On this week's episode of Trainer of the Month Club, yoga instructor and Mirror trainer Pilin Anice guides you through a beginner mobility yoga flow designed to wake up your body. "Today's practice is going to increase circulation and build spinal mobility, so let's get into this flow with lots of twists," she says at the top of the video.
When your brain is going a million miles a minute, it's good to take some deep breaths, slow down, and get rooted with the Earth again. During this week's episode of Trainer of the Month Club, that's exactly what you'll do, as yoga instructor Pilin Anice takes us through a 30-minute grounding yoga flow to help you feel more centered.
A career in dance is so demanding—physically and otherwise—that it can be tempting for dancers to dance, dance and only dance. It’s not uncommon to avoid other physical pursuits, whether out of fear of injury, lack of time or the now-debunked idea that certain activities build the wrong kinds of muscles. And yet, many dancers who’ve found other outlets for movement—even beyond the traditionally “dancer-approved” ones like yoga and Pilates—have found them to have a symbiotic relationship with their dance practice, each informing and growing the other. Dance Magazine spoke to four artists - including Ailey's Constance Stamatiou - with unique physical practices about what they’ve learned from them, and how they balance them with dance.
This hold gives your abdominal muscles a serious workout, hundreds of crunches not required. Pilin Anice, demonstrating this move here, is a dance instructor with Ailey Extension, which offers "real classes for real people" in a wide variety of dance and fitness techniques. To sign up for Anice's yoga class or view the schedule of virtual and in-person classes, visit aileyextension.com.
She tried a number of different sports growing up in Bridgewater, but it was dance and ballet that truly made her feel alive. Now, Bridgewater resident Rachel Yoo has joined Ailey II as a first-year member of the second company to the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
In 2018, Alicia Graf Mack joined the Juilliard School as director of the conservatory’s dance department, the first woman of color to lead the division. During her tenure, the school has done away with gendered ballet classes and expanded the canon of music taught in its history and theory courses to include more works by composers of color.
The dancers of Ailey II are back on stage after a long pandemic pause. The season returns with exciting new works and leader Francesca Harper, who tells CBS2's Dave Carlin she feels like she's just come home. Carlin had an Illuminating conversation with Harper, the renowned dancer, choreographer, singer and writer whose role now is artistic director of Ailey II. On Wednesday the season opened, and she took the stage to introduce her dancers. She has familiarity with Ailey dating back to her childhood. Her mother was a dancer and longtime educator at Ailey, and she counts as her mentors the legend Judith Jamison and Sylvia Waters. She talked about the new work she premiered for the company and how she hopes it brings people hope.
Meagan King, Nicholas Begun and Amar Smalls will be performing as part of the iconic Alvin Ailey’s Ailey II dance company
For Christopher Taylor, dancing in the street led to dancing on the stage. Taylor had a blast dancing in Military Park, he says, while growing up in Newark. Now, he makes his debut Wednesday as a member of Ailey II, where he takes the stage at Manhattan’s The Ailey Citigroup Theater, playing until April 3.
In celebration of Women's History Month, we highlight a trailblazer in the world of ballet who is now heading up the next generation of performers at a dance theater in New York City. Francesca Harper is making her New York City debut as the artistic director at Alvin Ailey II on Wednesday night. Harper is following her mother, the late Denise Jefferson's footsteps. Her mother directed the Ailey school for roughly 26 years. When Jefferson was a child dreaming of becoming a ballerina, a teacher pointed out that there were none of color, and she quit. She would later return to dance, but that story stuck with Harper.