Conversations on Dance

Today on ‘Conversations On Dance', we are joined by Janet Eilber, the artistic director of the Martha Graham Dance Company and Wild Up musical director Christopher Rountree. Janet and Christopher have been working together to revive and re-envision the choreographic works of 20th century giant Martha Graham and their accompanying musical compositions. They talk to us about their process in re...

Today we check in with Houston Ballet to hear about their upcoming performances of Stanton Welch's ‘Sylvia.' We are joined by Houston Ballet Artistic Director, Stanton Welch, and Principal dancers who will be performing the leads in the ballet, Connor Walsh and Karina González. We first spoke with Stanton Welch on the podcast in 2018 in episode 98, had Connor on in 2019 in episode 158, and a...

Today we are joined by Karole Armitage,   Artistic Director of the New York-based Armitage GONE! Dance Company. Karole has had an extensive career as a dancer and choreographer.  She began her professional career in 1973 as a member of the Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève, Switzerland, under the direction of George Balanchine. In 1976, she was invited to join Merce Cunningham's company,...

Today we are joined by Lynn Garafola, dance historian and author of ‘La Nijinska: Choreographer of the Modern.' Ms. Garafola is Professor Emerita of Dance at Barnard College, Columbia University. A dance historian and critic, she is the author of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes and Legacies of Twentieth-Century Dance, and the editor of several books, including The Diaries of Marius Petipa, André...

Today we are joined by our friend, Monica Stephenson, who just started work at a new post as Director of Community Engagement at Miami City Ballet. Monica is originally from North Carolina and is a graduate of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and the Professional Training Program at the Houston Ballet Academy. In 2002, she received her first professional contract with The Washin...

Today we are joined by our friend Kate Penner. Kate is figure skating super fan, so we decided to chat with her and have her to give us the run down on the sport to give us a better idea of what to be looking for during the 2022 Beijing Olympics. Throughout the discussion, we compare and contrast the sport with ballet. At the end, she answers questions that were submitted to us by listeners via In...

Today we have the pleasure of being joined by Colleen Neary, Artistic Director of Los Angeles Ballet. Born in Miami, Florida, Neary trained in New York at both the School of American Ballet and Harkness House for Ballet Arts. From 1969 to 1979, she danced as a soloist with New York City Ballet under the direction of George Balanchine and became one of his quintessential ballerinas. Colleen's caree...

Today we are joined by New York City Ballet principal dancer, Megan Fairchild. Megan was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, and began her dance training at the age of four. She went on to train at Ballet West Conservatory, where she was also a Ballet West trainee. In 2000, Megan continued training at the School of American Ballet and in November 2001, she became an apprentice with New York City Ballet....

Today we are joined by educator, repetiteur, and former principal dancer with American Ballet Theater and New York City Ballet, Robert La Fosse. Robert was born in Beaumont, Texas. He moved to New York City to further his dance education with David Howard at Harkness House and Stanley Williams at The School of American Ballet. He joined American Ballet Theatre in 1977, where he danced as a Princip...

It's 2022 and COD is back! We are ushering in the new year by celebrating some of the great things that friends of the pod have been up to recently, discussing the complexity surrounding dancer promotions, and how the change in the social media landscape in the past few years is affecting content that dancers and companies are putting out. Plus, we tease next week's guest. We have lots of exciting...

It's our last episode of 2021 and we are looking back over the year with our friend, Evelyn Kocak. Thank you to all of our listeners and our partners for joining us for another year of COD! We will be back in 2022 with some exciting new episodes and thrilling guests. We love you all! Thank you for listening. Happy Holidays! Photo: Mira Nadon in ‘Movements for Piano and Orchestra' ___________...

Last week in episode 262 , we talked with Choreographer, Kyle Abraham, about his new work that premiered on December 4, 2021 at Stanford Live, called  ‘Requiem: Fire In the Air of the Earth.’ After chatting with Kyle, we knew we had to follow up with his musical collaborator, Jlin, to hear more about her work and the process of creating the score for ‘Requiem.' More information on upcom...

As Nutcracker performances return to stages around the world, we decided to celebrate the return of the beloved classic by chatting with friend of the pod, Alastair Macaulay. As a historian of the performing arts and the former Chief Dance Critic of the New York Times, Alastair has a wealth of information to share with us about the history of this ballet that has become a staple for schools and co...

This week on ‘Conversations On Dance' we are joined by award winning choreographer Kyle Abraham. Kyle's choreographic talents garnered attention quickly in works he created for his company A.I.M., leading to a MacArthur Fellowship in 2013 and commissions from some of the most respected dance institutions in the world. We talk to Kyle about his creative process leading up to his new work &#82...

This week we talk with New York City Ballet dancer, India Bradley, from the 2021 Vail Dance Festival this past summer, before the company returned to work. India last appeared on the podcast at the Vail Dance Festival prior to beginning her first season at NYCB as a member of the corps de ballet. You can listen to our chat with her in episode 159. Today, India talks about giving herself grace duri...

Today we are revisiting the 2021 Vail Dance Festival and one of our favorite chats from the summer. This week on the pod, we sit down with NYC-based Musician, Caroline Shaw. Caroline is a vocalist, violinist, composer, and producers. She was the youngest recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2013 for  Partita for 8 Voices , written for the Grammy-winning Roomful of Teeth, of which she...

This week we are joined by choreographer, Durante Verzola. Durante began to hone his choreographic talents while training to become a dancer at the Miami City Ballet School. While still dancing professionally at Pennsylvania Ballet and Suzanne Farrell Ballet, the choreographic notices continued to pour in and he's since created many works for Miami City Ballet, Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet an...

Today on the podcast, we check in with our friends at St. Mary's College's LEAP Program. We last heard about LEAP from the program's Associate Director, Stephanie Miller, in episode 170 from January of 2020. When we spoke with her right before the pandemic, the program was working on launching an online program. Since then, the program has expanded exponentially to reach more dancers throughout th...

This week on Conversations on Dance, we are joined by Jacob Jonas, Director, Choreographer, and Artistic Director of Jacob Jonas the Company. Jacob started dancing at the age of 13 when he came across a street-performing group in Venice Beach.  From there, his passion for dance expanded into various technique and across many different mediums. He is the founding Artistic Director of Jacob Jon...

Today on Conversations on Dance, we talk with Marzia Memoli, chorus dancer with Martha Graham Dance Company. Marzia is from Palermo, Italy, where she started her dance and ballet training. She graduated from the Academy of Teatro Carcano in Milan and the Bejart’s school, where she performed with the Bejart Ballet Lausanne. In 2016, she joined the Martha Graham Dance Company. We initially chatted w...

Today on Conversations on Dance, we are joined by friend of the pod and New York City Ballet Soloist, Georgina Pazcoguin. This summer, Georgina's new book, “Swan Dive” was released, so we caught up with her between rehearsals and performances to chat. While she sat outside of the David H Koch Theater, she told us about the inspiration behind the book, her writing process, what she hopes readers ta...

Today we are joined by one of our former colleagues, Nathalia Arja, principal dancer with Miami City Ballet. Nathalia was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil where she began taking dance classes at the age of five at her mother's ballet school. As a young dancer she competed in and won several dance competitions, where she was offered scholarships to various prestigious schools. At her mother's suggest...

Today we chat with New York City Ballet Principal Dancer, Russell Janzen, from the 2021 Vail Dance Festival. Russell was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and began his dance training at the age of six at The Rock School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He enrolled as a full-time student at the School of American Ballet in the winter of 2005. In June 2008, he joined the New York City Ballet as a memb...

On today's episode of Conversations On Dance we speak with Wes Chapman, former American Ballet Theatre principal, former director of Alabama Ballet, and sought after teacher and coach. Wes tells us about his illustrious career performing on the Met stage with ABT, how he came to direct Alabama Ballet, and how he now shepherds young dancers into their own professional careers as the chairman of the...

On this episode of Conversations on Dance, recorded at the 2021 Vail Dance Festival, we give you an inside look at two roles that are essential to every dance and ballet performance. Today we are joined by NYCB Assistant Stage Manager, Nicole Mitchell Mommen, and Lighting Director and Lighting Designer of Boston Ballet, Brandon Stirling Baker. Nicole was the stage manager at Miami City Ballet for...