Conversations on Dance

This week on Conversations On Dance, we are joined by Miami City Ballet dancer Eric Trope. While so much attention is understandably given to the physical health of dancers, Eric has been an outspoken advocate for supporting the mental health of dancers to the same extent. In this episode, we cover the difficulty of performing anxiety, dealing with body shaming and what can be done both individual...

Today we are joined by Miami City Ballet Artistic Director, Lourdes Lopez, and our former boss.   Born in Havana, Cuba and raised in Miami, Lopez began taking ballet lessons at the age of five and continued her training full time at the School of American Ballet when she was 14. George Balanchine chose her to join the   New York City Ballet corps de ballet shortly after her 16th birthday.   She da...

This week on Conversations On Dance, we spoke with Houston Ballet soloist Harper Watters. Though Harper's talents led to prominent roles with the Houston Ballet and two promotions, he gained attention both within the dance community and in pop culture at large, in viral videos of himself dancing in towering pink heels. We talk to Harper about how he has leveraged his social media stardom into crea...

This week on Conversations On Dance, we are joined by choreographer Arthur Pita. Pita graduated with a master's degree from London Contemporary Dance School, and has choreographed internationally in many different formats, including works for opera, musical theatre, plays and film. He has garnered attention for his imaginative and personal re-interpretations of classic narratives like Kafka's &#82...

This week we are joined by San Francisco Ballet Principal Dancer, Sasha De Sola.  Born in Winter Park, Florida, Sasha trained at the Kirov Academy of Ballet in Washington, D.C. on a full merit scholarship.  In 2004, Ms. De Sola received a scholarship for studies at the Paris Opera Ballet School.  At the age of 17, Sasha joined San Francisco Ballet where she rose through the ranks and was promoted...

In today’s bonus episode we are continuing our coverage of San Francisco Ballet at the Kennedy Center as they showcase 6 works from the company’s Unbound: a festival of new works.   Today’s episode was recorded in April when we were in San Francisco as these works all premiered.   We talk with new corps member, Natasha Sheehan about training at San Francisco Ballet School, joining the company, and...

This week’s episode of ‘Conversations On Dance’ was recorded live at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. Our guest is former New York City Ballet principal and Artistic Director of the San Francisco Ballet, Helgi Tomasson. The San Francisco Ballet is performing at the Kennedy Center this week, from October 23 – 28, 2018. They will be performing six works that premiered earlier this year at...

This week we are joined by Sarah Van Patten, Principal with   San Francisco Ballet.   Sarah trained at Ballet Workshop of New England, and danced with Massachusetts Youth Ballet. In 2000 at age 15, she joined the Royal Danish Ballet as an apprentice where John Neumeier cast her as Juliet in his Romeo and Juliet . Soon after, she was promoted to the rank of corps dancer, one of the youngest corps d...

This week on Conversations on Dance we are joined from the Vail Dance Festival by Stella Abrera, Principal with American Ballet Theatre.   Stella began her training in her home town of Pasadena, California.   Her family moved to Sydney, Australia where she spent three years studying the Royal Academy of Dancing (or RAD).   After returning to the States, Abrera joined American Ballet Theatre as a m...

This week on Conversations On Dance, we talk to Daniel Applebaum, dancer with the New York City Ballet. Daniel joined the company in 2005, and quickly became one of the most depended upon dancers, regularly dancing triple bills, morphing into   varied choreographic styles, and keeping dozens of ballets ready to go in his mind and body. Noted for his intelligence, elegance, musicality, and full out...

This week on ‘Conversations On Dance', we are joined by the choreographic team sweeping the modern dance world, Rashaun Mitchell and Silas Riener. The duo performed together at Merce Cunningham Dance company where they discovered their choreographic compatibility and a similar willingness to explore the way abstraction and representation coincide in the body. Their works have been presented...

This week on ‘Conversations On Dance', we are bringing you a special bonus episode, with one of of most frequent guests, Alastair Macaulay. Today, Alastair has announced his decision to step down from his post as chief dance critic of the New York Times. In his years writing for the Times, Alastair's reviews became events unto themselves, illuminating the performances he saw for many avid re...

On this week's episode of ‘Conversations On Dance', we are joined by Boston Ballet principal Misa Kuranaga. A native of Japan, Misa first came to dance professionally in America with the San Francisco Ballet, before additional training at the School of American Ballet. In 2003, she joined Boston Ballet, where was quickly handed major soloist and principal opportunities, ultimately rising to...

On this week's episode of Conversations On Dance, we are thrilled to be joined once again by American Ballet Theatre principal Isabella Boylston. We caught up with her at the Vail Dance Festival, where we talked about her most recent season at the Met with ABT, how her second year running the Ballet Sun Valley Festival differed from the first, and her preparations for her first performances dancin...

This week, Rebecca & Michael sit down to discuss this past summer, what we are up to in the coming months, and to discuss the New York City Ballet Artistic Director job description.  Here is the New York Times article  by Michael Cooper which we reference. We are thrilled to welcome Yumiko as our newest sponsor of Conversations on Dance.  Visit their Flagship boutique in New York City featurin...

Summer is almost over and many of our listeners are getting ready to head back to school. To help ease us into that transition, we sat down with the director of the Boston Ballet School, Margaret Tracey. Margaret had an illustrious 16 year career as a principal at the New York City Ballet, dancing a massive repertoire of works by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Trey Mcintyre, William Forsythe a...

The dance world has a complicated relationship with food. Plagued with pervasive body dysmorphia, our culture is often riddled with myths and negativity regarding our diets. We spoke with dietitian Suzanne Fisher about the dance world’s unique problems with diet and what can be done to overcome them and maintain a healthy relationship with the food that fuels our art. Suzanne's website:  fishernut...

On today's episode of Conversations On Dance, we are joined by Devon Teuscher, principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre. In 2006, after completing her training at the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School, Devon was invited to join ABT's studio company. Consistent soloist work led to her first promotion in 2014, and following a triumphant turn as Odette/Odile in the full length ‘Swan Lake',...

Join us for another live Festival Forum panel discussion with Damian Woetzel and Claudia Schreier.  Damian Woetzel is the Artistic Director of The Vail Dance Festival and Claudia Schreier is back creating work at the festival for a third time.  We talk about Damian's beginnings at the festival and how he developed it's mission.  We talk with Claudia about her roots in the Vail Dance Festival as a...

Today we talk with New York City Ballet Principal, Lauren Lovette.  The last time we chatted with her was last year at the Vail Dance Festival, so this year we catch up with her, talk about her guesting gig with Royal Danish Ballet, and hear about her new work “Papillons” that premiered on August 6th, 2018 at the Vail Dance Festival.  (Note: This episode was recorded on August 6th, 2018.) Photo: U...

Roman Mejia is one of the newest members of the New York City Ballet, having burst onto the scene at the Vail Dance Festival fresh out of the School of American Ballet. In just his first year at the company, he’s garnered critical acclaim for numerous solo roles, and is quickly gathering momentum as a dancer to be seen. We talk with Roman about the pressures of being thrust into the spotlight so s...

Merce Cunningham is one of the greatest and most influential choreographers of the 20th century. In honor of the Merce Cunningham centennial, we were pleased to host Melissa Toogood, a dancer of his works and Abi Sebaly, a Cunningham scholar.  We discuss Merce’s work methods, collaborations with artists like John Cage and Robert Rauschenberg, broad influence in the avant-garde in dance and beyond,...

We sit down in Vail to catch up with The New York Times Chief Dance Critic Alastair Macaulay and discuss the Vail Dance Festival.  We discuss what makes the festival so special, how it has evolved, dancers who he has watched flourish in Vail, and what makes him keep coming back for more.  (Note: This episode was recorded on August 3, 2018.) Photo: Erin Baiano The post BONUS: Alastair Macaulay from...

Welcome to our first episode from the 2018 Vail Dance Festival.  For our first live event we spoke with Justin Peck and Caroline Shaw.  Justin Peck, one of the world’s most sought after and celebrated working ballet choreographers, and fresh off a Tony nomination for his work on the Broadway musical ‘Carousel’, will be premiering his first work at the Vail Dance Festival. Caroline Shaw, composer-i...

This week it's just Rebecca and Michael to celebrate our 100th episode.  We take the time to reflect on the past two years of Conversations on Dance by counting down our top 10 favorite episodes.  We have had so many incredible guests that it was hard to narrow it down, so a few other favorite moments come up.  Thank you to all of our listeners who have made these past two years of podcasting such...