Conversations on Dance

This we we are delighted to welcome Michael Novak,   the Artistic Director Designate of the Paul Taylor Dance Foundation. Raised in Rolling Meadows, IL, Michael began studying dance at age ten.   In 2001, he was offered a Presidential Scholarship to attend The University of the Arts in Philadelphia to pursue training in jazz and ballet. The following year, he undertook an apprenticeship at the Pen...

This week on Conversations On Dance, our guest is Houston Ballet Artistic Director and acclaimed choreographer Stanton Welch. Born in Australia to two prominent ballet dancers, Welch expressed an interest in choreography almost immediately after beginning his dance training. Soon after joining the Australian Ballet as a dancer he received his first choreographic commission, and five years later he...

This week we are joined by Ana Sophia Scheller, San Francisco Ballet Principal Dancer. The Argentinian-born dancer moved to New York at the age of 13 to study at the School of American Ballet, and later joined NYCB as a corps member in 2004 after a brief time with ABT’s Studio company. In her 13 years with NYCB, she worked her way up to the title of Principal dancing featured roles in all of the c...

Today on Conversations On Dance, we speak with Dwight Rhoden, founding artistic director and resident choreographer of Complexions Dance Company. Despite a late start in dance, Rhoden danced for numerous major companies, including as a principal with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Partnering with acclaimed performer Desmond Richardson, Rhoden co-founded Complexions in 1994, a company often ci...

This week we are joined by Mathilde Froustey, Principal Dancer with San Francisco Ballet.   Mathilde started dancing at the age of 9 in the South of France before going on to study at the Paris Opera Ballet School in 1999.   In 2002 she joined The Paris Opera Ballet where she would dance numerous Principal roles for over a decade.   In January 2013 she accepted an offer from Helgi Tommasson to joi...

This week we are joined by Katita Waldo, Ballet Master with San Francisco Ballet. Katita trained at San Francisco Ballet School, prior to joining the company in 1988 and becoming a Principal dancer in 1994.   She   performed Principal roles in a diverse repertory of works by acclaimed choreographers including George Balanchine, William Forsythe, Lar Lubovitch, Helgi Tomasson, and Christopher Wheel...

This week on the podcast, we are joined in San Francisco by one of the world’s most in demand choreographers, Christopher Wheeldon. Having trained at Royal Ballet, Wheeldon was taken into the company, but soon transferred to the New York City Ballet, where he rose to the rank of soloist. His choreographic talents were soon recognized and while still in his twenties, he was named resident choreogra...

This week we bring you an episode we recorded at New York City’s Guggenheim museum in January.   We wanted to catch up with New York City Ballet Principal Dancer, Sara Mearns, and Jodi Melnick, contemporary choreographer to hear about their Works and Process at the Guggenheim that they were putting together.   We chatted with the pair quickly between rehearsals, so we could offer our listeners a p...

Welcome to our final bonus episode from San Francisco Ballet’s Unbound festival.   Just as with last episode, today we will be talking with 3 different dancers in the company about what ultimately led them to SFB and about their experience at the Unbound festival.   These episodes were recorded in the first few days of the festival around April 20th.   First up today, we talk with Lauren Strongin....

BONUS: San Francisco Ballet Dancers Ep. 1.  Welcome to our 1st of two bonus episode wrap ups of San Francisco Ballet’s Unbound festival.   In each episode we will be talking with 3 different dancers in the company about what ultimately led them to SFB and about their experience at the Unbound festival.   These episodes were recorded in the first few days of the festival around April 20th.  To star...

This week we are happy to be sharing with you a recording of our live event at SF MOMA last month.   We were pleased to be able to sit down and talk with San Francisco Ballet Principal Dancer, Sofiane Sylve, as a part of a live lecture put together by the San Francisco Based organization, “Words on Dance.” We talk with Sofiane about launching her career at only 14, her time dancing with New York C...

This week on ‘Conversations On Dance', we are joined by esteemed choreographer Trey McIntyre, whose second work for the San Francisco Ballet recently premiered in the company's Unbound Festival. Trey's rise to prominence as a choreographer began when Ben Stevenson, then director of the Houston Ballet, created the position of choreographic apprentice for him. He has gone on to choreograph wor...

Welcome to another live podcast from San Francisco Ballet.   In this episode we are joined by festival choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa.   This episode is a recording of a live “Meet the Artist” event that took place   before a performance of the Unbound festival on April 22nd.   For more live content like this from other San Francisco Ballet performances, please check out San Francisco Ballet’...

This week we are joined by choreographer and dancer, Myles Thatcher, LIVE from San Francisco Ballet's Unbound Festival, and his collaborators for his new ballet ‘Otherness’, costume designer Sylvie Rood, and nonbinary artist, Kersh Branz .   This episode was recorded from a live “Meet The Artist” event before the opening of Myles’ ballet at the Unbound festival at San Francisco Ballet.   For more...

This week we are with Justin Peck, LIVE from San Francisco Ballet's Unbound Festival in a live “Meet The Artist” event before the opening night of San Francisco Ballet's Unbound Festival.   We talk about his career, his process, and about the concept behind his new ballet for SFB, “Hurry Up, We're Dreaming.”   Stay tuned this week for more from the festival coming soon! The post (89) Justin Peck,...

Today we are bringing you the first of a series of podcasts recorded live in San Francisco. San Francisco Ballet is kicking off its ‘Unbound’ Festival tonight, an event that will span 17 days and feature the world premieres of 12 choreographers. Our first guest is Dores Andre, a principal dancer here with the company, who is to be featured in 4 of the premieres. The post BONUS: Dores André from SF...

Shelby Williams, Biscuit Ballerina.  On this week's podcast, our guest is Shelby Williams, dancer at the Royal Ballet Of Flanders, and creator of internet sensation Biscuit Ballerina. Shelby began her career with Houston Ballet II, before shortly moving on to several major companies in Europe. In addition to the Royal Ballet Of Flanders, she has danced with Dresden Ballet, Barcelona Ballet and Bal...

It’s just Rebecca and Michael this week, together from New York City, as they return to discuss some of the feedback received after last week’s episode.   They also discuss a recent article on dancers' and negativity (10:30), and how a dancer’s perspective on their career changes post retirement (16:29).   They return to their interview format next week, and the following week will be reporting fr...

It's just Rebecca and Michael this week as they sit down to discuss some of the stories that have been making news recently.  We talk about Misty Copeland's epic and graceful response to a Twitter troll last week (7:55) and discuss Avichai Scher's article for the Huffington Post , “The Me Too Moment Is Ballet's Chance for a Turning Point” (16:15).  We will be going to San Francisco April 20-25th t...

This week we welcome Caitlin Trainor, Artistic Director of Trainor Dance and Founder of Dancio.  Named one of the 25 to watch in 2016 by Dance Magazine, Caitlin is a performer, choreographer, and a member of the faculty at Barnard College.  Caitlin fell in love with dance and choreography during her time in college at Skidmore, where she became determined to carve out a career for herself in the f...

This week we welcome back costume designer duo, Reid Bartelme and Harriet Jung.  We first had them on the pod in 2016 in episode 21, where we talk with them about how they became interested in fashion, how they met each other, and about their work.  This time we met up with them in person back in January at the Guggenheim Museum, the site of their newest project.  We talk with them about what they...

This week we head back in our archives to our time at The Kennedy Center in October of 2017.  With this episode we are delighted to share an inside look into the world of arts administration.  We are speaking with Meg Booth, Director of Dance Programming at The Kennedy Center.  Meg attended the University of Notre Dame where she recieved a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. She began her work in the ar...

This week it is just Michael and Rebecca, taking some time to catch up.  Rebecca has a big announcement to make, we talk changes happening at New York City Ballet and what it means for ballet as a whole (30:10), and we discuss what is coming up for Conversations on Dance (44:07). This episode is sponsored by Sudio headphones. Start listening to Conversations on Dance today with Sudio headphones. ...

This week we are presenting our final episode recorded from the Vail Dance Festival in August 2017.  Today we sit down with Matthew Neenan, PA Ballet Choreographer in Residence & Co-founder of BalletX.  Matthew began his dance training at the Boston Ballet School, later continuing his studies at the School of American Ballet.  From 1994-2007 Neenan danced with the Pennsylvania Ballet.   In 200...

This week we are joined by Reid Bartelme and Jack Ferver, hosts of the podcast “What’s Going on With Dance and Stuff.”  We have had Reid on the podcast before to discuss his work as a costume designer, so tune into episode 21. Today we get to know Jack a little more when he tells us about his acting career, his choreography, and how ballet and other art forms inform his work.  The two are close fr...