Dancecast

“It Comes Down to Loving Movement” Text by Emmaly Wiederholt In this episode of DanceCast, Silva interviews Ginger Lane, a Chicago based dancer, teacher and choreographer. Ginger shares how the themes of dance and disability activism have come together in her career, specifically through her involvement with Access Living and MOMENTA Dance Company. She discusses the struggle that physically integr...

Interview with Sally Davison; The Language of the Body is the Oldest Language. In this episode of DanceCast, Silva interviews Sally Davison, a dancer, choreographer, and master DanceAbility teacher in the UK and Finland. Sally discusses the strength of DanceAbility as valuing participant-led knowledge and making inclusion possible. She asserts that DanceAbility is not just about disability, but ab...

Access is Good for Everybody Text by Emmaly Wiederholt In this episode of DanceCast, Silva interviews Aaron Wheeler-Kay, creative director of Echo Theater Company in Portland, Oregon. Aaron, a master DanceAbility teacher, shares how he applied DanceAbility to create an accessible circus arts space, as well as leverage his privilege to feature and support other voices. After teaching DanceAbility t...

Dance Applied to Real Life In this episode of DanceCast, Silva interviews Margot Greenlee, a choreographer, theater director and artist educator based in Washington DC. Here, Margot discusses her involvement with Jacob’s Pillow’s Curriculum in Motion® and her own project, BodyWise Dance, which provide dance classes and workshops for individuals and groups in healthcare, education and corporate set...

Experiencing the Democracy of Dance In this episode of DanceCast, Silva interviews Connie Vandarakis, a master DanceAbility teacher in Philadelphia. Connie shares her unusual entrance to dance, her experience in academia, how chronic hip pain and a hip replacement led her to DanceAbility, and why she deeply believes in the curriculum of DanceAbility. Her drive to serve in the arts felt answered by...

Interview with Jana Meszaros; Promoting Freedom and Equality In this episode of DanceCast, Silva interviews Jana Meszaros, a DanceAbility instructor in Eugene, OR. Jana describes her small-town upbringing, how she discovered DanceAbility through contact improvisation, and her road to becoming a Master Teacher. She shares her belief in DanceAbility as a tool for creating experiences where disabled...

Exploring Her Own Access and Excellence PODCAST BY SILVA LAUKKANEN TEXT BY EMMALY WIEDERHOLT In this episode of DanceCast, Silva interviews India Harville, a dance artist and teacher in the Bay Area. India shares her journey to inclusive dance through yoga, body work, and her ongoing experience with temporary paralysis. She also describes her recent one-woman show, Enough, which explored a recover...

Maylis was visiting me here in the US after dancing and studying with Axis Dance Co in their annual summer intensive. While we were finishing our lunch we chatted about her work and future plans. Maylis shared her visions for her next choreographies and where she is currently with her own work. Thank you Maylis for being so open and willing to share. MAYLIS ARRABIT I took my first class / dance cl...

Choreography for An Arm and A Half PODCAST BY SILVA LAUKKANEN; PHOTOGRAPHY BY TIM ISOM AND TEXT BY EMMALY WIEDERHOLT In this episode of DanceCast, Silva interviews Julie Crothers, a freelance dancer and emerging choreographer in the Bay Area. After dancing with AXIS Dance Company for three years, Julie began exploring her own choreographic voice. She describes the impetus of her piece Secondhand,...

In this episode of DanceCast, Silva interviews Gretchen Pick, executive director of Young Dance in Minnesota’s Twin Cities region. Young Dance offers youth classes and performance opportunities, and started to include dance classes for children and adults with disabilities in 2010 after realizing nothing else was being offered locally. Gretchen shares her belief in recognizing the uniqueness of in...

Rethinking Assistive Technologies PODCAST BY SILVA LAUKKANEN In this episode of DanceCast, Silva interviews Merry Lynn Morris, assistant director of dance at the University of South Florida. One aspect of Merry Lynn’s work has involved inventing new assistive technologies for disability dance, including a rolling dance chair with remote control, height change and omni directionality. In this podca...

In this episode of DanceCast, Silva interviews Dwayne Scheuneman of REVolutions Dance in Tampa, Florida, whose background in wheelchair sports led him to co-founding Tampa’s first integrated dance company. Dwayne discusses his passion for education and the difficulty starting classes for children with disabilities from scratch, his relationship dancing with AXIS Dance Company and how it has inform...

In Between Dance and Musical Theater PODCAST BY SILVA LAUKKANEN In this episode of DanceCast, Silva interviews Meredith Aleigha Wells, a dancer with Dancing Wheels Company in Cleveland, OH. The Massachusetts native has a background in musical theater, and started using a wheelchair while in college. She discusses the support she received in college, how the process of translating able-bodied dance...

Experimentation and Inclusivity In this episode of DanceCast, Silva interviews Eric Kupers, a director, choreographer and performer in the Bay Area. He is the co-director of Dandelion Dancetheater and director of Bandelion (the interdisciplinary ensemble within the company). Eric discusses his experimental approach to dance-making, the creative significance of inclusivity (both in terms of differe...

Creating a More Inclusive World PODCAST BY SILVA LAUKKANEN In this episode of DanceCast, Silva interviews Marisa Hamamoto, founder and director of Infinite Flow, the first inclusive ballroom dance company in the US. She shares her myriad experiences with inclusion and why it became such an important concept for her, her difficult history pursuing dance before founding Infinite Flow, why the #MeToo...

Embodying the Conversation on Arts and Social Justice In this episode of DanceCast, Silva interviews Adam McKinney, cofounder of DNAWORKS, an arts and service organization committed to dialogue and healing through the arts. He discusses how he became involved in race and trauma work; how dance can build community and address oppression; DNAWORKS programming exploring layers of identity; and the im...

In this episode of DanceCast, Silva interviews Adam Benjamin, a pioneer and much esteemed choreographer and teacher in the field of integrated dance. Based in the United Kingdom, he describes his introduction to disability through a visual arts residency at a spinal injury clinic, and how it led to a moment of a woman in a wheelchair supporting himself, an able-bodied man, subverting gender and ab...

In this episode of DanceCast, Silva interviews Wagner Moreira, a Brazilian dancer, choreographer and teacher living and working in Dresden, Germany. Wagner and Silva discuss the in-between place of living in one country but being from another, the role of Wagner’s father in helping him find dance and his choreographic tribute to him 18 years after he took his own life, the use of nudity in dance a...

In this episode of DanceCast, Silva interviews Douglas Scott, artistic director of Full Radius Dance in Atlanta, Georgia. Silva and Douglas discuss, among other things, the importance and challenge of transposing movement for bodies of different abilities, the choice of the word “transposing” and how it is borrowed from music, the need for a university dance program that welcomes disabled students...

In this episode I speak with Maija Karhunen about her work and life as a dancer. In this episode of DanceCast, Silva interviews Maija Karhunen, a dancer and performer based in Helsinki, Finland. Maija discusses the practicalities of touring as a disabled dancer, attitudes in Europe toward disability, how to navigate the special attention that disability voices receive, and her desire to grow in bo...

In this episode of DanceCast, Silva interviews Monika Požek, founder and director of MeetShareDance in Madrid, Spain. MeetShareDance is an annual festival that takes place in a different country each year, and that was created with the aim of supporting integrative dance as well as building an international network of integrated dance professionals. Silva and Monika discuss the evolution of the fe...

Interview with Violeta Fatas. http://www.paressueltos.org http://www.keshetarts.org http://www.bodyshift.org http://stanceondance.com https://www.adambenjamin.co.uk https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate/ba-dance https://meetsharedance.com

In this episode I spoke with my dear friend and colleague Tanya Winters about her career and our visit to Berlin, Germany where we took part in couple of integrated festivals. In this episode of DanceCast, Silva interviews Tanya Winters, a dancer in Austin, TX. Tanya found her way into the world of dance in the early 2000s before becoming certified in DanceAbility in 2011. She currently performs w...

n this episode of DanceCast, Silva interviews Nancy Bain, who has spent her life working in dance education. She shares some of her most unique teaching experiences, including addressing war with students through dance at a public elementary school for the arts. Nancy also discusses why she never opted to open a dance studio, how she helped her alma mater start a dance department, how she develope...

In this episode I was talking to my good friend Julie about her work within the integrated dance scene as well as her time in Java.