Music & Dance: Musicians, Composers, Singers, Dancers, Choreographers, Performers Talk Art, Creativity & The Creative Process

Tony Walton was an award-winning director and production designer.  His work was vast and stretches from Broadway productions and operas to films and television.  Over the course of his long and coveted career Tony  was honored with 16 Tony Award Nominations for his Broadway sets and costumes.  Of those nominations he received awards for Pippin, House of Blue Leaves, and Guys a...

Since 1971, Pilobolus Dance Company has toured more than 65 countries, performing to over a quarter of a million people each year. Pilobolus has appeared on Oprah, the Academy Awards, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, NBC’s TODAY Show, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, MTV’s Video Music Awards. Their honors include a TED Fellowship, a Grammy® Award Nomination, a Primetime Emmy® Award, and several C...

Since 1971, Pilobolus Dance Company has toured more than 65 countries, performing to over a quarter of a million people each year. Pilobolus has appeared on Oprah, the Academy Awards, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, NBC’s TODAY Show, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, MTV’s Video Music Awards. Their honors include a TED Fellowship, a Grammy® Award Nomination, a Primetime Emmy® Award, and several C...

Sharon Kovacs is a soul-inspired singer from the Netherlands. Her unique and unorthodox vocal style made her stand out and she found international success when her debut single, “My Love” became a number one hit in Europe. Kovacs is honest about the struggles and inner-demons that she continues to face and how they inspire her art. “Shades of Black” reached the top of the charts in the Netherlands...

Sharon Kovacs is a soul-inspired singer from the Netherlands. Her unique and unorthodox vocal style made her stand out and she found international success when her debut single, “My Love” became a number one hit in Europe. Kovacs is honest about the struggles and inner-demons that she continues to face and how they inspire her art. “Shades of Black” reached the top of the charts in the Netherlands...

“I always find it an ironic thing to think about the fact that Fred Rogers was colour-blind. He could barely tell a blue from a grey. I was young and to him I was a child and I certainly played the role of a child and he played the role of parent… He was profoundly patient.” Dr. François Clemmons is perhaps best known as Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood ’s Officer Clemmons. He made history as the first...

Dr. François Clemmons is perhaps best known as Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood ’s Officer Clemmons. He made history as the first African American actor to have a recurring role on a children’s television program. He received a Bachelor of Music degree from Oberlin College, a MFA from Carnegie Mellon University, and an honorary degree from Middlebury College. In 1973, he won a Grammy Award for a record...

“Dance is for everyone. That’s the mission. We see people that might not be able to encounter dance in so many ways because it’s not something that their school offers. I had a family that subscribed to the New York City Ballet, most families don’t do that, so for us to be able to offer that level of exposure…and I think traditionally ballet has felt like it can be an elitist art form. Only certai...

Artistic Director of Pacific Northwest Ballet and director of PNB’s Ballet School, Peter Boal was raised in Bedford, New York.  He began studying at the School of American Ballet at the age of 9 and became a principal dancer in the New York City Ballet in 1989. Serving the company for 22 years, Mr. Boal was featured in many ballets, including George Balanchine’s Apollo and A Midsummer Night’s...

Latest ARTS interview from The Creative Process’ MAIN CHANNEL. To listen to more of our interviews across the arts, visit tinyurl.com/thecreativepod, tinyurl.com/thecreativespotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. This MUSIC & DANCE podcast focuses on interviews about music, dance and the performing arts, but you can find hundreds more conversations across the arts, culture, society & t...

“All the themes are very contemporary. I think what moves this story is the search for instantaneous celebrity. That’s what the girls are all about, Roxie and Velma. They want to be famous. Of course everything that you cited, corruption, crimes, the press focusing on sensational stories–it’s all there. And I think that’s why the public relates so much to it.” Paulo Szot won the Tony as Best Leadi...

Paulo Szot won the Tony as Best Leading Actor in a Musical for his Broadway debut at Emile de Becque in the 2008 Tony-winning revival of South Pacific. This performance also netted him Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and Theatre World awards. Szot’s opera credits include performances at the Metropolitan, Scala di Milano, Paris Opera, Carnegie Hall, and others. He’s currently starring as Billy Fl...

Noelani Pantastico is from Oahu, Hawaii. She trained at Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet and attended summer courses at Pacific Northwest Ballet School from 1994 to 1996. She joined Pacific Northwest Ballet as an apprentice in 1997. She was promoted to corps de ballet in 1998, soloist in 2001, and principal in 2004. In 2008, she left PNB to join Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo as a soloist and was pro...

Noelani Pantastico is from Oahu, Hawaii. She joined the Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seatte, Washington in 1997 and rose to a principal dancer in 2004. From 2008, she danced with Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo and in 2015, Noelani returned to PNB as a principal dancer. In addition to her PNB repetoire, she danced leading roles in Monte-Carlo in Jean-Christophe Maillot’s **Altro Canto, La Belle, Cendril...

“Choreography is always, also, a Visual Art… The etymology of crisis is very productive and constructive because krísis in the Greco-Roman etymology is what happens when there is a germ in the body, so this heat from the krísis creates fever, and fever and the breaking of fever tends to flush out the germ. Healing the germ through crisis is the etymology. And crisis gave birth and rebirth to criti...

is an international choreographer and media artist known for his groundbreaking cross-disciplinary collaborations. Bokaer's dances and films have been presented at the Guggenheim, MoMA PS1, the New Museum, the Whitney, and many other venues across 34 countries. He has received dozens of awards and grants, including a 2015 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, two New York Dance and...

“Songwriters create the meaning in people’s lives. When you’re married, you have a song. When you fall in love, you have a song. At a funeral, they play a song. When people go off to war, they’re singing a war ballad. Songs create the meaningful moments in people’s lives. People bookmark the moment they met and kissed for the first time with a song. Songs are the bookmarks of your life. Your life...

Rick Carnes is the President of the Songwriters Guild of America and a songwriter himself, with credits on 40 platinum albums. His songs have been recorded by artists such as Garth Brooks, Reba McEntire, Alabama, and Dean Martin. Since 1931 the SGA has fought to legally protect songwriters, the music they create, and their ability to earn a living from it. Rick has served as president of the SGA s...

“There’s this children’s book called Miss Rumphius , and I’ve carried it around with me my entire life. It’s about a woman who grandfather tells her three things, and the last one in the most difficult thing of all and that’s to fill the world with beauty. And I give this book to every one of my friends who are having babies, I have a copy with me almost at all times, and I’m reminded of that feel...

Alice Brooks is a cinematographer who has worked on award-winning features, television and commercials. She is a graduate of USC’s School of Cinematic Arts where her creative partnership with director Jon Chu first began. Since, they have worked on several projects together, most recently on the film In The Heights based on the musical by Lin Manuel Miranda. Brooks is known for her use of dramatic...

Neil Patrick Harris is a Tony and Emmy award-winning stage and screen performer, famous for his roles as Barney Stinson in the popular CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, and as the iconic and beloved Doogie Howser, M.D., and Count Olaf in A Series of Unfortunate Events. He’s hosted the Oscars, Tony, and Emmy Awards, and performed in several Broadway shows, including Rent, Cabaret, Proof,...

Neil Patrick Harris is a Tony and Emmy award-winning stage and screen performer, famous for his roles as Barney Stinson in the popular CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, and as the iconic and beloved Doogie Howser, M.D., and Count Olaf in A Series of Unfortunate Events. He’s hosted the Oscars, Tony, and Emmy Awards, and performed in several Broadway shows, including Rent, Cabaret, Proof,...

Pacific Northwest Ballet, one of the largest and most highly regarded ballet companies in the United States, was founded in 1972. In July 2005, Peter Boal became artistic director, succeeding Kent Stowell and Francia Russell, artistic directors since 1977. The Company of nearly fifty dancers presents more than 100 performances each year of full-length and mixed repertory ballets at Marion Oliver M...

Pacific Northwest Ballet, one of the largest and most highly regarded ballet companies in the United States, was founded in 1972. In July 2005, Peter Boal became artistic director, succeeding Kent Stowell and Francia Russell, artistic directors since 1977. The Company of nearly fifty dancers presents more than 100 performances each year of full-length and mixed repertory ballets at Marion Oliver M...

“‘Architecture is frozen music.’…There is something about when you’re exploring not knowing exactly where it’s going to go or how it’s going to turn out which creates an element of surprise and an element of intrigue.” Michael Daugherty is one of the ten most performed living American composers. Recordings of his pieces Metropolis, Deus ex Machina and Tales of Hemmingway have earned him a total of...