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Amy O'Neal, a modern dance choreographer, recently took on the challenge of performing without music.

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Stop The Music: A Dancer Tries Silence

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Amy O'Neal is a choreographer who recently took on a daunting task: an entire performance without a single note of music.

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Puppeteer Basil Twist poses with Ballerina, the marionette at the center of a tragic love triangle in his adaptation of Petrushka.

Basil Twist: A Genius, With Many A String Attached

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Joan Myers Brown and the Audacious Hope of the Black Ballerina book cover

'Audacious' Black Ballerinas Had To Be On Point

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Zumba dance classes are all the rage, but some critics say the fitness craze shouldn't be considered Latin dance.

Zumba Is A Hit, But Is It Latin?

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A Homecoming For Alvin Ailey's Artistic Director()

Yannick Lebrun performs choreography from Robert Battle's Takademe. "Takademe is near and dear to me as one of my first creations," says Battle, artistic director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. "It's a work I made in the tiny living room of my old apartment in Queens."

February 25, 2012 Robert Battle started dancing as a ninth-grader at Northwestern Senior High School — a public school in one of Miami's poorest neighborhoods. "I think I work hard because I feel that I owe that to people who have helped me along the way," he says.

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Oscars 2012: The 84th Academy Awards

Wim Wenders On 'Pina': A Dance Documentary In 3-D()

Damiano Ottavio Bigi and Clementine Deluy, both members of the Tanztheater Wuppertal under Pina Bausch, perform her choreography in Pina.

January 14, 2012 Germany's official entry at the 84th Oscars is Pina, a documentary showcasing the groundbreaking work of the late choreographer Pina Bausch. Director Wim Wenders discusses Bausch, representing dance on screen, and working in 3-D.

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Author Interviews

Tracing Ballet's Cultural History Over 400 Years()

Jenifer Ringer performs as the Sugarplum Fairy during a 2010 performance of "The Nutcracker" at Lincoln Center in New York.

December 16, 2011 Ballet's history is not just about choreography and technique — it's also a history of nationalization, the changing ways we view the body, shifting gender norms and class struggles. Historian Jennifer Homans chronicles the art form in a cultural history, Apollo's Angels.

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Theater

How Cirque Du Soleil Reinvented The Big-Top Show()

Cirque du Soleil performers hang from aerial hoops in Quidam.

November 17, 2011 Since Cirque du Soleil was founded in 1984, it has grown from a troupe of street performers in Montreal to a billion-dollar entertainment business. Today, the company has more than 20 different shows in its repertoire.

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Movie Interviews

'West Side Story' Film Still Pretty, And Witty, At 50()

According to actress Rita Moreno, who played Anita in the film, Jerome Robbins' challenging choreography made the filming of West Side Story a grueling experience: "I think most dancers ... [worked] so bloody hard that the only way to live through some of the physical torture was just to, you know, employ your sense of humor."

October 17, 2011 Fifty years ago, the film version of the acclaimed Broadway musical premiered in theaters across the country. Two of the film's stars — Rita Moreno and George Chakiris — and theater critic Misha Berson join NPR's Neal Conan to discuss the movie's legacy.

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