MSP 200: Kitty McNamee
Release Date: 5.7.26
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Connecting with the World Through Dance with Kitty McNamee
Episode 200: Show Notes.
So much of what validates the human experience is the ability to collaborate and connect with other people in the world, and today’s guest has managed to do that through dance! Kitty McNamee joins us today to talk about her impressive career and how she found success despite limitations. Kitty was first drawn to the escapism element of musical movies and the wordless expression of dance, and although she started dancing very late, she was accepted to Houston’s performing arts high school. In this conversation, you’ll hear all about how starting dance at the age of 16 made her even more passionate because she really had to fight for success. Kitty goes on to talk about how she started choreographing and touches on her choreographic voice and style before sharing the importance of community and relationships in this industry. Kitty even tells us about the projects she is most proud of and teases what we can look forward to seeing from her in the future. From dance films to documentaries to pop-up performances by LA artists, Kitty’s career is truly an amalgamation of different art forms and a testimony to the power of collaboration with other artists. This is an episode you don’t want to miss, so be sure to press play now!
Key Points From This Episode:
- A brief introduction to today’s guest, Kitty McNamee.
- Where she’s from and how she became interested in dance.
- Kitty’s experience at Houston’s performing arts high school.
- Her physical limitations and why she thought she should be an actress.
- Choreographing for Open Fist and starting her own dance company.
- Kitty describes her choreographic voice, movement themes, and influences.
- How her career progressed and how community and relationships kept her going.
- Her transition into working in dance films and how she got into that.
- Kitty tells us about her latest documentary project, Citizen, and her involvement.
- What LA POPS UP is and what inspired Kitty to create it.
- Her work with Laura Marling and what it’s been like to work in different kinds of spaces.
- Kitty shares her favorite dance projects and what she is most proud of.
- What we can look forward to from Kitty’s career in the future.
Kitty McNamee is an artist, a creator, and most importantly, a collaborator. Her passion for the human heart, psychology, and storytelling fuels her work with non-dancers and dancers alike.
Kitty’s early years in LA were spent honing her craft as Artistic Director of HystericaDance Co., a consistently prolific and creative collective that redefined dance in LosAngeles. Her unique approach to direction and choreography was declared by DanceMagazine to possess “an outsize talent for that most elusive gift, originality.” Kitty’s dance films have screened at over 50 festivals worldwide. She currently has several dance-centric documentary projects in development. Coming to dance late, Kitty’s deep appreciation and hunger for engagement has kept her creative practice at the forefront of her life ever since. She is deeply committed to the dance community, serving as mentor and advocate for the next generation of dancers and choreographers. Kitty spearheads, with Dance Camera West, LA POPS UP a dynamic program which is a rare opportunity to see the raw, disruptive, and authentic artistry of LA dance filmmakers together in a cinematic setting.
Kitty has a long and fruitful relationship with the LA Philharmonic, where she has choreographed, directed, and developed new productions including Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Wing on Wing, Rite of Spring, The Firebird, Bolero, and many more.
Opera work includes Turandot, Marriage of Figaro, Romeo et Juliette, La Traviata, Don Carlo, La Rondine, Lucia di Lammermoor, and Tales of Hoffman for LA Opera, San Francisco Opera, San Diego Opera, and Lyric Opera of Chicago. Theater credits include Secret Cinema’s groundbreaking live performances with Laura Marling in London, Once(Rubicon) the World Premiere of Colony Collapse (commissioned by OregonShakespeare Festival), Sense and Sensibility (South Coast Rep), The Fantasticks(Pasadena Playhouse), Midsummer Night’s Dream (LA Phil/Disney Hall), Man ofLaMancha (Reprise!) and Sondheim’s 75th (Hollywood Bowl).
Commissions include: The Farewell, a work inspired by Agnes de Mille and commissioned by SDC’s Abbott Awards and RIFT commissioned by Marin Alsop and Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, performed there and at the Kennedy Center. She has also created the ballets Traces and Transit for National Choreographers’ Initiative and Colony for LA Ballet.
She moves effortlessly between her work for the stage and campaigns for Target, AdobeMAX, Zimmerman, Mercedes-Benz, Grey Ant, and Uniglo.
Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:
Podcast produced by: The Moving Architects
Interviewer: Erin Carlisle Norton