Talking Pointes

Congratulations to Talking Pointes, bronze medal winner of Best Arts & Culture podcast for the Australian Podcast Awards. To celebrate, we are revisiting conversations with our guests from Season One.    Talking Pointes is produced on the lands of the Gadigal People of the Eora Nation, to whom we pay our greatest respects.    Production dream team ✨ Hosted by @byclaudialawson Produced b...

Our show reel for Talking Pointes! All the best bits and a taste of what's to come. Talking Pointes is produced on the lands of the Gadigal People of the Eora Nation, to whom we pay our greatest respects.    Production dream team ✨ Hosted by @byclaudialawson Produced by @fjordreview Additional Production @clinttopic Sound & Editing @outputmedia Studios @brightsidesydney @sawtoothstudios

For our bonus episode this season, we’re catching up with the Australian Ballet’s Artistic Director David Hallberg. Last season, David and I spoke about his life growing up in South Dakota, being bullied, training at the Paris Opera, becoming principal at American Ballet Theatre, and being the first American to be invited to dance with the Bolshoi Ballet in Russia. We talked about climbing back fr...

30 years ago this year, a small independent film, by a first time director, and an unknown cast, hit our screens. That film was Strictly Ballroom . And so, for our final episode of Season 2 of Talking Pointes, I’m speaking with the legendary Paul Mercurio. Paul was born in Swan Hill in regional Victoria and started dancing after he saw his elder sister in a local dance class. With dad off the scen...

Today I’m speaking with the divine Jenna Roberts. Jenna grew up in Newcastle and started dancing only because a local ballet studio set up shop on the same street as her family home.  But as fortune would have it, that local studio happened to be the Marie Walton Mahon Dance Academy, as it was known back then. And so Jenna, and little sister Callie, started dancing. For any outsider, it was clear...

Today I’m speaking with Beau Dean Riley Smith. Beau was born on Wiradjuri Country in Dubbo, Western NSW. But as a little kid the family moved to Culburra on the NSW South Coast where Beau spent his childhood surrounded by siblings, love and chaos while growing up at the beach. Beau didn’t learn to dance as a kid, instead he studied drama in high school, before being accepted into the performance p...

Today I’m speaking with Mary Li, ballet mistress and principal répétiteur at the Queensland Ballet. Mary's story to the stage is an unlikely one—one of eight children, Mary grew up in a small town in Central Queensland called Rockhampton. She was the first person in her family to try ballet, but by the age of 16—the day after completing her Solo Seal exam—she flew to London after being accepted in...

Today I am speaking with the Artistic Director of the Tanya Pearson Academy, Lucinda Dunn. Lucinda started her life in dance destined for London’s West End - where her Mum had been a performer, but a chance meeting with a ballet teacher named Tanya Pearson saw a change of direction, and at 15 she flew to Tokyo to compete in the Prix de Lausanne - and Lucinda’s life changed. In our conversation Luc...

Today I am speaking with Steven McRae, Principal Dancer with the Royal Ballet, London. Steven grew up in Western Sydney, in a suburb called Plumpton, 45kms West of Sydney. His Dad was a drag car racer, and no one in the family had ever learnt to dance. But somehow, dance found Steven, And at the age of 7, he asked his Mum and Dad if he could start dance lessons and he enrolled in a local studio ar...

Today I am speaking with the divine Dana Stephensen. Dana grew up in Brisbane learning tap, jazz and singing, and never dreamed of being a ballerina. But ballet had a way of finding her. And strangely enough, it was a rejection letter from the Australian Ballet School and the disappointment that followed that awakened her passion and changed the trajectory of her life. In this beautifully courageo...

Today I am speaking with the divine Deborah Brown. Deborah is a descendant of the Wakaid Clan of Badu Island, the Meriam people of Murray Island, and also has Scottish heritage. Deborah grew up in Brisbane, learning jazz, ballet and tap at her local dance school, while also dancing around the family home learning cultural dance. It was an eye opener to a world she never dreamt could be her career....

Today I am speaking with the Artistic Director of Sydney Dance Company , Rafael  Bonachela. Rafael grew up in the small town of La Garriga near Barcelona in Spain, the eldest of 4 brothers. With no dance school in the town, the young Rafael would instead create dances for himself and his classmates, before at 15, being allowed to take the train to Barcelona to take his first dance class. It was a...

Today we're am speaking with the magnificent Amy Harris, Principal Dancer with the Australian Ballet . Amy, grew up in the small town of Ararat in rural Victoria, and along with her two sisters, learnt tap, ballet and jazz at her local hall. From there it was the dream run—at 15, Amy was accepted into the Australian Ballet School, before being offered a contract with the Australian Ballet Company...

After the success of Season 1, Talking Pointes is back for another season, another 10 beautiful conversations about a life in dance —I’m your host Claudia Lawson. On Season 2 I speak with the most incredible guests—from Sydney Dance Company's Rafael Bonachela, the Australian Ballet’s Amy Harris and Dana Stephensen, Bangarra’s Deborah Brown, the Royal Ballet’s Steven McRae and Strictly Ballroom’s P...

Today I'm speaking with David Hallberg. We actually started this season with David McAllister who had just stepped down as Artistic Director of the Australian Ballet. We are now speaking with David Hallberg, the brand new Artistic Director of the Australian Ballet. David was born in a small American town called Rapid City in South Dakota. He started dancing at nine years old, after seeing Fred Ast...

This episode is sponsored by MDM Dancewear Today, I'm speaking with The Australian Ballet's resident choreographer, Alice Topp. Alice was born and raised in Bendigo, a small town in regional Victoria. She started dancing at the age of four and was destined for a career as a ballerina. While Alice's career at The Australian Ballet is widely known, what many don't know is that Alice's journey to The...

Daniel Riley is the newly appointed artistic director of Australian Dance Theatre. Daniel is a proud Wiradjuri man of Western New South Wales. He grew up around Canberra, inspired by the Tap Dogs, learning contemporary dance, ballet, and tap. But it was a chance encounter with ADTs founder, Elizabeth Cameron Dalman, which changed the direction of Daniel's life to one of pursuing dance as a career....

The incredible Frances Rings, Bangarra's Associate Artistic Director, joins us on this episode of Talking Pointes. A descendant of the Kokatha people, Frances was born in Adelaide and spent her childhood traveling, dancing, and living all around Australia while her father worked on the railways. However, it was a teacher at her boarding school in Queensland that spotted her talent, and encouraged...

Many of you will know Emma Watkins as the supremely talented Emma Wiggle. Emma grew up like many aspiring dancers, dreaming of becoming a ballerina, but her dreams took an unexpected change after sustaining an injury as a teenager. Her dreams changed direction and she embarked on a different path, one that led her to university, film editing, and to ultimately becoming the iconic Yellow Wiggle. In...

Li Cunxin, artistic director of the Queensland Ballet, joins us today on Talking Pointes. Most of you will know Li from his early life. He is Mao's Last Dancer. Li was born into complete poverty in rural China, where he was plucked from obscurity to join the Beijing Dance Academy. He was put through years of brutal training, up to 16 hours a day, to become a dancer. However, his life was meant to...

Marie Walton Mahon has taught and trained literally thousands of dancers here in Australia and around the globe. A dance prodigy in her own right, she was selected as a teenager to train in France with the great Rosella Hightower, and then danced professionally in Marseille, under the artistic directorship of the late, great, Roland Petit. However, her career was unexpectedly cut short and she ret...

Lana Jones' journey in ballet seems like the dream run for many aspiring youngsters. As a teenager, she won the silver medal at the international ballet competition, the Genée Awards in London, was accepted into the Australian Ballet School, graduated dux and was accepted straight into the company. From there, the dream continued. She rose through the ranks, won the Telstra Ballet Dancer of the Ye...

David McAllister is probably the most well-known face of dance in Australia. He was born in Perth and he was accepted into the Australian Ballet School as a 17-year-old. He graduated and joined the company directly, wowing crowds across the globe. His final performance was in “Giselle” in 2001. And then, three months later, he was named Artistic Director of that same company. During his tenure, he...

Today, I'm speaking with my lifelong friend, Adam Blanch. Adam's story has often been compared with Billy Elliot. He grew up in a tiny town in regional Australia called Weston. It's about an hours drive west of Newcastle. In this tiny town everyone can always remember that Adam was dancing. And so, at the age of six, Adam's mum and dad enrolled him in the local ballet class, held in a local hall....

Talking Pointes is a ballet and contemporary dance podcast that interviews some of the most extraordinary and famous dancers, artistic directors and choreographers. In our 2021 season we’re bringing together ten beautiful interviews to explore not just the inspiration and careers of our guests, but all the other stuff that surrounds dance - inspiration, regrets, bullying, body image, sexuality, re...