Dance Magazine has published since 1927, when its first issue appeared under the title The American Dancer. With the magazine's centennial approaching, its editors are revisiting each decade through the covers that defined it. Their latest retrospective covers the 1990s — a decade, the magazine writes, "of fusion — technology and analog, mainstream and underground," when club culture and the music-video industry fed the concert stage and choreographers across modern and contemporary dance drew on a widening range of traditions.

The February 1990 issue featured the Russian ballet dancer Farukh Ruzimatov, photographed in Oleg Vinogradov's Knight in the Tiger Skin. The cover story examined how Ruzimatov's androgyny shaped his artistry: he described typical balletic masculinity as a cage and chose a more fluid approach to classical danseur roles.

A year later, the January 1991 cover paired Mikhail Baryshnikov and Mark Morris, the two figures leading White Oak Dance Project. The company, the magazine noted, combined ballet and modern dance techniques throughout the 1990s and set itself apart by prioritizing older dancers.

Broadway reached the cover in September 1992. The dance-focused revival of Guys & Dolls, with Christopher Chadman's sharp, athletic choreography, became one of Broadway's most successful revivals of the decade. The cover shot — Christopher Chadman, Denise Faye, Scott Wise, Faith Prince, Gary Chryst and JoAnn M. Hunter in costume, photographed by Jack Mitchell — reflected what the magazine calls the decade's eclectic spirit.

Merce Cunningham appeared on the March 1993 cover in a multiple-exposure image by Roy Round, alongside Robert Swinston and Chris Komar. The 1990s were the years Cunningham fused dance with technology: his 1992 work Enter used LifeForms, a human-animation software that expanded his choreographic possibilities. He continued experimenting with the program — later renamed Dance Forms — until his death in 2009.

The December 1994 cover marked a changing of the guard at Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Masazumi Chaya, newly appointed associate artistic director following Ailey's passing, brought his own perspective to the organization while working to preserve the integrity of Ailey's vision, according to the cover story.

International traditions gained the cover in August 1995, when Dance Magazine featured Desak Made Suarti Laksmi in The Legend of Dalem Dunkut, photographed by Jack Mitchell. That year the Indonesian National Institute of Art came to Emerson College, hosting workshops and sharing Balinese dance techniques — a choice the magazine cites as evidence of international dance's growing influence in the era.

Jack Mitchell himself took the January 1996 cover, a silhouetted Merce Cunningham, as the magazine honored the photographer on his retirement. Mitchell shaped many of the magazine's most iconic cover images.

The April 1997 cover featured Evelyn Cisneros, then a principal at San Francisco Ballet and one of the first Mexican American ballet stars, photographed in Val Caniparoli's Lambarena. The accompanying story praised her ability to move fluidly between classical ballet and modern techniques — a versatility, the magazine notes, that was becoming a ballet-company standard.

The August 1998 cover turned to new-wave jazz dance: R.A.W., or Reality at Work, led by Mia Michaels, photographed by Steven Caras. Michaels' focus on emotional expression and storytelling would characterize, a decade later, her popular routines for "So You Think You Can Dance."

The decade closed with Martha Graham on the March 1999 cover, part of an issue looking back at 100 years of dance. The feature described how Graham gave her successors not just a technique to preserve but a foundation to build on. One line carried the story's verdict: "She lived whatever emotion she wished to personify, never merely displayed it."

As the centennial draws near, the retrospective series continues — a reminder, issue by issue, of how the magazine documented a field as it absorbed technology, international forms and generations of change.