Conversations on Dance

Today on Conversations On Dance, we are joined by New York City Ballet soloist Chun Wai Chan. Chun began his ballet training in his native China, before breaking out onto the international stage through the competition scene. A finalist spot in the Prix de Lausanne sparked the interest of Houston Ballet, where he joined in the second company and quickly rose through the ranks. We talk to Chun abou...

Today we talk with Chris Celiz, a world champion beatboxer, and b-boy Anthony Vito Rodriguez, creative directors behind the awe-inspiring new work, ‘The Missing Element.' Created at the peak of the pandemic in two Works & Process bubble residencies,  The Missing Element  is an immersive experience exploring the universal elements of earth, wind, fire, water, and space. During t...

It's just Michael and Rebecca this week as we come together for a catch up, plus we go through responses to our 2022 listener survey. Thank you to everyone who participated! Your feedback was very valuable and will help us plan our content moving forward. This past weekend we were together in Miami to see Miami City Ballet in ‘Jewels,' which we will be discussing in an upcoming episode of CO...

Today we are joined by choreographer Cathy Marston. Cathy began choreographing while still at the Royal Ballet School, ultimately leaving life as a professional dancer to pursue choreography full time. She has carved out a unique identity for herself as a choreographer who dives head first into creating full length narrative works based on beloved literary classics and other preexisting source mat...

On today's episode of ‘Conversations On Dance' we are joined by legendary ballerina Cynthia Harvey. Cynthia began her training in California before holding the rank of principal dancer with both American Ballet Theatre and the Royal Ballet, a first for an American dancer. We talk with Cynthia about her early years of training, how she dealt with being cast routinely in major roles with less...

On today's episode of ‘Conversations On Dance' we are joined by New York City Ballet repertory director and former principal dancer Jean-Pierre Frohlich. JP, as he is referred to by friends and colleagues, began his training at the School Of American Ballet and quickly caught the eye of George Balanchine. Once accepted into the New York City Ballet, he soon began dancing coveted soloist and...

Today on Conversations On Dance we are joined by New York based choreographer and dancer Caleb Teicher. Caleb began their career as a founding member of Michelle Dorance's critically acclaimed company Dorrance Dance, quick achieving personal critical acclaim as well when they received a Bessie Award at age 17. In 2015, Caleb shifted their creative focus towards Caleb Teicher & Company, a creat...

Today we are joined again by listener favorite, Alastair Macaulay, former Chief Dance Critic for the New York Times. We asked Alastair to join us as he has been diligently chronicling the dance world's reaction to the Russian-Ukraine war since it started last month. We talk with Alastair about what he has been seeing from both Russian and Ukrainian dancers, what leaders within the dance world are...

Today on Conversations On Dance we are joined by Michelle Manzanales, director of Ballet Hispánico’s School Of Dance. Michelle’s formative years as a dancer were spent training at the University of Houston, ultimately springboarding her to a career as a dancer at Luna Negra Dance Theater under the direction of Eduardo Vilaro, now director of Ballet Hispanico. She later became Artistic Associate an...

Today we hear about the Ragamala Dance Company. We are joined by the company's founder and co-artistic director, Ranee Ramaswamy, and her two daughters: co-artistic director Aparna Ramaswamy and Choreographic Associate Ashwini Ramaswamy. This mother-daughter run company was founded in 1992 and is rooted in the South Indian dance form of Bharatanatyam. Through multi-disciplinary dance works for the...

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...