Why Dance Matters

Alexander Campbell  has been Artistic Director of the Royal Academy of Dance for just over a year. Formerly a gleaming principal with the Royal Ballet, the Australian-born dancer is no stranger to the RAD. His grandmother was an RAD examiner, so he took the RAD exams and won medals in its major competitions. Stepping off stage and into the office must have seemed like a natural move – or did...

Lewis Walker is a former world champion gymnast and now a dancer. We often talk about dance as a short career, one which embeds a very binary approach, and in which partnering is a question of intense trust – well, all this is even more true of gymnastics. Lewis discovered the sport at six, reached its peak – but also realised there was more to explore, more to express. Their side-s...

Kim Brandstrup is a Danish born choreographer whose latest project, Breaking Bach, unites him with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Kim often works with leading classical companies, but in Breaking Bach he directs street dancers, some with no previous stage experience. What will they all find in Bach’s exacting rhythms? Kim took an unusual route into choreography – he initially trained i...

It’s the 90th anniversary of the RAD in Australia, so we are speaking to Shelley Yacopetti, the RAD’s National Director in Australia. Not all the national directors come from a dance background – but Shelley emphatically does: as a performer, teacher, leader. She has been involved with the RAD in Australia for over a decade, taking several roles before becoming National Directo...

We go inside a London theatre phenomenon with Fabian Aloise, the choreographer whose latest show has made headlines around the world. Every night, Rachel Zegler, playing Evita in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical, comes out onto the balcony at the London Palladium and sings Don’t Cry for Me Argentina to an excited crowd: a unique moment of London magic. Fabian works with director Jamie Lloyd...

Alina Cojocaru is one of the great ballerinas of her generation – her Giselle, Odette-Odile and Manon bring those complex, anguished characters to life. This deep dive of a conversation offers a rare chance to hear a dancer at the peak of their profession discuss the ways in which art works on both artist and audience. Now a freelance dancer, Alina can shape her own artistic path. S...

We take a deep dive into a single dance company – the tumbling, twisty, transporting Pilobolus – through the eyes of Robert Pranzatelli, who has written a wonderfully involving book about the company and its work. Pilobolus began in 1971, at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. It grew out of dance classes held at the then all-male university, and soon found a following in the US and beyond – one e...

Amir Nizar Zuabi is artistic director of The Herds – an astonishing work of cardboard and imagination, which is sweeping northwards from Africa. The lifesize puppets of The Herds are given dazzling life by teams of puppeteers, drawing attention to climate emergency as the animals look for home in a changing world. Amir previously directed The Walk, where a 12-foot puppet girl sought refuge, greete...

When it comes to youthful spirit, Angela Rippon is unmatchable. Angela is a journalist and broadcaster, who 50 years ago this year became the BBC’s first regular female newsreader. But dance has also defined her career. She caused a sensation in 1976 as a high-kicking guest on the Morecambe and Wise Christmas show, and in 2023, at 79, she took part in tv’s Strictly Come Dancing, almost reaching th...

Christina S Ho, Professor of Law at Rutgers University, is deeply engaged in questions around access to healthcare, law and governance – but is also a lover of ballet. We relish enriching conversations with non-dancers on Why Dance Matters, and Christina who not only cherishes her time in ballet class, but also sees ballet as a model for civil society. Issues around the right to health or the rule...

This special episode was recorded live to celebrate International Women’s Day. The RAD gathered three distinguished dancing dames in front of an invited audience to discuss their lives in dance. A ballerina, an artistic director and a choreographer: Dame Darcey Bussell, Dame Monica Mason and Dame Arlene Phillips. All three were previously guests on Why Dance Matters, and there are other points of...

When Valentino Zucchetti won the gold medal at the Genée International Ballet Competition in 2006,  Dance Gazette  called him ‘dazzling’ and ‘above all, devastatingly charismatic.’ The Italian artist has brought those qualities as dancer with the Royal Ballet in London (especially in vivid roles like Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet, Lescaut in Manon and Lensky in Onegin), and an award-winni...

The architect Takero Shimazaki  was born in Tokyo but is a longtime Londoner. He has designed many kinds of buildings – including the London home of the Royal Academy of Dance. It’s a warm, open, lovingly designed space and last year, the Royal Institute of British Architects gave it both an RIBA National Award and RIBA London Award, calling it “an uplifting, welcoming and inclusively safe pl...

Vicki Igbokwe-Ozoagu  is an inventive choreographer, an Olympic movement director and a very positive lifecoach. Her dance company Uchenna promises to Empower, Entertain & Educate, while she wants everyone she engages with to Think Fierce, Be Fabulous & Live Free Spirited. Sadler’s Wells in London are channelling that positive spirit, asking her to create Our Mighty Groove, a show tha...

India is renowned for its rich dance traditions, but rarely for ballet. Pia Sutaria is changing that. Pia’s career has been immensely varied – from ballet to modern, from TedX talks to musical theatre. She’s also an RAD dance teacher, and in 2018 set up the Institute of Classical & Modern Dance in her home city of Mumbai. It aims to broaden access to dance, and particularly ballet, for those w...

To celebrate our tenth series, we are launching this season with a brilliant episode with Sir Matthew Bourne whose Swan Lake returns this year for its 30th anniversary. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our guest today is the dancer and choreographer Aakash Odedra. Based in the UK, his work tours internationally, and he collaborates with artists from across countries and art forms. Each piece he makes seems more ambitious than the last – next is Songs of the Bulbul, which premieres at the Edinburgh International Festival. His manner is gentle, but under the bonnet of his works sit difficult subje...

The Royal Academy of Dance will soon hold the annual Margot Fonteyn International Ballet Competition, where promising dancers from across the world dance their hearts out in front of some of ballet’s big names. In 2014, the Australian ballerina Eilis Small took part in the predecessor to the Fonteyn, the Genée, held that year in Antwerp, but didn’t make the final. Yet she now has a fulfilling care...

We often talk about how dance changes lives on Why Dance Matters. No one exemplifies that more than the remarkable RAD dance teacher Michael Wamaya. He works with Project Elimu in Kibera, Kenya. Kibera faces many challenges – extreme poverty, intense lack of resources. But Mike offers children and young people the chance to engage in artistic activity and dance, and to think too about sexual and r...

Did you know the Royal Ballet had a performance psychologist? Britt Tajet-Foxell was a pioneer in the discipline, which is more familiar in the sports world. As well as dancers and musicians, Britt also works with elite athletes: at the Olympics in Paris, she’s working with teams from both the UK and her native Norway. There may be less stigma around discussing mental and emotional health than whe...

Our guest today is the Canadian hip hop dancer and choreographer professionally known as Crazy Smooth. We ask how Crazy Smooth came by his dance name? What makes Canadian street dance distinctive? In this Olympic year, where breaking makes its debut in the Paris games, should we really think of dance as a sport? And if breaking is a young man’s game, how does a b-boy feel when he becomes a b-man?&...

Nine years ago this month, Misty Copeland became the first ever Black American woman to be promoted to principal at American Ballet Theatre. One of ballet’s most inspirational figures, she opens this new season of Why Dance Matters. Was she prepared for the attention around her promotion? What can ballet give young people? How does George Michael’s I Want Your Sex figure in her dance career, and w...

Life changing moments with Why Dance Matters! We’ve made over 50 episodes of Why Dance Matters, and the conversations often hinge on life-changing moments. This special episode gathers some compelling chats about change. Some are personal choices which prove momentous: the unlikely decision to pursue ballet, or to host a ballet class in your front room. Others include being part of a major cultura...

With members in over 80 countries around the world, and Royal Academy of Dance’s relationship with its members depends on its National Directors. They include Olivia Lume, who last year celebrated her 40th year with the RAD. As National Director for the Academy in Africa, she has lived through historic changes, and has seen the RAD grow, especially after its flagship event – now The Fonteyn, forme...

The Silver Swans programme is one of the Royal Academy of Dance’s most life-enhancing initiatives. Silver Swans are people of 55 and over taking a specially-designed programme of RAD ballet classes: some are experiencing dance classes for the very first time, and describe how Silver Swans fosters physical and emotional wellbeing. Rebecca Yates, an RAD teacher in north east England has developed a...