Des Moines offered an evening of world premieres with their latest performance, Nothing Holds Still. The program featured works by three choreographers, each exploring themes of time, transformation and stillness through their own unique perspective. In all, music and movement communicate diverse emotions without any need for words. The program opened with a depiction […]
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Review: Ballet Des Moines passes the ‘Nutcracker’ litmus test with flying colors
Ballet Des Moines was blessed with a snowy opening night for The Nutcracker last Thursday at Hoyt Sherman Place. For ballet companies across the world, the production of The Nutcracker is both the close to the fall season and a company’s most attended performance, thanks to its ties to holiday tradition and nostalgia. With the […]
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Ballet Des Moines has come into its own
Most days I have no desire to live in New York City or Chicago, but there was one thing that could make me pack up and pay $2,500 per month for a studio apartment: Iowa was seriously lacking in professional dance. Ballet Des Moines may have saved me a fortune in moving expenses. In the […]
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Ballet and hip hop duet for Swan Prjct, a Des Moines troupe that centers marginalized dancers in cutting-edge performances
It is the end of a fruitful rehearsal for the Swan Prjct dance company. The high school contingent has just finished running through their performance to “My Queen is Harriet Tubman” by Sons of Kemet, its frenetic afrobeat stylings rattling the walls of SEEDS Studios in Des Moines’ East Village. The dancers raced into a […]
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Ballet Des Moines earned their right to perform a Balanchine classic, debuting Friday: ‘It is really just a badge of honor’
Ballet Des Moines will bring elements of classical and contemporary dance to Iowa with its performance of Balanchine+ this Friday and Saturday at Hoyt Sherman Place. The piece’s title refers to George Balanchine, co-founder and founding choreographer of New York City Ballet. The company will perform Balanchine’s Who Cares?, a beautiful jazz-tinged dance unbound by […]
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Inspired by the infamous witch trials, Ballet Des Moines’ ‘Salem’ stages a raging fire of fear
Ballet Des Moines pulls from a moment in history this fall to show that different doesn’t mean dangerous. Taking a history lesson from the Salem witch trials, choreographer and Ballet Des Moines Artistic Director Tom Mattingly was certain that people need to be reminded to not judge a book by its cover. “I thought it […]
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One studio has built a break dancing scene in Des Moines. Now, one of its students is hitting the national stage.
It all started with a vision: to highlight a style of dance that originated in the streets of New York during the early 1970s. Breakdancing evolved as music was transitioning from disco to hip hop, pioneered by the Black and Puerto Rican communities in New York City and spreading quickly across the country and the […]
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Ballet Des Moines tackles hard science with light movement in one-night-only show ‘Of Gravity and Light’
Ballet Des Moines is giving audiences a science lesson through their one-night-only production Of Gravity and Light, Friday at the Des Moines Civic Center. Of Gravity and Light is a contemporary ballet production using science-inspired movement to depict gravity, push-pull feelings, “the terrible forces of the sun,” planetary orbit and rotation, and other spaced-out phenomena. […]
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‘Sex to me is a dance’: Des Moines’ Wendy Broich combines pole dancing, sex coaching and boudoir photography in one small business
Artist, sex coach and entrepreneur Wendy Broich has trouble summarizing her job. “I say ‘experience’ a lot because what I do is provide experiences. It’s hard to just tell someone what I do,” she said. “I feel like I have to take you through it, and in order for me to take you through it, […]
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‘Dance does everything’: Gateway Dance Theatre celebrates 50 years in Des Moines with Black history showcase
This year marks 50 years of education, training and performance for Gateway Dance Theatre, a Des Moines company fusing African-American, Caribbean, Asian, Indian and other international music and dance traditions, in addition to drama, science, visual arts and other disciplines. Gateway will celebrate all year long, starting on Feb. 26 with a Black History showcase, […]
