November 2025

A Life in Dance with Amber Sloan

Episode 189: Show Notes.

Amber Sloan’s life in dance has unfolded through curiosity, community, and constant reinvention. Growing up in Virginia, her early exposure to improvisation and composition in high school sparked not just a love of movement but a way of thinking that would shape her future. Her time at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign deepened that foundation and connected her with the people and places that helped her put down artistic roots. From piecing together income through unexpected jobs, including one for Harvey Keitel’s wife, to choreographing for the Joyce SoHo and seeking to scale her work in the years leading up to the pandemic, Amber has never shied away from the uncomfortable or the uncertain. She’s navigated performance anxiety, surgery and recovery, and the challenge of being involved in many facets of the dance world, from performing with David Parker to presenting work through platforms like Women in Motion. Today, with recent pieces like her show at Kestrels (set to return next year), she continues to build a career that defies the assumptions people often make about a life in dance. At the heart of it all is a simple, lasting dream: to keep exploring alongside the dancers who move her work forward. Thanks for listening.

Key Points From This Episode:

• Amber Sloan’s upbringing in Virginia and her introduction to dance. 
• How early experiences of improv and composition in high school shaped her career.
• Continuing her dance journey at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
• How the connections she made while studying helped her develop roots in dance.
• Working various jobs to pay the bills, including a role for Harvey Keitel’s wife.
• Choreographing for the Joyce SoHo. 
• Making an effort to do her work in a bigger way pre-pandemic. 
• Navigating performance anxiety and doing what is uncomfortable. 
• Being involved in many different areas of dance. 
• How a 2015 surgery and recovery impacted Amber’s career. 
• Dancing for David Parker: rehearsals, footwork, and more. 
• Amber’s presenting work, including Women in Motion and more. 
• Recent work including a show at Kestrels which will show again next year. 
• Why a life in dance is often not what you might expect. 
• Her ultimate dream for her work: to keep exploring with her dancers.

ABOUT Amber

Attuning to the Beauty of Passion with Sara Veale

Episode 188: Show Notes

The incredible beauty of passion lies in the relentless dedication of one’s entire being, a force that radiates outward to inspire and elevate others. Today on the Movers & Shapers podcast, Erin is joined by author and dance critic Sara Veale. A North Carolina native, dancer turned dance writer, currently living in London, UK. Tune into the conversation as they dance into what inspired Sara into a lifelong journey in dance, how dance became an integral part of her identity, and what sparked her journey to shift into one that centers around her writing. They discuss her transition from the US to London, UK, the differences in the dance world, and she unpacks the responsibility of writing dance reviews and why she ultimately finds the Stars system to be fundamentally flawed. They then dive into an in-depth discussion on her book, Wild Grace: The Untamed Women of Modern Dance, breaking down what inspired the writing, how she approached the structure of the book, incorporating advice from her editor, delving deeply into the research, and the timeline from beginning to end. She shares how the book ultimately led her to a new attuning of the very beauty of passion itself! Be sure not to miss out on all this, and as always, much more. Thanks for listening, enjoy!

Key Points From This Episode:

• Sara reveals how a two-year-old girl’s fascination with movement blossomed into a lifelong journey in dance.
• Sara explains what about dance made it such an integral part of her identity.
• The journey of her writing career.
• How her future was shaping up during her time at college.
• Sara unpacks how she got into writing as a dance critic. 
• We discuss her transition from the US to London, UK, and how it shaped her dance writing.
• Finding her voice in the dance critic world.
• Why you’ve got to be reading when you want to be writing, according to Sara.
• The responsibility behind writing dance reviews. 
• She shares why she believes the idea of the Stars system, when writing reviews, is fundamentally flawed. 
• We delve into a discussion on her book, Wild Grace: The Untamed Women of Modern Dance.
• How she approached the structure of her book, finding the women, taking advice from her editor, and making tough decisions.
• Sara explains the research journey she undertook for her book and the women she writes about.
• She breaks down the timeline from the beginning to the end of getting her book published.
• How writing her book had a profound personal impact, attuning her to the very beauty of passion itself.
• Sara talks about the creation of the book’s abstract cover.
• What Sara has planned next: books, sabbaticals, and connecting with her family. 
• We talk about the shortage of non-academic, or mainstream, dance writing.

ABOUT Sara