AMERICA, EUROPE, AND DANCE

by Alastair MACAULAY

Beginning his second régime as president with characteristic tactlessness, Donald Trump has announced new names for the Gulf of Mexico (“the gulf of America”), and new ownership for Greenland and the Panama Canal. The world is changing – once again.

©freepick

It would therefore be odd if some of the world’s dance did not change, too. But how will that change show itself? Trump himself is unlikely to commission new choreography or even to encourage any. (World’s Shortest Book: Donald Trump’s interest in the arts.) Will we see more from the anti-Trumpists of the dance world? Or will the conservatism emerging in many countries around the world now find expression in dance terms?

(L-R) Pacific Northwest Ballet principal dancers Angelica Generosa, Elizabeth Murphy, and Cecilia Iliesiu in the 2022 world premiere of Alexei Ratmansky’s Wartime Elegy © Angela Sterling

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