Emma Portner is everywhere this season: she’s working with New York City Ballet and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, she’s on the cover of Dance Magazine, and she just finished a commission for Fondation Beyeler—a dance film called “Femme Debout.” If you look closely, you’ll be able to pick out a familiar face among the five dancers: Jordan Johnson, USC Kaufman class of 2019, helped create the work and performed in it alongside Portner.

This September, USC Kaufman New Movement Residency artist Seda Aybay’s work NOIR premiered in full at The Broad Stage. For this performance, USC Kaufman senior Rachel Walton was asked to dance alongside the members of Aybay’s company (Kybele Dance Theater) marking her first professional performance opportunity.

USC Kaufman BFA students learn one of George Balanchine’s ballets from repetiteur Zippora Karz about once each semester; since our sophomores, juniors, and seniors are already well-acquainted with her process, we asked two BFA freshmen to write about their experience learning Allegro Brillante this month. Maria Rosenberg and Benjamin Peralta each give their take on the neoclassical work, set to Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 3.

By Rachel Harris

What better way to start the semester than by auditioning and working with Kidd Pivot company member Jermaine Spivey to learn Crystal Pite’s “Ten Duets on a Theme of Rescue”? 

From internships to intensives to international tours, the USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance BFA students spent their summers participating in dance-related opportunities both locally in Los Angeles and around the globe.

By Kaylin Sturtevant

This past summer was one of my most exciting so far–I’m beyond grateful for the opportunity to travel to Vancouver, British Colombia and assist Professor Thomas McManus in re-staging a work by William Forsythe on acclaimed company Ballet BC.

By Coco Alvarez-Mena and Mark Daftari

Several USC Kaufman students are attending this year’s AXIS Connect intensive, led by Barton Movement–its first half, in Los Angeles, took place in USC Kaufman’s studios, where they feel right at home. Below, two rising BFA seniors describe their experiences from week one.

By Ardyn Flynt

Patrick Corbin is, well, a joy. To take his class in the context of the Paul Taylor intensive at USC Kaufman was to spiral, contract, undercurve and giggle at the antics between him and fellow Taylor company alumna, Rachel.