Conversations on Dance

This week we are joined by Christin Hanna and Constantine Baecher of the Lake Tahoe Dance Festival.   Christin and Constantine met twenty years ago as students at American Ballet Theater. Constantine's career as both choreographer and dancer has led him to the Hamburg Ballet School, Royal Danish Ballet and Compagnie de Carolyn Carlson amongst others as well as co-founding his own company Cross Con...

This week we are joined by Tyler Angle, Principal Dancer with New York City Ballet and Artistic Director of the Nantucket Atheneum Dance Festival. Tyler Angle was born in Altoona, Pennsylvania, and began his dance training at the age of nine at the Allegheny Ballet Company. He entered the School of American Ballet full-time in the fall of 2001. In the fall of 2003, Mr. Angle became an apprentice w...

This week we are joined by Monica Stephenson, Associate Head of School at The Washington School of Ballet SE Campus.  Monica is originally from Fayetteville, North Carolina. She 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 Washington Ballet. Sh...

Today’s episode was recorded live at The Kennedy Center on Saturday June 1, 2019 before the matinee performance of Miami City Ballet as a part of Ballet Across America. We were joined by Virginia Johnson, the Artistic Director of Dance Theatre of Harlem (who had been performing earlier in the week), Lourdes Lopez, Artistic Director of Miami City Ballet, and celebrated choreographer, Pam Tanowitz....

This week, through the magic of Skype, Rebecca talks with Michael and friend of the pod, Zoe Zien, who are in Hong Kong setting Justin Peck's “Year of the Rabbit” for Hong Kong Ballet. Michael and Rebecca danced with Zoe at Miami City Ballet for the majority of her 13 years with the company.  Listen to our full episode with Zoe about her career and training in episode 58 .  Today, Michael and Zoe...

This week we are joined by Tegan Rich, a dancer with Festival Ballet Providence, who is currently recovering from a full rupture of her achilles tendon.  Originally from Stuart, Florida she began her training at the Dance Academy of Stuart and as a teenager, she later moved to Miami to train with the Miami City Ballet School.  When she was 19, she went on to join Festival Ballet Providence in Prov...

Today we are joined by Jodie Gates, vice dean and director of the University of Southern California’s Glorya Kaufman School of Dance.  Ms. Gates was a celebrated principal dancer with the Joffrey Ballet, Frankfurt Ballet, and Pennsylvania Ballet, as well as a principal guest artist with several companies around the world. She was a muse for celebrated choreographer Robert Joffrey and has worked wi...

Today we have the pleasure of welcoming Actress, Golden Globe Award Winner, and bunhead, Jennifer Garner to the Conversations on Dance podcast.   While she doesn’t need an introduction, what you might be fascinated to learn, like we were, is that her love for ballet runs deep and started at a young age.   As a girl, she took ballet all through high school, only stopping once she got to college and...

This week we sit down at the Kennedy Center to talk with American Ballet Theatre dancer, Connor Holloway. Connor was born in Louisville, Kentucky and started performing at the age of six in school musicals.   At the age of thirteen, he began taking ballet classes at the Louisville Ballet School while attending a magnet performing arts high school as a vocal performance major.   He went on to atten...

This episode was recorded in February, when Rebecca & Michael were at the Kennedy Center to cover American Ballet Theatre's tour to Washington, D.C.  We sit down to  finally catch up on Michael's experience setting a ballet for the very first time.  Michael spent about a month in Phoenix with the wonderful dancers of Ballet Arizona to teach them Justin Peck's ballet ‘In Creases.'  He sha...

This week on Conversations on Dance, we are joined by New York City Ballet dancer, Miriam Miller from last summer’s Vail Dance Festival.   Miriam was born in Iowa City, Iowa, and began her dance training in 2001. She attended summer courses at the School of American Ballet (SAB) in 2011 and 2012, enrolling as a full-time student during the 2012 winter term. Ms. Miller became an apprentice with NYC...

This week on Conversations on Dance, we are joined from the Kennedy Center by American Ballet Theatre soloist, Catherine Hurlin.  Born in New York City, Catherine began her dance training at Scarsdale Ballet Studio and Westchester Dance Academy.  She was awarded the Hope Award at the 2007 Youth American Grand Prix New York City Finals, and went on to receive a full scholarship to the Jacqueline Ke...

This week on ‘Conversations On Dance', we are joined by in-demand choreographer and artistic director of BalletMet, Edwaard Liang. Liang danced for the New York City Ballet, where he rose to the rank of soloist. He later joined the Netherlands Dance Theatre, and performed in the broadway show ‘Fosse'. These influences have shaped his choregraphic talents, which are sought all of the gl...

The Vail Dance Festival has announced their dates for their 2019 festival and to celebrate, we are diving into our archives from our time last year at the festival. Today we are joined by festival favorite, Herman Cornejo. Herman was born in Argentina and began his ballet studies at the age of eight. At the age of 14 he attended the School of American Ballet, and upon returning home he joined Ball...

Rebecca and Michael record an emergency podcast to discuss and react to the big news this week in the ballet world: the announcement of the appointment of Jonathan Stafford as artistic director and Wendy Whelan as associate artistic director of New York City Ballet.  Our sound quality isn't our best, and for that we apologize, but we had to drop everything and get on the phone to chat about the ne...

Today’s episode of Conversations on Dance was recorded at a live post-performance event at the Kennedy Center.  At the beginning of February, American Ballet Theatre brought Alexei Ratmansky’s “Harlequinade” to the Kennedy Center for a week of incredible performances. Following a Saturday matinee, we caught up with ABT soloist, Skylar Brandt, who had just danced the lead role of “Columbine.”  In t...

It's just Rebecca and Michael this week.  It's that time of year when company contracts are going out, which means that dancers across the country may not be getting their contracts renewed for the 2019-2020 season.  We put together a handful of bullet points to help dancers navigate this tough time and discuss what to do next.  We turn this challenging experience into something positive, this wee...

This week on Conversations on Dance we are bringing you a live podcast we recorded yesterday, February 4th, 2019 at the Kennedy Center. The Kennedy Center has wonderful Ballet and Contemporary Dance Class Series that offer advanced high school students the unique opportunity to learn from dancers from the nationally and internationally recognized companies that tour to the Kennedy Center.  Yesterd...

This week we head back into our vault from our time at the Vail Dance Festival last summer.   Today we speak with former Miami City Ballet Principal dancer, Patricia Delgado, and New York City Ballet Principal, Jared Angle.   Even though they have never danced in the same company, many gigs have brought them to dance together, especially at the Vail Dance Festival.   So we sat down with them to ta...

This week on Conversations On Dance, we are joined by San Francisco Ballet dancer Madison Keesler. Madison began her professional career at age 17, and soon found herself learning some of the most coveted roles in the repertoire. In addition to her time in San Francisco, she has danced extensively in Europe with the English National Ballet and Hamburg Ballet. We talk to Madison about why being wil...

This week on ‘Conversations On Dance', we are by joined by Marika Molnar, founder and president of Westside Dance Physical Therapy. Marika is often called the godmother of dance medicine, and with good reason. After helping to rehabilitate George Balanchine after a knee surgery, she became the first full time physical therapist on staff at the New York City Ballet. Since then, she has influe...

Today we are returning to our time at San Francisco Ballet last April for the company’s Unbound Festival.   This week we talk with Frances Chung, Principal Dancer with San Francisco Ballet. Frances was born in Vancouver, Canada and received her training at Goh Ballet Academy.     She   joined San Francisco Ballet as a member of the corps de ballet in 2001 and was promoted to principal dancer in 20...

This week on Conversations On Dance, we are joined by the chief dance critic of the New York Times, and one of our most frequent guests, Alastair Macaulay. Alastair, an expert on dance history, has previously guided us through histories of Balanchine's classic ballet ‘Serenade' and the work of Frederic Ashton. This week he delves into the true history of one of ballet's most revered choreogr...

This episode was recorded live on Saturday, December 8th, 2018 at the Yumiko New York Flagship Boutique.  We sit down with dancer and actress, Juliet Doherty.  Juliet comes from a family of dancers, spending her entire childhood in the studio.  Always active in musical theater, Juliet toured the world playing the coveted role of Clara alongside the renowned Radio City Rockettes in the Radio City C...

This week on Conversations On Dance we are joined by one of the ballet world's most celebrated pianists, Cameron Grant. Cameron joined the New York City Ballet in 1984, where he was appointed pianist of the New York City Ballet orchestra four years later. He has played nearly every major piano ballet in the repertoire, including Balanchine masterworks like ‘Davidsbundlertanze' and ‘Tch...