International ballet star Irina Baronova, who was discovered in Paris in the 1930s, passed away at her home in Australia on June 28 at the age of 89. She was the last of the three "Baby Ballerinas" made famous by George Balanchine.

While I won't be doing the SYTYCD Play By Play until tomorrow evening, I wanted to make one comment on Katee and Joshua's Mia Michaels' piece. As Nigel would say: Brilliant. I'm not sure the judges did it justice. They certainly commended the dancers for giving commanding performances, but to me, Katee and Joshua did much more than that. They committed one hundred percent to Michaels' sometimes scary, sometimes dangerous choreography. When Katee ran across the stage with Joshua holding her, it looked surreal...as if she were a superhero able to dash from place to place on hyper speed.

I was hoping Mary Murphy wouldn't scream, only because it would undermine the power of the dance. Thankfully, she didn't. Instead, she surprised me by coming up with the most intuitive critique of the night. She said that one of the best moments of the dance...when Katee and Joshua were simply walking forward...created a "monumental stillness." Couldn't say it better.

What did you all think? What was your favorite dance of the evening?

It's great when dancers see the humorous side of their art form, and tappers have been known to send themselves up with some regularity.  Here's the great Sandman Sims doing a little "challenge" with Bill Cosby.  But is this the funniest tap dance clip out there?  Read on and decide for yourself.

Tips for College Part I dealt with what to expect in technique classes and performance rehearsals, as well as some tips for success in these areas. In continuation of the series, I will highlight two aspects of dance in higher education with which many incoming students have little experience.

July Fourth.  What do you think about?  Fireworks, picnics, red-white-and-blue, stars and stripes, parades, right?  And maybe glitzy costumes and national dance competitions, too?

Over the years, Satin Stitches has been asked to create many different Patriotic dance costumes.  Some have been for dance soloists and some have been for entire dance teams-either for studio lines or for high school dance teams.

We have designed and created several camouflaged outfits, or military uniforms, some for hip-hop styles and even some that were rhinestoned, for very glamorous looks.  But my FAVORITE Patriotic solo costume is shown here.  It was created for a solo dance performance.  It was created for a very emotional, patriotic endeavor.  It was created for an auction to raise money for the victims of 9-11, in New York City.  

Last year, Chicago Tap Theatre (CTT) audiences saw The Hourglass stomp, riff, and tap down villains in the company's The Hourglass in the Stop-Time Chronicles, a comic book tap opera. Now, the CTT has reintroduced their tap heroine in a new show, The Hourglass and the Poisoned Pen.

In order to understand how to make your dancing look natural we must first Study the human body. The human body is a remarkable machine. It produces many " magical" natural functions, which we will now study. I will show you how it can help you understand and improve your dancing style and technique the NATURAL way.