MOVERS SHAKERS MAKERS

We conclude our 6 part series, The Next Step, with SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER (1977)! The surprisingly harsh film that launched a #1 bestselling soundtrack by the Bee Gees and John Travolta to super stardom. You'll easily be able to summon the sight of Travolta strutting down the street in the opening scene and hear that thumping beat of Stayin' Alive , but did you remember that he's actu...

We’re making our entrance for this one running in with arms in bras bas! Was SAVE THE LAST DANCE (2001) the beginning of the dance movie craze of the noughts? With a bonus film that definitely hits right in the middle of that fad: STEP UP (2006) It’s interesting revisiting STLD on the other side of the reckonings that happened around BLM. It earnestly explores some serious topics with Julia Stiles...

5 years after first recorded, we're rereleasing this episode of our first dance flavoured mini series - Ballet for the 21st Century. We've chosen to revisit the last ep in that series, Boys Dance Too, because having just discussed the film Billy Elliot we thought it was worth digging into some themes that came up in more depth. This episode has been shortened from its original length......

We couldn't make The Next Step mini series without including BILLY ELLIOT. Is this the seminal dance coming of age film? How does it hold up a quarter of a century after it was released and became a cultural phenomenon? Bonus film: THE FITS (2015) starts eerily the same as Billy Elliot, but steers firmly away from the predictable halfway through... I'm joined this episode by host of Drin...

FAME (1980) fed the world a version of performing arts schools where everyone is constantly jumping around dancing and singing. But how much truth is there in that? Our bonus film, GIRL (2018), has a very different take on the experience of dance training. We talk about the enduring genius of Gene Anthony Ray, finding your tribe in school, why the cast demanded danger pay for one scene and...did w...

Up next in our new mini-series, The Next Step, is DIRTY DANCING (1987)! With bonus film--FLASHDANCE (1983). Long a stalwart of slumber parties, Dirty Dancing can actually be a tougher watch than you remember, with a plot that revolves around an illegal abortion. We all know the famous line at the end of the film, but do you know who Baby's father was in real life? Or how to do that lift prope...

Our first episode of the new mini series, The Next Step, is CENTER STAGE (2000)! Can you believe this dancer classic is celebrating 25 years since its release? With bonus film--DANCERS (1987). We use Center Stage to discuss the delicate balance between dancer and sponsor, camisole tops, unequal power dynamics, the girl behind Degas's 'Little Dancer' sculpture and Ethan Steifel'...

Our ballet horror movie mash up podcast, continues with  BLACK SWAN (2010) and US (2019). In this final instalment of Ballet Macabre we're looking at Duality. To start off, host Emma Lister and guests Amber Hunt and Rose Martin give their insights as professional dancers on what is likely the best known film in this mini genre, Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan. Though the film won its star Natal...

This one is hot off the presses! Just as I was about to release the final episode in our mini series, Lucile Hadžihalilović 's award winning INNOCENCE (2004) was made available to stream. I had trouble tracking it down in my early research, and when I finally watched it I knew I had to include it. Its oblique plot follows a year at a mysterious all girls school where ballet is one of the few...

BALLET MACABRE continues with SUSPIRIA (1977) and AUDITION (1999) as Emma Lister, long time film lover, podcast host and ballet dancer guides us down the dark hallway that is the use of ballet in horror movies. In this, the second episode in our mini series, we have the theme of pain linking our film pairing: Guests Richard Bermange and Nandita Shankardass join to give their insights on the origin...

We start our mini series with THE RED SHOES (1948) and SUSPIRIA (2018) as Emma Lister, long time film lover, podcast host and ballet dancer guides us down the dark hallway that is the use of ballet in horror movies. Guests Zoe Ashe-Browne and Diarmaid O'Meara join to give their insights as professional dancers and amateur cineasts on perhaps the foundational ballet horror film: Michael Powell...

Hailed as a “stirring voice” by the New York Times, Roopa Mahadevan is a leading second-generation Indian classical and crossover vocalist in the American diaspora known for her collaborative spirit. She leads the crossover ensemble Roopa in Flux, where she works with musicians in jazz, soul/R&B, and various global traditions, directs the innovative choir Navatman Music Collective, and sings f...

Gavin Sutherland is a conductor, composer and orchestrator who specials in dance—he’s conducted for Northern Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Royal New Zealand Ballet,  Norwegian and Finnish National Ballet as well as English National Ballet where he is principal guest conductor. He and Emma discuss his career as a conductor that starting aged 18, his favourite joke to tell an orchestra and why ce...

Charlotte Maclet is an award winning violinist who first performed a Mendelssohn concerto at age nine! She has performed as a soloist in her native France and abroad. She led the acclaimed quartet Camerata Alma Viva and is now first violinist for Zaïde Quartet. She and Emma discuss her recent recording with Zaïde, Invisible , which places the music of Fanny Mendelssohn and Clara Schumann alongside...

Andrew Mellor is a journalist and critic. He has written about music, architecture, design, and cultural politics for publications around the world and is a critic for Gramophone and the Financial Times.  He and Emma chat about his new book The Northern Silence, why it might be too late for meaningful access to classical music in Britain--especially in education and why Helsinki airport is so quie...

In this, the last episode of our miniseries, Emma Lister and Amy Drew are joined by choreographer Morgann Runacre-Temple  and dancer/teacher Senri Kou to discuss how being pregnant and having a child fits (or doesn’t fit) into the dance sector. We talk morning sickness during a show of Sleeping Beauty, the physical and hormonal changes of pregnancy, the decision to go back to performing vs the dec...

This week hosts Emma Lister, Amy Drew and Matthew Paluch continue their discussion of the phenomenon of “cancel culture” in the ballet and dance world. Please do listen to Part I first if you haven't! Where does the term 'cancel culture' come from, what are the mechanisms at work? How does it apply to ballet? What about calls to reclaim it as 'accountability culture'? We a...

This week, in part I, host Emma Lister and Matthew Paluch discuss the phenomenon of 'cancel culture' in the ballet and dance world. Where does this term come from and what are the mechanisms at work? How does it apply to ballet? What about calls to reclaim it as 'accountability culture'? We will be discussing the recent instances of 'cancelling' The Nutcracker and the...

Welcome to our new mini series! We’re talking about things that historically have been taboo to discuss in ballet. In episode one, host Emma Lister is joined by series co-host Amy Drew,  they dissect what’s taboo about menstrual cycles in the context of ballet and get great advice and information from Dr  Nicky Keay , Dr  Stephanie Potreck  and Julianne Rice-Oxley. We're talking heavy periods...

Lighting designer Jessica Hung Han Yun won a Knight of Illumination Award for Equus at Stratford East when she was just 24.  She’s since worked at the National Theatre, Donmar Warehouse, Rambert2, The Royal Court, and she has also designed lights for the revered theatre company Complicité and director Nicholas Hytner. Her upcoming work on RSC's My Neighbour Totoro can be seen at the Barbican...

Anders  Duckworth is a British/Swedish choreographer. With training in both design and dance, their work blurs movement, fashion and visual arts. Constantly seeking new collaborations, they have choreographed for short film, installations, and theatrical pieces.  Anders was selected as a Work Place Artist at The Place in London until 2026. In this interview, Anders and Emma talk about their new pi...

Nicholas Thayer is a London-born, Netherlands-based composer, producer and inter-disciplinary artist.  His electronic and new classical work has been composed for dance pieces, gallery installations and site specific work. He and Emma discuss Entropy,   a lockdown collaboration for Ballet Zurich that has finally been performed live on stage and the album it lead to: Tetramer , out now. They also t...

Yann Seabra is a stage designer whose work has been sought after by companies such as The Royal Opera House, San Francisco Ballet, Circa, Ballet Black and Protein Dance company. He and Emma discuss the tutu he designed with 5000 Swarovski crystals on it for Cira Robinson, why he loves a 70s silhouette, his long time collaboration with choreographer Arthur Pita and his new work for Mthuthuzeli Nove...

Alesandra Seutin is an award-winning multidisciplinary performance artist and choreographer who works internationally between Senegal, Belgium and the UK. She leads two international touring dance performance companies: Vocab Dance which she founded 2007 and she is also Co-Artistic Director of the famed École des Sables . Alesandra is an artistic advisor at Sadler’s Wells, where she is also Guest...

Last week’s episode circled around the taboo of motherhood in the dance world, the lack of a full time company in Ireland and the question of why there is comparatively so many women making dance work in Ireland. We’ll be following up and expanding on all these topics in this week’s episode.  In this series we’ll be interviewing Irish women making dance in a virtual roundtable with MOSHMA host Emm...