When Kuchipudi dance couple Devi and Girish stepped onto the stage at the Festival of India event held at Mandalay in Myanmar, they were happy to see the huge turnout for their show. This was the first time, after many years, the Myanmar government was opening the doors of its capital to host the event organized by the Ministry of Culture in India.

George Balanchine’s Jewels has its 50th anniversary this year, an event that was commemorated at New York City’s Lincoln Center last month with performances by dancers from the Paris Opera Ballet, New York City Ballet, and the Bolshoi Ballet. The performances were notable not just for the coming together of three of the world’s great dance companies, but because their international representation mirrored the work itself.

The Ruth Page Center for the Arts and Cuba's National School of Ballet continue their collaborative and historic programming with a joint performance. [...] The result marked the first official exchange between two eminent cultural institutions since the normalization of relations between Cuba and the U.S.A. After obtaining official permission from the Cuban Ministry of Culture, the RPSD initiated the first step in the landmark cultural exchange program that would focus on the sharing of knowledge on dance, especially ballet and contemporary dance.

Brazilians have organized a protest with a difference. Members of Rio de Janeiro’s samba schools danced their way through the streets of the city to demonstrate against proposals to slash funds for next year’s Carnival. They say Mayor Marcelo Crivella’s decision to cut by half (to 270,000 euros) the amount each school receives is driven by his religious beliefs. The former evangelical bishop and gospel singer plans to put the saved money towards child care centers.