Body and Soul

My guest today, george emilio sanchez , is a passionate and critical voice for our times. A skilled artist and activist, he brings a gift for blending factual historical and cultural knowledge, lived experience, and creative storytelling in solo performances that inform, captivate, and challenge audiences. In this episode of Body and Soul , sanchez discusses a 19th-century Supreme Court ruling tha...

Bessie Award-winning Stephanie Skura is widely noted not only for her long career as a performer, maker, and teacher of post-modern dance but for being a magical catalyst for other artists' creativity. In today's talk, she shares how her imaginative practice, called scores, opens up liberating possibilities. For Skura, dance is a path to consciousness; a method to access the balancing, healin...

Ballet dancer Daphne Lee , currently with world-renowned Dance Theatre of Harlem, has learned much about the joys and rigors of touring. In this talk, she shares her observations, concerns, and tips for young performers and challenges the dance field to consider how it develops new leaders. Listen here and learn more about Daphne Lee on InfiniteBody blog here . www.daphnemlee.com

Initially trained in dance in her native Cuba, Judith Sánchez Ruíz has enjoyed an illustrious international career that includes performing for one of the towering figures of post-modern dance, Trisha Brown, who died in 2017.  Fans of both Sánchez and Brown rejoiced last year when the Trisha Brown Dance Company named Sánchez as the troupe's first commissioned guest choreographer. I was honore...

As Canadian tap dancer and podcaster Travis Knights recorded this episode, he used a great word to describe one of his beloved colleagues, and I, in turn, will choose the same word to describe Knights's performing-- impeccable . I first learned of Travis through another tap artist you've heard on this podcast-- Lisa La Touche --and, coincidentally, I later met Travis and shared space with him in a...

"As the original nomads knew, I needed to affirm, accept, and embrace the idea that home is where our bodies already are and that migrating to new homes is a human right." Journey along with Brinda Guha through memories of family, community, culture, the inner world, and performance--from Kathak to flamenco to contemporary dance. And learn more about Guha on InfiniteBody blog. Click here . www. Br...

Kayhan Irani--writer, performer, mother--finds herself in a swirling constellation of stories, savoring books by writers of color pointing the way to liberatory values and a possible future. Learn more about Kayhan and her work on InfiniteBody blog here .

Maxine Montilus has served many roles in dance--performer,  choreographer, administrator, writer, and educator. I asked her to focus  this podcast episode on her experience and ideas as a passionate and  imaginative dance teacher across ages and levels. It was a delight to listen to her, and I hope you will enjoy this, too! Learn more about Maxine at InfiniteBody blog here and her w...

There's no reason to build a wall of labels around devynn emory and their work in this world and between worlds. They care for body, spirit, and community in a multitude of ways--from nursing to choreography, from mediumship to bodywork, from writing to work with death and grieving. This rich interweaving of skills and services sounds strange only in a society that deliberately separates body and...

I first learned about María de los Angeles Rodríguez Jiménez and her research when I was invited to an upcoming dance-and-ecology symposium presented by the New York Public Library's Jerome Robbins Dance  Division (January 27; livestream February 3). I was immediately drawn to  the direction of her interdisciplinary work which infuses performance  with Afro-Atlantic spiritual tradit...

I'm delighted to feature the wonderful tap artist and filmmaker Lisa La Touche as my next guest. Born in Canada and, for a time, residing in New York's Harlem, Lisa has traveled the world with her tap shoes--drumming the earth, finding community, and realizing the power of artistic legacy.  Read Lisa's bio and learn more about her on InfiniteBody blog: https://infinitebody.blogspot.com/2...

Hello, again, everyone! It certainly has been a long, long time! I'm reviving my long-abandoned podcast Body and Soul and, in the course of doing so, reviving my InfiniteBody blog as well! I hope you'll inspired by this first new episode featuring dance and interdisciplinary artist Ziiomi Law , US born and raised, now residing in Panama City, Panama. I asked  Ziiomi to talk about what helps t...

Cristiane Bouger muses on time. Cristiane Bouger is a Brooklyn-based artist and writer. She explores the intersection of performance, theater, philosophy, literature, do-­it-­yourself practices and post-­punk influences. Her work reveals existential examinations reflecting upon the female body, desire, cultural conducts, behavior and symbols, biography and fiction. She is a 2012 Movement Research...

Dancer Jennifer Monson, artistic director of iLAND (Interdisciplinary Laboratory for Art, Nature and Dance), talks about her new project, "Live Dancing Archive" which will be presented in New York City at The Kitchen, February 14-16, 21-23. For more information, see http://www.ilandart.org/ or my InfiniteBody blog at http://infinitebody.blogspot.com. (c)Eva Yaa Asantewaa InfiniteBody http://infini...

Eva's review of German choreographer Raimund Hoghe's "Pas de deux," a duet with Takashi Ueno, at Baryshnikov Arts Center, October 10, 2012. (c)2012, Eva Yaa Asantewaa, InfiniteBody http://infinitebody.blogspot.com

Listen to JoAnna Mendl Shaw, choreographer and artistic director of The Equus Projects, as she talks about how an Arabian stallion named Hamlet influenced her creative process. Visit The Equus Projects site: http://www.dancingwithhorses.org/ (c)2012, Eva Yaa Asantewaa, InfiniteBody (http://infinitebody.blogspot.com)

Dance artists who happen to be both female and Black often find it tough to forge a viable, sustainable career, says Camille A. Brown, the well-regarded choreographer and Artistic Director of Camille A. Brown & Dancers. They need role models. Listen as this inspiring artist shares her experience of taking nourishment from talking with young dance students of color. Camille A. Brown & Dancers http:...

Listen to the multitalented Steven Reker (dancer, choreographer, musician, songwriter) talk about "creating sonic landscapes" with his band of musicians and dancers, People Get Ready. People Get Ready/Steven Reker will present the world premiere of Specific Ocean at New York Live Arts (October 18-20). Prior to the October 18th show, there will be a conversation about 'Where Contemporary Dance and...

Listen as Elastic City's director/founder Todd Shalom takes us on an improvised walk to his local post office. For information on Catastrophe!, the final "way" of the Elastic City season, with Spanish artist Xavier Acarin--tomorrow, Tuesday, October 2, 7pm, on the Lower East Side--visit the Elastic City site at http://www.elastic-city.org/. (c)2012, Eva Yaa Asantewaa, InfiniteBody (http://infinite...

Listen to my guest Dan Safer (Artistic Director of the great dance/theater hybrid troupe, Witness Relocation) talking about the importance of listening. (c)2012, Eva Yaa Asantewaa, InfiniteBody (http://infinitebody.blogspot.com)

Listen to vocalist/composer Imani Uzuri talk about deep listening to the ocean and her own need, as an artist and a woman, for meditative time alone. For more information about Imani Uzuri and her new album, The Gypsy Diaries, visit her site at http://www.imaniuzuri.com. (c)2012, Eva Yaa Asantewaa, InfiniteBody (http://infinitebody.blogspot.com)

Listen to dancer-choreographer Maria Bauman talk about everything she's inspired to listen to, with great care, these days. Bauman fun facts: *Premiered "Stand" at SummerStage, August 11, 2012 *Setting "Stand" at Long Island University Dance Department this semester *Guest Artist at Connecticut College, September 2012 *Teaching contemporary dance at Hunter College this semester *Working with Jen A...

Listen to choreographer Deborah Hay talk about what she has learned from working with highly-skilled performers and about her plans for a sabbatical to re-set, refresh and see what comes next in her work. (c)2012, Eva Yaa Asantewaa, InfiniteBody (http://infinitebody.blogspot.com)

Listen to director/choreographer/educator Edisa Weeks (DELIRIOUS Dances) talk about the role of storytelling and justice in her work and the inspiration of the political insights of Thomas Paine. Edisa Weeks premieres To Begin the World Over Again at the Irondale Center in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. Sept 27-29 at 8pm; Oct 4-6 at 8pm. (c)2012, Eva Yaa Asantewaa, InfiniteBody (http://infinitebody.blogsp...

Listen as Saifan Shmerer relates how being present with impermanence launched a dreamlike journey of discovery for a choreographer at the start of her career. saifan shmerer | SASSON premieres Nothing Lasts Forever, Nothing is Lost Forever at The End (18 Kent Street, Brooklyn: map/directions). Thursday-Saturday, September 27-29. Details and tickets can be found at www.dontyousass.me. (c)2012, Eva...