A captivating history of the nation's oldest performing arts center, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, which largely mirrors the evolution of experimental and progressive performing arts in 20th century America. Includes footage of recent performances, a treasure trove of 150 years' worth of rare archival materials, and intimate interviews with Laurie Anderson, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Chuck Davis, Alan Rickman, Isabella Rossellini, and others. Official Selection...

A visit in 1971 to the classrooms of the Juilliard School, the prominent music academy, introducing some of the gifted students and many of the brilliant faculty including: Paul Mann, Peter Mennin, Rosina Lhévinne, Jennie Tourel, Jose Limon, John Houseman, Ivan Galamian, Ania Dorfmann, Saul Goodman, and Beverley Johnson. A meaningful documentation of the school that was founded in 1905 as the Institute of Musical Art. The composer Peter Mennin became...

The spectacular avant-garde choreographies of flamenco dancer Rocío Molina have electrified audiences around the world. Her extravagant, mesmerizing and mostly improvised pieces combine traditional Flamenco with modern-dance, avant-garde theatrics, objects, paint, and eclectic music compositions. IMPULSO is an intimate portrait of Molina, one the dance world’s most passionate artists, as she travels the world to perform her improvised “impulsos”...

RESTLESS CREATURE: WENDY WHELAN offers an intimate portrait of prima ballerina Wendy Whelan as she prepares to leave New York City Ballet after a record-setting three decades with the company. One of the modern era’s most acclaimed dancers, Whelan was a principal ballerina for NYCB and, over the course of her celebrated career, danced numerous ballets by George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins, as well as new works by more modern standout choreographers...

Where Europe brought the classics and the ballet to the world of dance, America brought tap to the table. In a highly entertaining overview of what is considered the first, genuinely all-American dance form, Christian Blackwood’s TAPDANCIN’ illuminates the New York driven renaissance of the once-flourishing art form. Blackwood shows how the triumphs and defeats of many great dancers from the past were mingled with the rejuvenation of this art...

In this first session on vocal technique, take a tour of the physical mechanisms of sound and speech. Practice free and expansive breathing, and experiment with the principles of phonation (sound production) and resonation (sound amplification). Conclude by exploring articulation - how speech shapes sound into words.

Consider how people learn stage presence - a process of cultivating self-awareness and practical skills in an environment of trust and support. Begin with the three building blocks of performance technique: a "triangle" formed by mental focus, your physical life, and your speaking voice. Create a safe and comfortable physical space for the work you'll do.

As performers or public speakers, we may at times need to either acquire or reduce a dialect or accent. Study the process of adopting a new way of speaking: learn to place your voice where it needs to resonate, incorporate new ways of shaping sounds, and find the intonation and rhythm of the new speech pattern.

Now study the tools that make speech clear and energized. Consider how vowels carry the feeling behind words, and practice clearly pronouncing our language's 20 vowel sounds, including pure vowels and diphthongs. Continue with consonants, both plosives and continuants, building awareness of how consonants communicate meaning and create emphasis.

Discover the physical techniques that stage performers use to direct the audience's focus and maintain visual interest. Learn how to take and give focus onstage, using body position and orientation, as well as movement and stillness. Learn also to create visual variety through stage geometry, as well as the use of physical planes, balance, and rhythm.