Diminutive and dynamic, choreographer Dada Masilo brings the vibrant energy of her African hometown, Johannesburg, to the international stage. Her choreographic language combines classical, contemporary, and African dance, and in her re-visioning of popular ballet stories, she confronts controversial issues head-on with a mix of humor and wisdom. A dancer who reluctantly became a choreographer, Dada Masilo is passionate about making the theatre a place to experience emotion. In her new work, The Sacrifice, she brings both the pain and the healing.

Read the Full Interview with Dada Masilo 

ICONS INSPIRE is a monthly digital portrait and a one-on-one interview with a groundbreaking choreographer. Get the insider point of view on an important dancemaker's creative process, background, and training to inspire, provoke and challenge your intellectual repertoire.

• Choreographer Talks – LIVE!
• ICONS Choreographic Institute at ATLAS
• What is ICON SMART℠?

Welcome to our learning program! Here is information about the ICONS Choreographic Institute at ATLAS in partnership with the Atlas Performing Arts Center here in Washington, DC, USA --- a long-needed platform that offers a 9-month long artistic residency with structured academic learning, an experimental creative laboratory, and an advanced professional development program for emerging choreographers. More details are available here. 

ICONS NEXT STEP is updated monthly with national and international listings featuring the latest choreographic residencies, creative opportunities, world premieres, events, trends, new books, movies, videos, and choreographic topics. 

• WHO INSPIRES YOU AND WHY?
  Your Answer?...CLICK HERE

Your responses...

• Rachel T. - When I'm working, I'm most inspired by my dancers. My choreography doesn't take shape until I'm in the studio with my dancers. Watching them perform a new phrase or discussing a concept with them inspires me to expand the idea in directions that I couldn't have come up with on my own.
• Briana S. - There isn't a specific person that inspires me but I'm inspired by the human spirit and how it manifests into physical creation. Why? Because it forms our sense of reality, and how we express and connect.
• Asami S. - I am inspired by everyday life experience. Overhearing conversations on the bus or one sentence that stood out from the book I was reading.

Click here to read more selected answers

Check out our regular postings of cross genre works and enjoy interesting selection of topics

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