Movers & Shapers: A Dance Podcast

Today's guest is Diane Coburn Bruning. Diane is an award-winning choreographer who has worked with ballet, dance, opera and theatre companies throughout the US and abroad.  She is the recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship and multi-year National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and grants among many others.  She is the Founder and Artistic Director of Chamber Dance Project, dancers and musicians....

On this special episode of "Movers & Shapers: A Dance Podcast" you will hear from an array of artists working in the dance field, each uniquely navigating what COVID-19 means to them and the work they do.  On this episode, hear from Melissa Riker with Dance Rising (NYC), Crystal Michelle Perkins with The Landingplace Project (Ohio), Shana Simmons with Shana Simmons Dance (Pittsburgh), and Erin Car...

Today's guest is Denise Saunders Thompson. Denise is the President & CEO of the International Association of Blacks in Dance (IABD). She has extensive experience in non-profit and for-profit, established or start-up organizations. She has advised organizations on administrative, programmatic and fundraising issues including strategic plans, policy and procedures, communications programs, budgeting...

Today's guest is Staycee Pearl.  Staycee  is the co-artistic director of PearlArts Studios and STAYCEE PEARL dance project & Soy Sos (SPdp&SS), where she creates artful experiences through dance-centered multimedia works. Debuting in 2010 at Kelly Strayhorn Theater (Pittsburgh) and serving as the theater's resident company for 3 years, the Pearls opened their dance/art/sound space, PearlArts Studi...

Today's guest is Robin Staff. Robin is the Founder, Executive Director, and Producer of DANCE NOW.  DANCE NOW offers an interdependent network of performance, creative development, and educational opportunities, serving a diverse roster of multi-generational artists. DANCE NOW provides dance makers with paid performance, commissioning, teaching and residency opportunities through five programs - D...

Today's guest is Erin Pride. Erin is an online business coach for dance educators and host of the Dance Boss Podcast.  Erin helps dance educators niche down, build an online business, and bring in additional revenue for them and their families. Erin began her coaching journey as a dance education coach, providing resources and training to help dance educators run more successful classrooms. Now Er...

Today's guest is Preeti   Vasudevan.  Preeti is an exponent of classical Indian dance ( Bharatanatyam)  creating new provocative contemporary works from the Indian tradition questioning the role of identity in contemporary lives. She is the first artist of Indian descent to receive recognitions from top institutions in the US for her outstanding contribution to dance. Some highlights include: 2019...

Today's guest is Alejandra Duque Cifuentes. Alejandra is an immigrant activist, artist, producer, educator, and Executive Director of Dance/NYC.  With more than 10 years of production and stage management experience in theatre and dance, she has toured nationally and internationally with Zaccho Dance Theatre, Bandaloop, Dancing in The Streets, and The Foundry Theatre, among others. As a teaching a...

Today's guest (episode 100!) is Jody Sperling. Jody is a dancer-choreographer from NYC and the Founder/Artistic Director of Time Lapse Dance. She has created 45+ works including many furthering the legacy of modern dance pioneer Loie Fuller (1862-1928). Considered the preeminent Fuller stylist, Sperling has expanded the genre into the 21st century, deploying it in the context of contemporary and e...

On this special episode of "Movers & Shapers: A Dance Podcast" we continue our "From the Field" series with an episode that features a wide array of artists in the dance field.  Each are trying to navigate what the coronavirus crisis means to them and the work they do.  Inspiring, honest, hopeful, hear from Jessica Chen, Zoee Marsh, Miles Norton, Aria Roach, Mark DeGarmo, and Isabel Bowser. For mo...

Today's guest is award-winning filmmaker Alla Kovgan. Born in Moscow, Alla has divided her time between Europe and the U.S., bringing two decades of experience working with dance and film on screen, virtual reality, and in theatre, as well as a strong record as a documentary writer and editor. Her latest film Cunningham traces Merce Cunningham's artistic evolution over three decades of risk and di...

On this special episode of "Movers & Shapers: A Dance Podcast" we have for you a wide array of artists working in the dance field who are each trying to navigate what the coronaviris crisis means to them and the work they do. Inspiring, honest, hopeful, hear from Megan Mizanty, Ariel Grossman, Eduardo Villaro, Anabella Lenzu, Stephanie Acosta, and Eva Yaa Asantewaa.   For more on Movers & Shapers:...

Let's Share. How are you responding to this time? Record it. Send it. Let's hear your voice.   For more info and guidelines: themovingarchitects.org/podcasts  

We are taking a podcast pause....listen in to hear why. For more info Movers & Shapers: A Dance Podcast www.themovingarchitects.org/podcasts   And catch the company behind the podcast in March! March 3-9: Spring/Break Art Fair (NYC) March 14: Second Saturdays at Central (family friendly event, NJ) March 26: An Evening with The Moving Architects (Montclair, NJ)

Today's guest is Pavel Zuštiak. Pavel is a director, choreographer, performer, and founder/artistic director of the New York-based performance company Palissimo. Born in communist Czechoslovakia and trained at Amsterdam's School for New Dance Development, Pavel's staged performances tour nationally and internationally, merging dance with multidisciplinary and multi-sensory theatrical experiences....

Today's guest is Sondra Fraleigh. Sondra is professor emeritus of the State University of New York at Brockport, a Fulbright Scholar, SUNY Faculty Exchange Scholar, and a significant writer in the field of dance philosophy.  She is an award winning author of nine books including most recently: Back to the Dance Itself: Phenomenologies of the Body in Performance  (2018); Moving Consciously: Somatic...

Today's guest is Christine Dakin. Christine has spent more than four decades in Martha Graham's deep tradition, exploring the physical and intellectual practice of dance as principal dancer, artistic director of the company, and teacher. She shares the language of dance collaborating with choreographers, musicians, and teachers, and continuing to perform from Russia to the US, maintaining a specia...

Today's guest is Jessica Chen. Jessica is a choreographer, teacher and Artistic Director of J CHEN PROJECT, a 501c3 non-profit modern dance company based in NYC. In 2013, Jessica made a miraculous journey back to the stage after suffering a horrific car accident, which rendered her in a coma for 13 days after 8 hours of brain surgery. She shares her story and fight to live through her work as a ch...

Today's guest is Vangeline. Vangeline is a teacher, dancer, and choreographer specializing in the Japanese postwar avant-garde movement form Butoh. She is the artistic director of the Vangeline Theater (New York), a dance company firmly rooted in the tradition of Japanese Butoh while carrying it into the 21st century, and the founder of the New York Butoh Institute. She is also the founder of the...

Today's guest is Michelle Manzanales. Michelle   is a choreographer and dance educator originally from Houston, TX. She is the Director of the Ballet Hispánico School of Dance, but lends her artistic voice to all facets of the organization led by CEO and Artistic Director Eduardo Vilaro (MSP podcast no. 77!). She began working with Eduardo in 2003 as a dancer for his company Luna Negra Dance Theat...

Today's guest is Melissa Riker.  Melissa is based in NYC and is the director and choreographer of Kinesis Project dance theatre. The company dances outside in sculpture gardens, universities, public parks, as well as hosting more than 30 surprise performances all over New York City and the tri-state area. Recently Ms. Riker is a 2016, 2017 and 2019 CUNY Dance Initiative Residency Fellow, 2015 LMCC...

Today's guest is Lucy Sexton. Lucy is a Brooklyn born choreographer, producer, and administrator who works in the fields of dance, theater, film, and advocacy. She is currently Executive Director of the cultural advocacy organization New Yorkers for Culture and Arts, working for equity and support for culture for all New Yorkers. Beginning in 2009, she has served as Executive Director of the NY Da...

Today's guest is Ivy Baldwin. Ivy is a New York-based choreographer, performer, teacher, and founder of Ivy Baldwin Dance. Since 1999, she has created 17 works for her company, including, most recently, commissions from BAM (Next Wave Festival), Philip Johnson Glass House, the Joyce Theater, Abrons Arts Center, the Chocolate Factory, and the Wooden Floor. Baldwin has received many awards and fello...

Today's guest is Jennifer Muller.  Jennifer is the Artistic Director/Founder of Jennifer Muller/The Works, and has been an influence in the dance world for over 50 years. She is known for her visionary approach and innovations in dance/theater, multi-discipline productions, incorporating the spoken word, live and commissioned music, artist-inspired décor, media and unusual production elements. Mul...

Today's guest is Jonathan Hollander. Jonathan is the founder, artistic director, and president of Battery Dance. He is creator of the Company's renowned Battery Dance Festival and Dancing to Connect arts education program. Widely recognized as one of the outstanding choreographers of his generation, his works have been presented in major theaters and festivals across five continents and 70 countri...