Culture

From calluses to burnt shoes, the elegance of ballet is built from the ground up

4 minutes

Absorb the infectious rhythms of Setapa – a joyous dance from southern Africa

7 minutes

Technology, philosophy, randomness – how Merce Cunningham pushed dance to its limits

7 minutes

Acoustic naturalism

Our movies and offices are engineered to sound natural based on what rang false in the theatres of 18th-century Paris

Joseph L Clarke

Close-up on kabuki – the colourful ‘pure entertainment’ of Japan’s Edo period

31 minutes

The formidable female rumba group shaking up Cuba’s conservative music scene

20 minutes

Phantasia

Imagination is a powerful tool, a sixth sense, a weapon. We must be careful how we use it, in life as on stage or screen

Paul Giamatti & Stephen T Asma

To the core

A devastating loss can shatter the façade we put up for others, exposing our deepest, rawest self. A work of art can do the same

Julia F Christensen

Dancers tumble in and out of love as the ground spins beneath their feet

6 minutes

How dancing helps me think, and thinking helps me dance

Glory M Liu

For Nietzsche, life’s ultimate question was: ‘Does it dance?’

Kimerer LaMothe

The pandemonium of modern celebrity began in 19th-century theatre

Sharon Marcus

The dancing species: how moving together in time helps make us human

Kimerer LaMothe

How ballerinas defy the corporeal in a quest for the ethereal

Olivia Campbell

Classical ballet transforms into a dance of the surreal in this duet from 1968

14 minutes

Dance with the devil: the colourful Mexican art form that summons demons

6 minutes

Human capital: art, exercise and industry in the streets of Beijing

16 minutes

Dance seems to be the ultimate frivolity. How did it become a human necessity?

4 minutes