Dancers

At one point during her ecstatic performance Friday night at the Bank of America Pavilion, Donna Summer confessed she was a big fan of the original series of iPod commercials where silhouetted dancers rocked out with wild abandon. “That’s the way music makes me feel inside,’’ she said. It seemed clear that, thanks to Summer, the near-capacity crowd knew exactly what she meant. With the aid of a nine-piece band and three dancers, Summer took a 95-minute tour of her big-beat, hit-packed catalog and handily defended her “queen of disco’’ crown.

NEW YORK — Choreographer Rashaun Mitchell shepherded his dancers into the woods and asked them to wander around. "I'm not the kind of choreographer who works alone in the studio and then puts movement on his dancers," says Mitchell, 33, a former Merce Cunningham Dance Company member. "I have to be with them and watch them improvise. I can't foresee what they'll do. That's how I generate material. " So, as an exercise during a late summer residency last year at Dragon's Egg Studio in Ledyard, Conn., into the forest they went.

The start of this year's powwow season got under way Friday as hundreds of Native American and indigenous dancers crowded onto the floor of University of New Mexico Arena, each one pounding their feet in rhythm to dozens of beating drums. Donning traditional costumes of beads, bells, feathers, fringed leather and shells, they came from Canada, both coasts of the United States and everywhere in between. "It's a wonderful spectacle to see," said Jason Whitehouse, a master of ceremonies for the 29th Annual Gathering of Nations.

Choreographer Mark Morris has been gracing Boston with his artistic invention since the mid-'80s, so his company's regular visits offer a welcome opportunity to see what he's been up to recently. The current Celebrity Series presentation of the Mark Morris Dance Group at the Cutler Majestic Theatre brings three recent works to town for the first time. From the first two pieces on the program, one might be tempted to suspect the one-time bad boy of modern dance has gone soft.

First position in ballet is the one in which you turn your feet out so that the heels touch and the feet try to form a straight line. First position in any competition is everybody's goal. So it's no surprise that "First Position" is the name of first-time filmmaker — and Brookline native — Bess Kargman's new ballet-competition documentary, which opened this past Friday at the Kendall Square Cinema in Cambridge. The film follows seven students, ages 10 to 17, as they strive to reach the 2010 finals of the annual Youth America Grand Prix in New York City, where the prizes for the older winners...

During a break in the basketball action at the TD Garden, 14 Boston Celtics dancers run onto the parquet and launch into a finely choreographed dance routine to Adele's "Rolling in the Deep. " Clad this night in white halter tops and ruffle skirts with green trim, these striking dancers complete their dramatic look with glamorous makeup, big hair, and complexions bronzed with spray tans. They look so enthusiastic it's hard to believe most of them already spent nearly eight hours working another job or attending college.

Boston Ballet’s astute mix of classics and modern ballets in its “Night of Stars’’ recalled a meticulously curated rare-books exhibit. The program, comprising 11 dances, posited on stage a sample of everything from the virtuoso pas de deux from Vakhtang Chabukiani’s “Le Corsaire’’ (1858), to an excerpt from George Balanchine’s architecturally etched “Apollo’’ (1928), to principal dancer Yury Yanowsky’s “Li{-3},’’ a contemporary world premiere that bangs to a close when Jaime Diaz tosses Rie Ichikawa over his head into the arms of John...

Because of the NBA lockout, the Celtics may not be stepping on the basketball court this season. But if they do, the Celtics dancers will be ready. Yesterday, dance team director Marina Ortega joined her pompom posse, including Kayla (right), and members of the public for a free, high-energy, calorie-burning workout at the Boston Sports Club on Boylston Street.

THE UNTITLED STILL LIFE COLLECTION Conceived and directed by Trajal Harrell and Sarah Sze At: Institute of Contemporary Art, Sunday 1, 3, and 4 p.m. Tickets: free with museum admission ($15, $13 seniors, $10 students, ages 17 and under free). 617-478-3100, www.icaboston.org The central visual focus in "The Untitled Still Life Collection," a collaboration between choreographer-dancer Trajal Harrell and visual artist Sarah Sze, is a thin blue line that serves as a very active little metaphor.

DANZABIERTA At: Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, Becket, Wednesday (through tomorrow). Tickets: $42-64.50. 413-243-0745, www.jacobspillow.org BECKET - In the past decade-plus, audiences worldwide have stood in awe as a tidal wave of prodigiously talented ballet dancers has streamed from Cuba. This week, with the US debut of DanzAbierta at Jacob's Pillow, we get a glimpse of Cuba's contemporary dance scene. The very good news is that the DanzAbierta dancers, like their classical brethren, are skilled, fluid, and daring performers, and - unlike the Soviet-era choreographers,...

Peter Fuller, owner of the thoroughbred Dancer's Image that won the 1968 Kentucky Derby but was disqualified days later, has died of cancer in Portsmouth, N.H. He was 89. Fuller died Monday at a skilled-care facility, according to one of his daughters, Miranda Bocko of Rye, N.H. Fuller was a second-generation Boston auto dealer and son of a former Massachusetts governor who watched Dancer's Image rally from last to win by 1 ½ lengths over...

Kids 10 and older Chimpanzee (78 min., G) A documentary that's fine for kids 10 and older and OK for many between 8 and 10, depending upon how deeply they identify with films showing real animals at risk. Do not let the G rating assigned to this Disneynature wildlife documentary mislead you. It should be rated PG. There is no graphic animal-on-animal violence shown, but the tension and foreboding in the voice-over narration (read by Tim Allen), and the nerve-jangling camera work showing one group of chimpanzees chased by a rival group, or hunting small monkeys for food, are quite unsettling.

First position in ballet is the one in which you turn your feet out so that the heels touch and the feet try to form a straight line. First position in any competition is everybody's goal. So it's no surprise that "First Position" is the name of first-time filmmaker — and Brookline native — Bess Kargman's new ballet-competition documentary, which opened this past Friday at the Kendall Square Cinema in Cambridge. The film follows seven students, ages 10 to 17, as they strive to reach the 2010 finals of the annual Youth America Grand Prix in New York City, where the prizes for the older...

Back in 2002, the spelling-bee movie "Spellbound" kicked off a run of kiddie-contest documentaries of which "First Position" is the latest example. It's a foolproof genre: All you have to do is find a discipline (spelling, ballroom dancing, poetry slams, what have you), get a camera, and focus on a group of charismatic kids as they vie for one or more top spots. Bingo: instant drama. Because its subjects are so driven and so talented, "First Position," which is about ballet, is more gripping than the norm.

"We're playing the Shubert, kids!" That's what Chita Rivera (center) shouted to Boston Youth Moves teens who joined the Broadway legend onstage at the end of her show on Friday night. Rivera headlined "Chita Rivera: My Broadway" at Swellegance (a benefit for the Youth Moves program, which is based at the Jeannette Neill Dance Studio) and surprised the crowd by inviting students to close the show by dancing to music from "Chicago. " Swellegance also featured the Tony winner sharing intimate stories about about her iconic productions including "Bye Bye Birdie," "Sweet Charity," "West Side...

ARLINGTON — Tap dancer/choreographer Michelle Dorrance can improvise and kick it old school with the best of them. But as she and her spirited New York-based company showed Friday night at Arlington's Regent Theatre, the Bessie Award-winner has made her most groundbreaking contribution to the evolution of tap through tight, polished choreographic numbers that put the genre to the service of theatrical context. Drawing inspiration from music ranging from the Squirrel Nut Zippers and Fiona Apple to The Bluegrass Reunion and Big Maybelle, she...

BECKET -- The dancers of Alonzo King's LINES Ballet looked quite at home on the stage of the Ted Shawn Theatre at Jacob's Pillow Wednesday night. They were flanked, on either side of the proscenium arch, by the iconic portraits of Shawn, the Pillow's founder, and his wife, Ruth St. Denis. Shawn is shown as a noble Native American chief, St. Denis as an incense-bearing priestess of the Orient. King's dances possess the same kind of vaguely exotic quality. What country? What century?

For the fully attired Irish step dancer, these are the essential accoutrements. Wig Every competitive Irish dancer wears a synthetic wig of ringlet curls. Dancers get about 10 wears out of one wig. Putting one on can take 30 minutes. Preparing before a competition can take 2 to 3 hours. Tiara Dancers wear headbands, tiaras, or headpieces with jewels, flowers, and even feathers. Makeup As in a beauty pageant, dancers wear makeup of elongated eyelashes, bright lips, rosy cheeks, and tan legs.

I always knew I wanted to do a documentary. Ballet seemed like the right subject. I studied it from the age of 4 at the BOSTON BALLET SCHOOL and was in this world for nearly a decade. I know when a girl is going to cry in 30 seconds because she didn't land a pirouette. I also know how to shoot ballet. When I look at competition shows, you can tell when the person behind the camera hasn't been trained to shoot dancers. They cut off limbs when the feet, hands, and neck are so important.