Conversations on Dance

Latest Episodes:

(178) Alicia Graf Mack, Director, Dance Division at the Juilliard School Mar 31, 2020

Show notes

In January and February we put together a higher education series to explore dance programs in schools across the country. Today we are adding to this distinguished list of programs as we talk with the Juilliard School’s Director of the Dance Division, Alicia Graf Mack. Alicia enjoyed a distinguished career as a leading dancer of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. She has also been a principal dancer with Dance Theatre of Harlem and Complexions Contemporary Ballet, and she has danced as a guest performer with Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet. She graduated from Columbia University and holds an MA in nonprofit management from Washington University in St. Louis. She began her inaugural season as director of the Juilliard Dance Division in the fall of 2018.

Each year 24 new dancers are accepted into Juilliard’s four-year BFA program. In addition to the daily ballet and modern technique classes, every dancer participates in classical and contemporary, partnering, dance composition, anatomy, acting, dance history, stagecraft, production, music theory, repertory, and elements of performing.

In today’s episode, Alicia tells us about her career, dealing with injuries, her personal experience with higher education, and what ultimately landed her at the Juilliard Dance Division. For information on admissions, please visit juilliard.edu/admissions.

During this time of quarantine, Alicia has taught a beautiful online class that can be accessed on Juilliard’s website: https://www.juilliard.edu/school/news/media-gallery. Be sure to follow Juilliard on their social media channels for more content from faculty, current students, and alumni, as they unify all this creativity under #JuilliardThrives.

Conversations on Dance is brought to you by Yumiko (yumiko.com). Photo by Rachel Papo.

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(177) Rebecca and Michael: Quarantine Guide for Ballet Dancers and Fans Mar 19, 2020

Show notes

Today, Rebecca and Michael connect via Skype from quarantine. We discuss some options of ballet related content to consume while the world is social distancing during the Coronavirus Pandemic. We list some online class options, resources for dancers who are out of work, and our favorite dance related books, movies, and much more. This list was put together based on internet research and content that we are familiar with. Pointe Magazine and Dance Magazine are also offering a lot of great up to date resources. Conversations on Dance is brought to you by Yumiko. (Yumiko.com)

Remember to please follow CDC guidelines and the direction of your local officials during this time. We are hoping to be able to bring our listeners content to help take your mind off of everything, if just for a short time. During this time, we will not be following our regular publishing schedule, so follow us on social media to stay up to date on our new content.

Below is a list that includes links to the items we discuss in this episode.

ONLINE CLASSES: Kathryn Morgan YouTube Channel, World Ballet Day Videos, John Clifford Class with Portland Ballet, Miami City Ballet School Class via Dance Spirit, Men’s Class (PNB Summer Course 2018), PNB School Class (Summer 2016), Herman – Dance Live by Herman Cornejo on YouTube, and Ashley Bouder just launched a YouTube Channel.

INSTAGRAM RESOURCES FOR CLASS: Martha Graham classes via @marziamem @lloydknight, Tiler Peck via @tilerpeck, Juilliard class available at @juilliardschool, and @vaildancefest is cataloging a lot of what your favorite dancers are doing during this time.

PLACES TO TAKE BALLET CLASS ONLINE OUTSIDE OF INSTAGRAM OR YOUTUBE: Dancio (offering two free weeks of classes due to Coronavirus), Veyette Virtual Ballet School, 1on1 Ballet, and Ballet Beautiful.

HOW CAN WE HELP DANCERS DIRECTLY DURING THIS TIME? If you are a dancer, get in touch with the Actor’s Fund or explore these freelance dancer resources. The Dance Union Podcast is starting a GoFundMe for NYC Based Dancers. Tell Congress to include displaced entertainment workers in relief package via Action Network.

MOVIES: The Red Shoes (Amazon Prime), Billy Elliot (Netflix), Center Stage (Netflix), Turning Point (Amazon Prime), White Knights (Amazon Prime), Black Swan (Hulu, Amazon Prime), Oklahoma (Amazon Prime), Carousel (Amazon Prime), Singin’ In the Rain (iTunes), On The Town (iTunes), American In Paris (Amazon Prime), Top Hat (Netflix), West Side Story (Netflix), Fame (Netflix.)

BOOKS: Repertory In Review (Nancy Reynolds), Apollo’s Angels (Jennifer Homans), Winter’s Season (Toni Bentley), Holding Onto the Air (Suzanne Farrell), The Unmaking Of a Dancer (Joan Brady), Once a Dancer (Allegra Kent), Balanchine (Bernard Taper), Margot Fonteyn (Alastair Macaulay).

VIRTUAL ART: 12 museums with virtual tours, stream the Met Opera via Metopera.org, and John Clifford’s YouTube Channel. Video of the Italian Opera singer on his balcony.

We will be putting out emails with some of our favorite episodes chronologically, so go to our website to sign up for our email list to get an email with a featured episode from our older catalog.

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(176) Veyette Virtual Ballet School is exactly what you need right now Mar 17, 2020

Show notes

In light of the impact that the Coronavirus is having on the arts community, not to mention the world, we are shining some light on one of the ways that you can stay in shape during these times of social distancing. Today we are talking with friends of the pod, Francis Veyette and Lauren Fadeley Veyette, founders of Veyette Virtual Ballet School. We catch up with them to hear about their personalized virtual training, coaching, and mentorship programs. They tell us about new offerings that they are putting together in order to serve the demand within the dance community during this time. If you are looking for ways to keep dancing during this quarantine, you will definitely want to hear more about what Fran and Lauren are doing.

Listen to our first episode with Fran in episode 28 and Lauren in episode 30. Get in touch with them through their website: veyettevirtualballetschool.com.

This episode is brought to you by Yumiko (yumiko.com).

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(175) Gil Boggs, Colorado Ballet Artistic Director Mar 09, 2020

Show notes

This week we bring you our final episode from the 2019 Vail Dance Festival! Today we speak with Gil Boggs, Colorado Ballet Artistic Director. Gil began his dance career with the Atlanta Ballet and he joined American Ballet Theatre in 1982. In 1991 he was promoted to Principal Dancer and danced with the company for 17 years. Boggs also performed with the Twyla Tharp Dance Company, Baryshnikov and Company, Nureyev and Friends, and made several guest appearances around the world. Boggs accepted the position of Artistic Director with Colorado Ballet in the Spring of 2006. We talk with Gil about his distinguished career, his transition after retiring from the stage, how his directorship at Colorado Ballet came about, and some of the ways he has been able to grow the company.

This episode is brought to you by The Town of Vail, Yumiko (yumiko.com), and The Veyette Virtual Ballet School (veyettevirtualballetschool.com).

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(174) Michael Montgomery, Alonzo King LINES Ballet Feb 25, 2020

Show notes

This week on Conversations on Dance, we are joined by Michael Montgomery, dancer with Alonzo King LINES Ballet from the 2019 Vail Dance Festival. Michael was born in Long Beach, CA, trained at the Orange County High School of the Arts and studied at the Alvin Ailey School in the Certificate program. In 2011 he graduated from the Alonzo King LINES Ballet BFA Program at Dominican University of California. In 2010, he joined LINES Ballet and was named to the list of “25 to Watch” by Dance Magazine in 2013. We talk with Michael about his origins in dance, the BFA program at Dominican University, what a typical day is like as a member of LINES, and what it is like working in the studio with Alonzo during his creation process.

This episode is brought to you by The Town of Vail, Yumiko (yumiko.com), and The Veyette Virtual Ballet School (veyettevirtualballetschool.com).

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(173) Pam Tanowitz, Choreographer Feb 18, 2020

Show notes

This week we are happy to bring you our full conversation with celebrated Choreographer, Pam Tanowitz, from the 2019 Vail Dance Festival. We spoke with Pam from a Live panel event at Washington DC’s Kennedy Center in episode 140 and we were thrilled to be able to get some time to speak with her more in depth about her career and work. As a choreographer, Pam Tanowitz is known for her abstract treatment of classical and contemporary movement ideas. Her work is deeply rooted in formal structures, manipulated and abstracted by her until the viewer sees through to the heart of the dance.

In 2000, Tanowitz founded Pam Tanowitz Dance (PTD) to explore dance-making with a consistent community of dancers and has since choreographed works for some of the world’s most renowned dance companies, including The Martha Graham Dance Company, Paul Taylor American Modern Dance and New York City Ballet. She has been commissioned by The Joyce Theater, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Vail Dance Festival, and many other leading arts institutions.

Today we talk with Pam about how she studied choreography, what inspires her, how she works in the studio, and about her work created for the Vail Dance Festival. This is book Pam references towards the end of the episode: Pas de Deux: A Textbook on Partnering.

This episode is brought to you by Yumiko, the Town of Vail, and The Veyette Virtual Ballet School (veyettevirtualballetschool.com).

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(172) Kate Penner, on Ballet’s Race Problem Feb 10, 2020

Show notes

This week we are joined by our friend, Kate Penner. Kate received her early dance training from Arlington Center for Dance, now BalletNova, in Arlington, VAand participated in the Kennedy Center’s Dance Theatre of Harlem Residency Program and Exploring Ballet with Suzanne Farrell. She attended and graduated from Harvard University, where she worked with Heather Watts and Damian Woetzel, performing ballets such as George Balanchine’s The Four Temperaments, Serenade, and Who Cares? Upon graduating, Kate has enjoyed a freelance career in the Boston area. Kate has taught ballet and math as a faculty member of both Boston Ballet School and Harvard’s Department of Mathematics, and has been a part of the Vail Dance Festival team since the start of Damian Woetzel’s tenure as Artistic Director in 2007.

In this episode we discuss the article from the Guardian in November 2019 that asks, “Does ballet have a race problem?” Kate offers her thoughts and reactions to this topic that has been at the forefront of discussion in the ballet world over the past few months.

Conversations on Dance is sponsored by Yumiko (yumiko.com) and The Veyette Virtual Ballet School (veyettevirtualballetschool.com).

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(171) Jodie Gates, Director of USC’s Glorya Kaufman School of Dance (part two) Feb 03, 2020

Show notes

Over the past few weeks we have been examining different college dance programs including Indiana University and St. Mary’s College’s LEAP Program. This week we are concluding our higher education series on Conversations on Dance, with an in depth look at the University of Southern California’s Glorya Kaufman School of Dance. We are joined, for a second time, by the program’s vice dean and director, Jodie Gates.

We first spoke with Jodie in episode 137, where we talk with her about her distinguished career dancing with Joffrey Ballet, Frankfurt Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, and guesting with companies around the world. Today we have the opportunity to hear more about her work at USC Kaufman, her role in helping to found the program in 2012, what students can expect from the program, and where their graduates are now.

For more information on USC’s Glorya Kaufman School of Dance visit kaufman.usc.edu.

This episode is brought to you by Yumiko (yumiko.com) and The Veyette Virtual Ballet School (veyettevirtualballetschool.com).

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(170) Stephanie Miller, the Associate Director at St. Mary’s College’s LEAP Program Jan 28, 2020

Show notes

This week we are continuing our higher education series on Conversations on Dance by introducing you to an incredibly unique program. Today we chat with Stephanie Miller, the Associate Director at St. Mary’s College’s LEAP Program. Stephanie began dancing at the age of three, and received her BA in Dance from Saint Mary’s College, as well as an MFA in Choreography and Performance from Mills College. She danced primarily with Paufve Dance from 2002-2011, and has performed with several other Bay Area dance companies. In July 2017, she returned to her alma mater to step into the role of Associate Director for the LEAP Program or Liberal Education for Arts Professionals. LEAP is a program that brings higher education to current or former professional dancers with 2 or more years experience, in a way that works with students’ busy schedules. Stephanie tells us about her personal experience in dance, how the LEAP program came about, her role in the program, and how the program is looking to expand in order to serve more professional artists. For more information visit https://www.stmarys-ca.edu/leap.

This episode is brought to you by Yumiko (yumiko.com) and The Veyette Virtual Ballet School (veyettevirtualballetschool.com).

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BONUS: Rebecca and Michael: Nutcracker Gigs, Part Deux Jan 24, 2020

Show notes

Last week, in episode 168, we talked about Michael’s coming out of retirement for Nutcracker guesting. Unfortunately due to scheduling, this episode was cut short, so in a BONUS episode this week, we are finishing that chat, and taking a few detours along the way!

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