Why Dance Matters

On Why Dance Matters we enjoy meeting people whose work isn’t obviously connected to dance. As a teenager in California, Jordan Thomas was being groomed as a political fixer, but instead broke away to study choreography at one of America’s leading modern dance schools, before beginning a remarkable legal career. He is now America’s leading attorney representing whistleblowers, exposing wrongdoing...

Twenty years ago, in the early hours of new year’s day, a young artist tumbled off the Eurostar, ready to begin a new life in London. Hofesh Shechter grew up in Israel but had been living in Paris, and considered making dance as a showcase for his music. Instead, his unmistakable dance pieces – visceral and propulsive, witty and vulnerable – have made him one of the most distinctive modern choreog...

With American ballerina Kathryn Morgan we cover some challenging subject matter – Kathryn’s journey through dance has clearly brought her joy but she has also had to deal with issues around physical and mental health, and especially around body image. With a large and devoted following on social media, she speaks with rare honesty about her experiences. In October 2020, she posted a YouTube video...

Barbara Peters, a life-enhancing RAD teacher from Yorkshire, has been teaching for over 60 years. She has travelled the world as an RAD examiner, and continued teaching throughout the pandemic over Zoom, attracting some devoted international students. A couple of years ago, in her 80s, she passed the RAD’s Grade 7 and 8 exams, attracting much media interest, and has now been recognised by a fellow...

The American mezzo soprano Joyce DiDonato has won deserved acclaim in the world’s great opera houses – in Rossini, Handel and brand new works – and she’s a passionate communicator. Growing up in Kansas she originally planned to become a music teacher. Even after committing to a singing career, the breaks only followed a whole heap of rejection. A very present, physical performer, the temperature a...

Carlos Acosta has an electric connection to audiences – a combination of elegance, fire and rare charisma. Starting life in one of Havana’s poorest neighbourhoods, the Cuban dancer became a favourite at The Royal Ballet and the Bolshoi. His inspirational effect has been widely recognised – including, in 2018, by the RAD’s Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Award. He now leads his own contemporary compa...

This week we meet portrait artist Ralph Heimans as the RAD prepares to celebrate a landmark in its 100 year history - a move to a new purpose built headquarters - with a brand new portrait competition. The competition will invite artists of all abilities to create a portrait of world famous ballerina and founding President of the RAD Dame Adeline Genée. Ralph sits on the judging panel of this comp...

At just 19, Hannah Martin has already achieved remarkable things. In September 2021, the young ballet dancer won a medal in the RAD's flagship event, The Margot Fonteyn International Ballet Competition. And before that, she was a top flight gymnast, the youngest official member of the England team at the 2018 Commonwealth Games when she was only 15. It is rare to shine in two disciplines at an eli...

Australian ballerina Leanne Benjamin is a self-declared perfectionist - difficult in ballet, where the perfect performance is a tantalising impossibility. Her career took her from rural Queensland to the heights of The Royal Ballet in London. She conquered the great 19th-century ballets, created challenging new work, and revelled in the complex stories of Kenneth MacMillan. Leanne revisits her car...

Libby Clegg loved dance and ballet when she was little, but became a multi-medal-winning Paralympic athlete. She won five medals games, capping her amazing career in Tokyo with a silver medal for Team GB in the 100m relay - then announced her retirement from the track. Last year she returned to dance in the tv competition Dancing on Ice, reaching the final. Libby, who has Stargardt macular dystrop...

Gerard Charles arrived at the Royal Academy of Dance as its new Artistic Director in 2018, having been in leadership positions at some of America's liveliest ballet companies. As the RAD prepares to move to a new purpose-built headquarters in London's Battersea, we ask Gerard how a new home will help it grow, and reach into the community. As a seasoned director, how did he reconfigure the RAD's fl...

The hip-hop choreographer, dancer and teacher Yami Löfvenberg is also known as 'Rowdy'. As that name suggests, hers is a wonderfully confident, engaged presence - but growing up in Sweden, she was racially bullied and called stupid, because she struggled with maths. Only later did she realise she had dyscalculia: a deep-seated difficulty in understanding numbers. Discovering a talent for dance tra...

James Whiteside is not only a principal at American Ballet Theatre, dancing all iconic classical princes as well as ambitious contemporary work, but also has two alter egos: musician JB Dubs and the drag queen Uhu Betch. He has always worked to break down the mystique that surrounds classical ballet: he has a strong social media presence and frequently collaborates on digital work. Center Center ,...

This one-off special episode of Why Dance Matters marks the final of The Margot Fonteyn International Ballet Competition, the RAD’s flagship event. Talented young dancers from across the world test themselves in challenging solos, including work by a leading choreographer. This year, the Commissioned Choreographer is Ashley Page – formerly a dancer and dance maker with The Royal Ballet, then Artis...

Even for non-dancers, dance gets to the heart of things which matter to them the most. This week, for the final instalment of series 1 of Why Dance Matters, we go into the RAD itself and meet Chief Executive, Luke Rittner. Luke has led the RAD since 1999 and overseen substantial change at the RAD, culminating in a move to a new purpose built global headquarters for the RAD in London’s Battersea la...

Céline Gittens first made her name as a teenager, winning both a gold medal and the Audience Choice Award at Sadler’s Wells in London, in the RAD’s Genée International Ballet Competition (now named The Fonteyn). Her serenity and clarity marked her out as something special. Born in Trinidad and later moving to Canada, she is now a Principal at Birmingham Royal Ballet, where in 2012 she became the f...

Dance touches lives beyond performers, so the guests on Why Dance Matters aren’t only professional dancers. Guddi Singh is a paediatrician and BBC broadcaster, and eloquent on the important part the arts can play in healthcare. In a warmly reflective conversation, she explains how, earlier in her career, a Bollywood dance class helped restore joy and purpose to the extreme pressures of a hospital...

Phil Chan is a dancer, arts advocate and activist born in Hong Kong and now based in New York. With Georgina Pazcogin of New York City Ballet, he co-founded Final Bow For Yellowface in 2017. Provoked by stereotypes of Asian characters and culture in classic ballets – mostly notably in The Nutcracker – their campaign has already had impact in the US and beyond, offering resources for companies stri...

Dance, and especially ballet, can sometimes seem remote from people’s lives. How do you bolt it into the heart of a community? The answer often lies with an RAD Teacher. In this case, Victoria Treviño, who teaches in Mexico City, has used ballet to change the lives of young people facing very challenging circumstances. After the ballet school she taught at was suddenly and unexpectedly forced to s...

The choreographer Cathy Marston has a rare gift for telling stories in dance. Now a major player in leading ballet companies (including The Royal Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, American Ballet Theatre) that until recently were a boys’ own club, her starting point is often literature or history – in ballets about Jane Eyre or Lolita, Queen Victoria or Jacqueline du Pré. One chapter in the Oxford Han...

Gurinder Chadha doesn’t make dance films or musicals – but with the slightest nudge, films like  Bend It Like Beckham ,  Bride and Prejudice  and  Blinded by the Light  could easily become full-blown song-and-dance spectaculars. On  Why Dance Matters , Gurinder describes how dance formed her own British-Asian identity – from kathak classes to daytimers – and how she e...

Xander Parish tells a story of snatching triumph from the jaws of frustration. After a great start – winning a silver medal in the RAD’s Genée International Ballet Competition (now named The Fonteyn) and joining The Royal Ballet – his career seemed to be going nowhere. Then a coach from St Petersburg visited London, saw Xander’s passion to prove himself, and snapped him up for the Mariinsky Ballet...

Why Dance Matters is a series of conversations with extraordinary people from the world of dance and beyond. It traces the impact of dance on their lives and asks why dance matters to them – and why it might matter to us all. The RAD inspires the world to dance, and we hope these insightful personal conversations – hosted by David Jays, editor of Dance Gazette, the RAD magazine – will delight and...