Conversations on Dance

Welcome to our first live podcast recording from the Vail Dance Festival. First up, we chat with New York City Ballet Artistic Director, Jonathan Stafford. We talk with Jon about his pathway to NYCB, some of the leadership roles he held while he was still dancing, the NYCB Interim Transition Team, his role as Artistic Director, leading the company through this past unprecedented year, and what com...

We have been off this month, but on Thursday we head to Vail for the Vail Dance Festival. So we hopped on our last zoom before we are back together in person recording episodes and live podcast recordings at the festival, just for a check in. Links: Tickets for live events July 30 – August 10 Master Classes August 2 & 3 This episode is brought to you by Yumiko (yumiko.com). The post (236...

We are off this week as we work to prepare for our live podcast events at the 2021 Vail Dance Festival later this month, so we are taking this opportunity to re-release an old episode. As we continue to highlight great summer dance reads, enjoy this chat with former American Ballet Theatre dancer and author Michael Langlois from May 2019. (Fortunately, as you will be able to tell, our technology a...

Rebecca pops in today to share some COD updates, including live events and master classes at Vail Dance Festival, and publishing schedule this month. Links: Live events: https://vaildance.org/festival-forums-2021/ Master classes: https://vaildance.org/master-class-series-2021/ Thank you to Yumiko for their continued support of COD. Shop online at Yumiko.com. Follow us on social media @conversation...

Today we are joined by Emily Meisner, the Director of National Dance Institute Collaborative for Teaching & Learning. We have a wonderful chat with Emily about the beginnings of National Dance Institute, founder Jacques d’Amboise's vision for NDI, how she became involved in the organization, and the amazing work that NDI Collaborative is doing. NDI Collaborative is a professional development p...

As we all know, over the past year businesses and organizations have had to get creative in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Arts organizations are no exception. Today we get to hear about how Joffrey Ballet found a unique way to get their dancers involved in the company's day-to-day operations. We speak with Joffrey Company Artist, April Daly, and Annie Lyonswright, Joffrey's Director of Annual...

This week we are joined by Jose Sebastian, dancer with American Ballet Theatre and Director of ABT Incubator. Jose, a native of New York City, started his dance training at age 8 with the School of American Ballet and continued training there for nearly 10 years. He joined ABT Studio Company in 2006 and American Ballet Theatre as an apprentice in January 2009 and became a member of the corps de ba...

This week we are joined by New York City Ballet Principal Dancer, Ashley Bouder. It has been over 4 years since we last had Ashley on the pod, so we have a lot of catch up on. We talk about what this last year has been like for her, about her college courses and teaching career, her advocacy efforts including her association with “Dancers Amplified,” and what she will be performing at this year's...

This week we are joined by Eugenia Zinovieva, Co-Director of Rhode Island Women's Choreography Project and dancer with Festival Ballet Providence. Born in Moscow, Russia, Eugenia moved to the United States at a young age and began her classical ballet training at the Boston Ballet School while also competing as a rhythmic gymnast. She graduated from the University of North Carolina School of the A...

Listener favorite and former Chief Dance Critic at the New York Times, Alastair Macaulay returns to the podcast this week. We realize that we have never asked Alastair his origin story in dance, so he gives us background on how the love affair began. We take a few detours to discuss the late Jacques d'Amboise, ‘Dances at a Gathering', Anthony Tudor, and stories of Balanchine Ballerinas. Then...

This week we are joined by Jessica Tong, Associate Artistic Director of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. Jessica received her formal training at The Ballet School in Salt Lake City and University of Utah. Tong danced with BalletMet in Columbus, Ohio, Eliot Feld’s Ballet Tech in New York, and Hubbard Street 2 before dancing with Hubbard Street Dance Chicago for 11 years. Jessica was named one of Dance...

This week we welcome back Phil Chan and Georgina Pazcoguin, founders of the Final Bow For Yellowface. We first spoke with Gina in 2017 in episode 52 and with Phil in May of 2020 in episode 186. This dynamic duo shares with us some background on their organization and their advocacy efforts. We chat about what they have been up to over the past year and what they are working towards in the years to...

This week on the Conversations on Dance podcast, we are joined by Martha Graham Dance Company Principal Dancer, Xin Ying. Ying was born in China and began dancing at the age of 6 taking classes in Chinese folk dance. At just 15 she entered college and after graduating, she went on to teach dance at the Sichuan University of Culture and Arts. After years of teaching, she decided that she wanted to...

Today we are joined by our friends Reid Bartelme and Harriet Jung. Reid and Harriet are exceptionally talented costume designers working with many of the dance world's most prolific choreographers. The duo come on the pod this week for their third time to share with us what this past year has been like for them, how they participated in virtual works in the summer of 2020, starting to get back to...

Today we are re-joined by friend of the pod, Gavin Larsen, former principal dancer with Oregon Ballet Theatre. We first spoke with Gavin in May 2020 in episode 185 about her career and the then timely topic, teaching ballet on Zoom. Today, Gavin returns to talk with us about her book that is officially being released on April 27, 2021. We got advanced copies of the book, which is truly so wonderfu...

Today, on the Conversations on Dance podcast, we are joined by Christopher Charles McDaniel, dancer with Dance Theatre of Harlem. Christopher was born in East Harlem and started his formal training at the Dance Theatre of Harlem School, later going on to train at LaGuardia School of Performing Arts and Ballet Academy East. Christopher has danced professionally with Los Angeles Ballet and Ballet Sa...

This week we are joined by National Ballet of Canada Principal Dancer, Jillian Vanstone. A native of Nanaimo, British Columbia, Jillian trained at the Kirkwood Academy of the Performing Arts and Canada’s National Ballet School. She joined The National Ballet of Canada in 1999 and was promoted to Principal Dancer in 2011. We talk to Jillian all the way from Australia about her career, break out rol...

Today we are joined by Andrea Renee Long-Naidu, Former Principal with Dance Theatre of Harlem and current Boston Ballet School Faculty Member. Andrea began her ballet training at the Pennsylvania Ballet School, accepting an apprenticeship position with the company at just 14 years-old. After a year working with the company, she went on to continue her training at the School of American Ballet, the...

This week we are re-joined by our very special co-host and friend, Evelyn Kocak. Recently, there was an article in the New York Times surrounding “What is a ballet body?” We decided, that as these kinds of conversations continue about how to evolve our art form, we thought we would sit down and talk about creating a fantasy company of our own. How could we change things for the better? What would...

Today we are joined by Tamisha Guy, dancer with Kyle Abraham's A.I.M. Tamisha is a native of Trinidad and Tobago and began her formal dance training at Ballet Tech, under the direction of Eliot Feld. She went on to attend SUNY Purchase College as a double major in dance and arts management. In 2013 she graduated with honors from SUNY Purchase College and joined the Martha Graham Dance Company shor...

It's just Rebecca and Michael this week on the pod. We do a check in on what we have been up to (Michael got the vaccine!), we take a couple detours, then share a few books we are looking forward to getting our hands on. Thank you to Yumiko for their continued support of the pod. Shop online at Yumiko.com and connect with them on Instagem: @yumiko. Links: Join our email list: https://bit.ly/3basX5...

This week we are joined by Craig Hall, New York City Ballet Repertory Director. Craig was born in Maywood, Illinois. At age 14, he began studying at the Chicago Academy of the Arts and entered the School of American Ballet full time in the fall of 1997. In October 1999, Craig became an apprentice with New York City Ballet, and he joined the Company as a member of the corps de ballet in February 20...

Today we chat with our friend and former Miami City Ballet dancer, Adriana Pierce. We last spoke with Adriana in episode 44 from May 2017. Since that episode, she has since left Miami City Ballet and is now a freelance dancer and choreographer in New York City. She tells us about some of the projects she has been a part of since moving, what the pandemic has been like as a freelance artist, and ab...

This week we are joined by celebrity ballet coach and former NYCB dancer, Kurt Froman. Kurt danced senior corps de ballet and soloist parts for over seven years at the New York City Ballet before venturing off to Broadway when he was cast in the leading role of James in the Twyla Tharp/Billy Joel show,  Movin' Out .  He amassed numerous Broadway credits before being presented with the op...

Today on the Conversations on Dance podcast, we are joined by Lorenzo Pagano, Soloist with the Martha Graham Dance Company. A native of Torino, Italy, Lorenzo moved to the US as a teenager and trained as a scholarship student at The School at Jacob’s Pillow and The Martha Graham School. He joined the Martha Graham Dance Company in 2012 and dances lead roles in a broad range of the company's repert...