Conversations on Dance

Today we check in with Eduardo Vilaro, Artistic Director and CEO of Ballet Hispánico. We last spoke with Eduardo in November 2019 in episode 160 about his career and his directorship at Ballet Hispánico. If you want to listen to that episode, you can find the link in the description of this episode. Today we chat with Eduardo about what it has been like for him leading his organization through the...

This week we are joined by our friend, Damien Johnson, faculty member of the Washington School of Ballet. Originally from Dallas, Texas, Damien started dancing at 13, eventually going on to study at The Rock School and The School of American Ballet. As a professional dancer, Damien has been a member of American Repertory Ballet, Dance Theatre of Harlem, New Chamber Ballet, Los Angeles Ballet, and...

This week, friend of the pod Patricia Delgado, makes another appearance on Conversations on Dance, to discuss Zoom ballet class. Patricia is a former Principal Dancer with Miami City Ballet and is now a faculty member of the Juilliard Dance Division. Join us for a chat about what it's like to teach dance digitally, troubleshooting some of the technical glitches with Zoom, and what tricks we have d...

Today we are joined by Phil Chan, a co-founder of Final Bow for Yellowface. Phil is a graduate of Carleton College and an alumnus of the Ailey School and is now an arts administrator and educator. Phil was the founding General Manager of the Buck Hill Skytop Music Festival, and was the General Manager for Armitage Gone! Dance and Youth America Grand Prix. He served multiple years on the National E...

This week we are continuing our conversation about teaching ballet classes online during the COVID-19 pandemic. We talk with Gavin Larsen, a former principal dancer with Oregon Ballet Theatre, now living in Asheville, NC, where she teaches and writes about dance. After training at the School of American Ballet and Pacific Northwest Ballet School, she danced with Pacific Northwest Ballet, Alberta B...

This week we talk with Nancy Richer, founder of Richer Movement. Nancy Richer was born and raised in New York City and danced with The Royal Danish Ballet, The Suzanne Farrell Ballet, The Los Angeles Ballet, and Twyla Tharp Dance. By founding Richer Movement, she developed her movement method based on the warm ups and cross training she did during her career as a professional ballerina. Nancy was...

This week, we are joined by Mikko Nissinen, Boston Ballet Artistic Director. Born in Helsinki, Mikko began his dance training at age ten with The Finnish National Ballet School, and launched his professional dance career at age 15 with The Finnish National Ballet.  He went on to continue his dance training at The Kirov Ballet School in St. Petersburg, Russia. He danced professionally for 19 y...

This week on the pod, Rebecca and Michael fill out a Balanchine masterwork tournament bracket to crown the ultimate Balanchine ballet. In March, two students at Indiana University sent us an email: they were missing March Madness and decided to create a bracket for Balanchine Masterworks as a fun activity for the dance department. They were kind enough to share their bracket with us. So today, we...

This week we are joined by our friend, Tricia Albertson, Principal dancer with Miami City Ballet. Raised in Santa Cruz, CA, she began her ballet training at The Studio School of Classical Ballet. She attended summer programs at San Francisco Ballet School and the School of American Ballet (SAB) before joining SAB for the year-round program in 1995. In 1997 she joined Miami City Ballet as a corps m...

This week we are joined by Mira Nadon, New York City Ballet Corps de Ballet dancer. Mira began her ballet training at the age of six at the Inland Pacific Ballet Academy in Montclair, California. She attended summer courses at the School of American Ballet (SAB), in 2014 and 2015, before entering SAB full-time for the 2015 winter term. In November 2017, Ms. Nadon became an apprentice with NYCB and...

This week we are joined by our friend, Jovani Furlan, soloist with New York City Ballet. Born in Joinville, Brazil, Jovani started dancing at the age of 11 at The Bolshoi Theater School in Brazil. In 2010 he participated in the International Ballet Competition in Jackson, Mississippi, and was offered a full scholarship to attend the Miami City Ballet School by Edward Villella. He began his trainin...

In January and February we put together a higher education series to explore dance programs in schools across the country. Today we are adding to this distinguished list of programs as we talk with the Juilliard School's Director of the Dance Division, Alicia Graf Mack. Alicia enjoyed a distinguished career as a leading dancer of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. She has also been a principal da...

Today, Rebecca and Michael connect via Skype from quarantine. We discuss some options of ballet related content to consume while the world is social distancing during the Coronavirus Pandemic. We list some online class options, resources for dancers who are out of work, and our favorite dance related books, movies, and much more. This list was put together based on internet research and content th...

In light of the impact that the Coronavirus is having on the arts community, not to mention the world, we are shining some light on one of the ways that you can stay in shape during these times of social distancing. Today we are talking with friends of the pod, Francis Veyette and Lauren Fadeley Veyette, founders of Veyette Virtual Ballet School. We catch up with them to hear about their personali...

This week we bring you our final episode from the 2019 Vail Dance Festival! Today we speak with Gil Boggs, Colorado Ballet Artistic Director. Gil began his dance career with the Atlanta Ballet and he joined American Ballet Theatre in 1982. In 1991 he was promoted to Principal Dancer and danced with the company for 17 years. Boggs also performed with the Twyla Tharp Dance Company, Baryshnikov and C...

This week on Conversations on Dance, we are joined by Michael Montgomery, dancer with Alonzo King LINES Ballet from the 2019 Vail Dance Festival. Michael was born in Long Beach, CA, trained at the Orange County High School of the Arts and studied at the Alvin Ailey School in the Certificate program. In 2011 he graduated from the Alonzo King LINES Ballet BFA Program at Dominican University of Calif...

This week we are happy to bring you our full conversation with celebrated Choreographer, Pam Tanowitz, from the 2019 Vail Dance Festival.  We spoke with Pam from a Live panel event at Washington DC’s Kennedy Center in  episode 140  and we were thrilled to be able to get some time to speak with her more in depth about her career and work.  As a choreographer, Pam Tanowitz is known for her abstract...

This week we are joined by our friend, Kate Penner. Kate received her early dance training from Arlington Center for Dance, now BalletNova, in Arlington, VA   and participated in the Kennedy Center's Dance Theatre of Harlem Residency Program and Exploring Ballet with Suzanne Farrell.  She attended and graduated from Harvard University, where she worked with Heather Watts and Damian Woetzel, perfor...

Over the past few weeks we have been examining different college dance programs including Indiana University and St. Mary’s College’s LEAP Program. This week we are concluding our higher education series on Conversations on Dance, with an in depth look at the University of Southern California’s Glorya Kaufman School of Dance. We are joined, for a second time, by the program's vice dean a...

This week we are continuing our higher education series on Conversations on Dance by introducing you to an incredibly unique program.  Today we chat with Stephanie Miller, the Associate Director at St. Mary’s College's LEAP Program.  Stephanie began dancing at the age of three, and received her BA in Dance from Saint Mary's College, as well as an MFA in Choreography and Performance...

Last week, in episode 168, we talked about Michael's coming out of retirement for Nutcracker guesting. Unfortunately due to scheduling, this episode was cut short, so in a BONUS episode this week, we are finishing that chat, and taking a few detours along the way! The post BONUS: Rebecca and Michael: Nutcracker Gigs, Part Deux appeared first on tendusunderapalmtree.com . LINKS: Website: conversati...

Welcome to the Conversations on Dance higher education series.  Over the next few weeks, we will be talking with individuals from different college  dance programs across the country.  This week we are joined by Carla Körbes, former Pacific Northwest Ballet Principal Dancer and Associate Professor of Music in ballet at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.  Carla was born in Brazil and in...

Nutcracker may be over, but this week Rebecca and Michael sit down to catch up and discuss Michael's Nutcracker gigs. Rebecca asks Michael about coming out of retirement for his return to the Nutcracker this past December. We chat about how he prepared, what the rehearsal process was like, and we get nostalgic over other Nutcracker memories from years past. This week we are happy to welcome a new...

This week, for our first episode of 2020, we are joined by Hope Boykin, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Dancer, from the 2019 Vail Dance Festival. Hope is from Durham North Carolina, and attended Howard University. She was a student and intern at the Ailey School before going on the join the company. She was an original member of Complexions, was a member of Philadanco, and recei...

This week we are joined from the 2019 Vail Dance Festival by Joseph Gordon, New York City Ballet Principal Dancer.  Joe was born in Phoenix, Arizona, and began his dance training at the age of five at The Phoenix Dance Academy. He began studying at the School of American Ballet during the 2006 summer course and enrolled as a full-time student that fall. In August of 2011, Mr. Gordon became an appr...