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Feb 26
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MSP 169: Julie Lemberger

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PODCAST 169: Julie Lemberger

Julie Lemberger, photographer. Photographed by Miguel Anaya, December 2020.

Release Date: 2.26.24

TO DOWNLOAD PODCAST OR LISTEN:

    • Apple: Subscribe, Listen, Rate Us HERE

    • Spotify: Follow and Listen HERE

    • Any Smartphone Podcast app: Subscribe and Listen

Enjoying the Art, Expression, and Freedom of Dance with Julie Lemberger

Episode 169: Show Notes.

Welcome to the latest episode of the Movers and Shapers podcast, where today we’re delighted to welcome our guest, Julie Lemberger. Julie is a multifaceted individual — she’s had a life as a dancer, dance photographer, and educator. She has dedicated over 15 years to capturing the ephemeral beauty of concert dance. Her lens has encapsulated the essence of New York City’s dance scene at the turn of the 21st century. Julie’s stunning dance photography has graced the pages of prestigious publications like The New York Times, Dance Magazine, and numerous national and international journals and websites since 1993. Join the conversation to hear about what sparked her interest in dance, why she was initially turned off of modern dance, and how her ballet journey led her to places like The Netherlands, Germany, and New York.  We delve into her diverse dance ventures and then pivot to hear about her transition to Plan B: starting college. Julie shares the fascinating intersection of her worlds; photography and dance, and articulates the emotions she experiences when capturing dance through her camera. Don’t miss out on this intriguing discussion! Tune in now to hear all this and much more. Thanks for listening!

Key Points From This Episode:

  • We discover how The Nutcracker sparked Julie’s interest in dance.
  • Her thoughts on being more of an artist and enjoying ballet for the artistry of it.
  • Why she decided to stick to the discipline of ballet while growing up.
  • She delves into a side story of why she became turned off from modern dance.
  • Julie highlights her other interests as a kid.
  • She shares her ballet journey and her aspirations to become a ballerina after school.
  • How Julie ended up in New York City.
  • She tells the story about lying on her application.
  • Julie shares a turning point, and realization, in her dance career.
  • She delves into her time in Europe (The Netherlands, Germany, England).
  • We are transported forward, back to New York, and her other endeavors at the Graham School, Jacob’s Pillow, and more.
  • Her Plan B: starting college.
  • Why starting college was the saddest day of her life.
  • She recalls the time she got her first camera, at age 23.
  • Julie shares the journey to becoming an art major.
  • When the two worlds collide: dance and photography.
  • What Julie enjoyed most about dance photography: her master’s degree experience.
  • She expresses what taking photos of dance makes her feel.
  • Julie highlights what she’s excited about, and what gives her energy, these days.

“I realized that having my photographs judged was so much easier than having my body and my dancing judged.” — Julie Lemberger

 

Originally from Berkeley, CA, Julie Lemberger is a former dancer, who photographs dance in N.Y.C. for 30 years. She received a fellowship from the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts to study historic dance photography. She earned two BA degrees in fine art, and dance studies, and an MA in dance education. She is certified to teach dance in public schools in New York State. Since 2020, Lemberger has been a member of the School of Hard Knocks. Her photographs have appeared in The New York Times, The Village Voice, Dance Magazine and many national and international journals, websites and books including Yoga Bones. Additionally Lemberger’s work has appeared in solo and group exhibitions at Norte Maar, Micro Museum, 92NY and Dance Theater Workshop. Notable dance collaborators include: Molissa Fenley, Edisa Weeks/Delirious Dances, Jody Sperling/TimeLapse Dance, Jody Oberfelder, Esme Julien Boyce, Cori Kresge, Eiko Otake, Sean Curran, Stephen Petronio, Yoshiko Chuma, and Carlos Fittante/Balam among others. She created, along with editor and consultant Elizabeth Zimmer, the coloring book Modern Women: 21st Century Dance, whose illustrations are based on her photography of living women, the largest and often least recognized population of the dance community, available HERE.

Connect with Julie Lemberger

Julie Lemberger

Julie Lemberger on Instagram

Julie Lemberger on Facebook

Julie Lemberger on LinkedIn

Julie Lemberger’s Coloring Book

 

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Podcast produced by: The Moving Architects
Interviewer: Erin Carlisle Norton

Nov 20
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Movers & Shapers: Jeanne Ruddy

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PODCAST 167: Jeanne Ruddy

Release Date: 11.20.23

TO DOWNLOAD PODCAST OR LISTEN:

    • Apple: Subscribe, Listen, Rate Us HERE

    • Spotify: Follow and Listen HERE

    • Any Smartphone Podcast app: Subscribe and Listen

Acrobats of God with Jeanne Ruddy

Episode 167: Show Notes.

While dance is often underfunded and under-recognized, leaders in the field acknowledge the incredible talent that lives within every dancer, reminding them that they are, in fact, ‘Acrobats of God’. Today’s guest embodies the purpose of the Movers and Shapers Dance Podcast; to share insights from those who shape the dance field, and create an archive that preserves rich, personal experiences across generations. During this episode, Jeanne Ruddy shares what it was like to be a member of the Martha Graham Dance Company, and to work with Martha herself. You’ll also hear how she forged her own unique role in dance, how she encourages other artists to flourish, and her passion for nurturing future generations of dancers in Philadelphia. Tuning in, you’ll learn all about Jeanne’s journey as a dancer, and finding her way to creative expression thereafter. Join us to hear all about the highs and lows of our guest’s incredible career today.

Key Points From This Episode:

  • An introduction to guest, Jeanne Ruddy, and the topics covered in this conversation.
  • Her first experiences of dance and her lifelong love of music.
  • The changing dance scene of the 1960s.
  • Jeanne’s relationship with the dramatic aspects.
  • The pivotal period of time for a dancer between 16 and 21.
  • Her experience at North Carolina School of the Arts and Utah Repertory Dance Theatre.
  • Traveling to New York and starting a company with no capital.
  • Getting a huge break with Yuriko Kikuchi after auditioning with Getting to Know You. 
  • Being chosen to be in the Martha Graham Dance Company and enjoying a ten-year career.
  • Why Martha would sit in the second wing, stage right, in a director’s chair, during performances.
  • Martha’s relationship with the artists.
  • Learning choreography from horrible 8mm film.
  • The eventual decision to leave the company due to pain.
  • Teaching at Sarah Lawrence, Connecticut College, and Florida State University.
  • Why meeting Victor Keene at 39 changed Jeanne’s life.
  • The birth of the Performance Garage.
  • How her husband has facilitated the amazing work she has been able to do.
  • Three phases of renovation that led to the Performance Garage’s current HQ.
  • The program Jeanne currently facilitates for dancers.
  • Reflections on the underappreciation for the art form of dance.
  • What Martha Graham taught: dancers are acrobats of God.
  • Upcoming events with the Moving Company.

“I walked out of Deaths and Entrances, I was definitely a child of the 60s, and I didn’t like it. Seven years later, I was playing one of the sisters in that very piece in Lincoln Centre. I loved it.” — Jeanne Ruddy

 

Jeanne Ruddy is a dance professional whose career has spanned six decades. Primarily a modern contemporary dance artist, her work has encompassed sacred dance, contemporary dance, Broadway, film, teaching, writing and choreography. Her work has influenced and touched generations of dancers and choreographers through her performances, her choreography and her teachings in the United States as well as in Germany, Russia, Brazil, and Cuba. She has established three dance companies over her career: Raintree Dance Harvest in Bloomington, Indiana, Jeanne Ruddy & Dancers in New York City, and Jeanne Ruddy Dance in Philadelphia. Her choreography combines compelling narratives about a variety of social issues such as abuse of women, climate change, navigating personal relationships and the universal voyage of life. 

Her first professional job in New York was on the Bicentennial Tour of The King and I with Yul Brenner, where she later performed in the Broadway cast. Fulfilling a dream, she was chosen to become a member of the Martha Graham Company where she worked with Ms. Graham for a decade when Ms. Graham choreographed two new works a year for the Company’s New York seasons. Ruddy rose to Principal Dancer and was featured in the PBS Great Performances series in Graham’s Cave of the Heart. She also performed leading roles in such Graham works as Andromache’s Lament, Diversion of Angels, Deaths and Entrances, Seraphic Dialogue, Clytemnestra, Cortege of Eagles, Embattled Garden, Herodiade, and Appalachian Spring. At that time, the Graham Company toured four months of each year throughout the US, Europe, Mexico, and Canada playing the world’s most important stages. After leaving the Graham Company Ruddy was a guest professor at Connecticut College, Sarah Lawrence College, and Florida State University as well as accepting invitations for international congresses of dance and summer festivals in Brazil, Cologne, Germany, Moscow, Russia, and later Cuba. In the American Dance Festival in Moscow, Ruddy was the first to introduce the Graham Technique to Russian dancers at the Bolshoi and across Russia. Ruddy was invited to join the faculty of the Juilliard School Dance Division teaching the freshman and 2 senior classes while also serving as the scout for hopeful dancers auditioning across America. Concurrently, Ruddy taught at the Alvin Ailey School of American Dance and was promoted to Chair of the Contemporary Dance Department and was involved in the initial concept of the partnership with Fordham University for the creation of the Ailey/Fordham BFA Program. 

Ruddy relocated to Philadelphia through marriage and founded Jeanne Ruddy Dance, a contemporary dance company that grew to eleven dancers performing and creating new work by Ruddy and other invited top-tier choreographers over thirteen years. The need for a rehearsal space to house the JRD Company created the Performance Garage. Co-founded by Ruddy, with her husband, Victor Keen, it is now Philadelphia’s home for dance with a 110-seat dance theater. It is a non-profit where Victor has served on the Board since its inception. Now, twenty-thousand people enjoy either classes, rehearsals, auditions, video shoots, or performances each year. Ruddy considers the creation of the Performance Garage her most important contribution to the field by supporting burgeoning dance companies and emerging independent choreographers to develop and further the art form. For her work with her company, Jeanne Ruddy Dance, and her work developing the Performance Garage, Ruddy received The Independence Foundation Fellowship Award in 2000. Other awards and grants include the National Endowment for the Arts Challenge America as well as the NEA’s Artistic Excellence award, three Pew Foundation Dance Advance awards, three William Penn Foundation grants, six Fels Foundation awards, nine years of support from the Independence Foundation, the Dolfinger McMahon, PECO—an Exelon Company, Land Services Inc,

Independence Blue Cross, and twenty years of support from the Suzanne F. Roberts Cultural Fund, among others. Ruddy received an endowed fund—the Martha LaVallee-Williams Community Outreach Fund for her Company’s work with their youth engagement program. To re-open the Performance Garage after the pandemic most essential were the Shuttered Venue Grant, and the Covid Relief Fund.



Connect with Jeanne Ruddy

Jeanne Ruddy Dance

Performance Garage

 

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Podcast produced by: The Moving Architects
Interviewer: Erin Carlisle Norton

Oct 31
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Movers & Shapers: Rukhmani Mehta

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PODCAST 166: Rukhmani Mehta 

Release Date: 10.30.23

TO DOWNLOAD PODCAST OR LISTEN:

    • Apple: Subscribe, Listen, Rate Us HERE

    • Spotify: Follow and Listen HERE

    • Any Smartphone Podcast app: Subscribe and Listen

Creating a Vision for Kathak with Rukhmani Mehta

Episode 166: Show Notes

Today on Movers & Shapers, we are joined by Rukhmani Mehta (previously Rina Mehta). Rukhmani is a choreographer, dancer, educator, Artistic Director of Leela Youth Dance Company, and the Co-Artistic Director of Leela Dance Collective, which brings together leading artists from around the world to advance a collective vision for kathak, a classical North Indian dance. In this episode, Rukhmani speaks about her love for creating community through dance and her deep interest in and curiosity for collaborative projects and processes. What stands out most is Rukhmani’s resounding passion for her work and art form, despite the struggles she has had along the way, as well as the thoughtfulness with which she has built her life in dance, from co-leadership of her company to teaching to creating the first-ever endowment to support kathak dance and music in the US and more. Tune in today for an inspiring conversation about the power of collaboration, community, and preserving culture!

Key Points From This Episode:

  • How Rukhmani started dancing and when she fell in love with kathak.
  • What she learned about the art form from kathak master, Pt. Chitresh Das.
  • The profoundly transformational experience that studying kathak afforded her.
  • How she learned to follow her heart and commit to starting a professional dance company.
  • Steps Rukhmani took to build a life in dance, including teaching and the Leela Foundation.
  • Audience development and creating a future for kathak as an educator.
  • Unpacking Rukhmani’s belief in the power of collaboration.
  • Where the name Leela comes from and how it speaks to spontaneous creativity.
  • Insight into Rukhmani’s love for creating communities of young women through dance.
  • The process of building Leela as a collective and how it was impacted by COVID.
  • Joys and challenges of a dance career and what you can look forward to from Leela!
  • The heartwarming story of why Rukhmani changed her name from Rina.

“My work is about being an artist and putting the art form out in the world but – it has also become about creating the infrastructure that the artists who are carrying these traditions forward need.” — Rukhmani Mehta

About Rukhmani Mehta

Rukhmani Mehta (previously Rina Mehta) –pronounced RUUKH-muh-nee – brings a singular voice and vision to the art form of kathak, classical dance of North India. She is a senior disciple of the legendary kathak master, Pt. Chitresh Das, and was a principal dancer in his company, the Chitresh Das Dance Company, for over a decade. As Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Leela Dance Collective, Mehta has created numerous original works that bring kathak dance to contemporary audiences. These works include SPEAK, a kathak-tap collaboration; Son of the Wind, a dance drama based on India’s epic, the Ramayana; and Encounters with Beauty, a collaboration between kathak and contemporary chamber music. She has performed at prestigious venues across the United States and India such as NC State Live, The Broad Stage, Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Green Music Center, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, National Centre for Performing Arts Mumbai, and more. Her artistic works have been funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, New Music USA, California Arts Council, Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, Zellerbach Family Foundation, and more. She has received the ACTA Apprenticeship Grant and has been twice nominated for an Isadora Duncan Dance Award. Mehta is also Artistic Director of Leela Youth Dance Company, a pre-professional performing group that empowers young women to develop their voices and be artists and leaders. The Leela Youth Dance Company has been featured at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Philadelphia Youth Festival, and LA County’s Annual Televised Holiday Celebration.

 

Connect with Samantha Géracht

Leela Dance

Leela Dance Collective on Instagram

Leela Dance Collective on Facebook

 

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

 

Podcast produced by: The Moving Architects
Interviewer: Erin Carlisle Norton

Oct 17
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Movers & Shapers: Samantha Géracht

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PODCAST 165: Samantha Géracht

Release Date: 10.16.23

TO DOWNLOAD PODCAST OR LISTEN:

    • Apple: Subscribe, Listen, Rate Us HERE

    • Spotify: Follow and Listen HERE

    • Any Smartphone Podcast app: Subscribe and Listen

Continuing a Modern Dance Legacy with Samantha Géracht

Episode 165: Show Notes.

There are many legends in modern dance that are responsible for making the art form what it is today. But how do we continue their legacy? Today we hear from one of the people responsible for continuing the legacy of Anna Sokolow, Samantha Géracht. Samantha is the artistic director at the Sokolow Theatre/Dance Ensemble and in this episode, she tells us all about her incredible career, the multitude of amazing dance practitioners she has learned from and worked with, the difference between a Sokolow dancer and a Sokolow director, the challenges she faces in continuing Anna’s legacy, and so much more! From ballet to modern dance, Samantha has experienced it all as student, performer, and teacher. You don’t want to miss this one so tune in now!

Key Points From This Episode:

  • Introducing today’s guest, Samantha Géracht.
  • Samantha tells us about her upbringing and what made her interested in dancing. 
  • What made her switch from ballet to modern dance and breaking the stigma about modern. 
  • Samantha shares her experience at the Nikolais/Louis Dance Lab and who taught her.
  • Samantha’s early marriage and family life. 
  • Joining the Sokolow company and the teaching jobs she had while she was a dancer. 
  • Becoming a Sokolow artistic director and how it differed from being a Sokolow dancer. 
  • The legacy that Anna Sokolow left and Samantha’s special Sokolow choreography. 
  • Samantha shares the biggest struggles and challenges throughout her career. 
  • The support system Samantha has to help her continue Anna’s legacy. 
  • Some of the highlights of Samantha’s career and what she’s working on now. 
  • Where she sees the Sokolow Theatre/Dance Ensemble in the future. 

“Being a dancer and a modernist in an era that’s not that interested in modernism is it’s own struggle…..[I’m] giving myself a voice and figuring out what it is I want to do with Anna’s legacy and what that means.”” — Samantha Géracht

 

About Samantha Géracht

Samantha Géracht, MFA (Artistic Director) performed with Anna Sokolow’s Players’ Project for eleven years and is a founding member of the Sokolow Theatre/Dance Ensemble. In 2017 Ms. Géracht was appointed the ensemble’s artistic director. She has toured and taught Sokolow’s repertory nationally and internationally, setting Ms. Sokolow’s works on professional companies, university dance programs, and solo dance artists, including the Centre de Danse Nationale de Paris, the Boston Conservatory, Williams College, The Ailey School/Fordham University, Loyola Chicago, Franklin and Marshall College, Barnard College, Clarence Brooks, Jennifer Conely, Sandra Kaufman, Kanopy Dance Company and Academy, and Christine Dakin.

Ms. Géracht studied technique and composition with Alwin Nikolais and Murry Louis, Humphrey/Limon with Jim May, Betty Jones, Fritz Luden, and Gail Corbin, and Weidman with Deborah Carr. She has taught in the Professional Studies program at the Limon Institute, the Herbert Berghoff (‘HB’) Studio, and is on the faculty of the Hoboken Charter School. Ms. Geracht performed the Humphrey/Weidman repertory with Deborah Carr Theater Dance Ensemble and Gail Corbin. She has appeared with Rae Ballard’s Thoughts in Motion, and as a guest artist with David Parker and The Bang Group. In 2016 she choreographed Shadowbox Theatre’s The Earth and Me, a critically acclaimed climate change puppet/dance opera created for NYC public schools and community centers. Ms. Géracht served as a panelist for the Library of Congress opening of the “New Dance Group” archives. She holds an MFA in dance from Montclair State University (NJ) and a BS in dance from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Ms. Géracht is committed to the preservation of early American Modern Dance, making the works of modern dance pioneers more accessible to dance education programs, young artists, and new audiences.

 

Connect with Samantha Géracht

Sokolow Theatre/Dance Ensemble

In the Eye of a Dream, November 9-19, 2023 @ Theaterlab

 

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

 

Podcast produced by: The Moving Architects
Interviewer: Erin Carlisle Norton

Oct 03
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Movers & Shapers: Alyssa Alpine

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PODCAST 164: Alyssa Alpine

Release Date: 10.2.23

TO DOWNLOAD PODCAST OR LISTEN:

    • Apple: Subscribe, Listen, Rate Us HERE

    • Spotify: Follow and Listen HERE

    • Any Smartphone Podcast app: Subscribe and Listen

 

Translating Vision into Action with Alyssa Alpine

Episode 164: Show Notes.

Whether it’s for communication, social media, budgets, scheduling, or meetings (and more!), we can attest to the level of detail, creativity, and make-it-happen-attitude required in the support to make dance happen! The role of the Arts Administration is dedicated to translating vision into action, and with great appreciation and admiration we introduce today’s guest, Alyssa Alpine. Alyssa, with her accompanying drive and passion, is the Founding Director of the CUNY Dance Initiative, a residency program for NYC choreographers on City University of New York (CUNY) college campuses. In our conversation with Alyssa today, we delve into the story of how her love for dance stems from both sides of her family and what has fueled her lifelong commitment. She takes us through her academic path and recounts the story of how she fell into a career as an Arts Administrator. Alyssa elaborates on the functioning of the CUNY Dance Initiative and highlights some of the challenges and peak moments she’s encountered along her career journey. Tune in to this episode to hear more from Alyssa Alpine, a true master of wearing many hats (concurrently!) and doing them all successfully!

Key Points From This Episode:

  • We get to meet Alyssa and explore her passionate journey in the world of dance.
  • She elaborates on her time at Hartford Ballet.
  • Her thoughts on a potential career as a ballerina.
  • She talks about what got her started in dance and what made her stay
  • Alyssa’s perspective on the Midwest and why she’d find it difficult to replicate her current life elsewhere. 
  • We hear about her time at Columbia and her academic path toward a B.A.
  • Hopping from one school program to another and figuring out the dance world. 
  • Alyssa recounts the dream and plan she had had coming out of undergrad. 
  • A quick story about the beginning of her career in arts administration.
  • Her sentiments about living and working in New York.
  • Where she went after the Limon Foundation (and having had enough of the Arts world!)
  • She tells the tale of how she wound up at CUNY, managing the CUNY Dance Initiative. 
  • Her dance journey amidst working and what that looked like for Alyssa.
  • Looking back, Alyssa reflects on the aspect of the journey that has given her the most energy.
  • The strengths and skills she brings to her role as an Arts Administrator.
  • She elaborates on the inner functions (and systems) of the CUNY Dance Initiative.
  • More details regarding the CUNY Dance Initiative program.
  • She highlights some of the challenges she’s had to overcome throughout her career.
  • Alyssa shares some peak moments in her career journey. 
  • What Alyssa is energized for and currently looking forward to.

About Alyssa Alpine

Alyssa Alpine is the founding director of the CUNY Dance Initiative, an expansive residency program that provides rehearsal and performance spaces on City University of New York college campuses to local choreographers and dance companies. She has worked in non-profit administration for 20+ years across areas of programming, marketing, development, and operations for organizations such as New York Live Arts, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, New Jersey City University’s Center for the Arts, and Armitage Gone! Dance, with some forays into arts journalism along the way. As a performer, she cut her teeth with Minnesota Dance Theater, The Hartt Ensemble, and the Connecticut Opera before moving to NYC, where she’s worked with Geraldine Cardiel, Alan Danielson, Patricia Hoffbauer, Yehuda Hyman/Mystical Feet, Stephan Koplowitz, Jonathan Monk, and RedWall Dance Theatre. She holds a BA in English from Columbia University and lives in Brooklyn, NY.

 

Connect with Alyssa Alpine

CUNY Dance Initiative 

CDI on Instagram

Alyssa on LinkedIn

 

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

The CUNY Dance Initiative

Fred Astaire

Lyric Opera of Chicago

Martha Graham Dance Company

Peggy Lyman

Hartford Ballet

Paul Taylor Dance Company

Dance New Amsterdam

Jose Limon Dance Foundation

Celebrate Mexico Now Festival

New York Live Arts

Queens College (CUNY)

Geraldine Cardiel

Patricia Hoffbauer

Yvonne Rainer

 

Podcast produced by: The Moving Architects
Interviewer: Erin Carlisle Norton

Sep 18
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Movers & Shapers: Liz Lerman

By Podcast

PODCAST 163: Liz Lerman

Release Date: 9.18.23

TO DOWNLOAD PODCAST OR LISTEN:

    • Apple: Subscribe, Listen, Rate Us HERE

    • Spotify: Follow and Listen HERE

    • Any Smartphone Podcast app: Subscribe and Listen

 

The Independent Thinker, Liz Lerman

Episode 163: Show Notes

Liz is a choreographer, performer, writer, teacher, and speaker. For the past forty years, she has infused her artistic exploration with a personal touch, humor, intellectual vibrancy, and a contemporary edge. Her choreography has delved into a wide spectrum of topics, ranging from her experiences as a go-go dancer to an exploration of the intricacies of choreography and connections with community. Today, she shares with us insights into what ignited her love for dancing and reflects on the abundant influences that have affected both her life and artistic career. She talks about the importance and complexities of our feelings and how she rode the wild waves of her 20s to discover, for herself, what dance could mean for her. We hear about the impact of her mother’s life and death on her stubbornness to figure life out for herself, why rehearsals should always matter, and the unfolding of events that surround the founding of The Dance Exchange. She expresses and reflects on how she views herself as more of an interdisciplinary artist and her eagerness to be generous about spreading her wealth of knowledge. She then details her passion for the Critical Response Process (CRP) and how that was formed over the years. Join in as we delve into the chronicles of her life and her pursuit of understanding. Tune in now.

Key Points From This Episode:

  • Liz offers insight into where she comes from and what ignited her love for dancing.
  • She reflects on the myriad of influences that have affected her life and dance journey.
  • A wild ride in her 20s: riding the waves of figuring out what dance could be for her.
  • The impact of her mother’s life and death on her stubbornness to figure life out for herself.
  • How working intergenerationally moved and shifted her mindset.
  • The response she experienced when she started making work/performances.
  • Making rehearsals matter.
  • More about the founding of The Dance Exchange.
  • She goes into detail about how her different works unfolded uniquely.
  • Her thoughts on the nomadic life and being an ethical visitor.
  • How she began to extract herself from The Dance Exchange: composting Liz.
  • Reflections on how she views herself as more of an interdisciplinary artist.
  • She talks about the Critical Response Process (CRP).
  • Liz delves further into her current projects and pursuits.

About Liz Lerman

Liz Lerman is a choreographer, performer, writer, teacher, social activist, thought leader and inspirational speaker. She has spent the past four decades making her artistic research personal, funny, intellectually vivid, and up-to-the-minute. Her choreography has examined everything from her days as a go-go dancer in 1974, to investigating the matters of our origins by putting dancers in the tunnels of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN-Switzerland.

A key aspect of her artistry is opening her process to everyone from shipbuilders to physicists, construction workers to ballerinas, resulting in both research and experiences that are participatory, relevant, urgent, and usable by others. She founded Liz Lerman Dance Exchange in 1976 and cultivated the company’s unique multi-generational ensemble into a leading force in contemporary dance until 2011, when she handed the artistic leadership of the company over to the next generation of Dance Exchange artists.

In 2016, Liz was named the first Institute Professor at the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University. There, she is also a Senior Global Futures Scientist at the Global Institute of Sustainability and Innovation, a faculty affiliate in Jewish Studies and a fellow at the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy. She is currently a senior fellow at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Liz conducts residencies on Critical Response Process, creative research, the intersection of art and science, and the building of narrative within dance performance at such institutions as Harvard University, Yale School of Drama, Wesleyan University, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and the National Theatre Studio among others.

Most recently, she and her dancers created and performed Wicked Bodies, a piece inspired by powerful and grotesque images of women’s bodies over multiple historic periods. Her work premiered April 2022 at the Green Music Center at Sonoma State University. It toured to Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in August, Arizona State University’s ASU Gammage Theater in September and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in October. Wicked Bodies, an intimate spectacle, brings together several consistent themes of Liz’s choreographic output including the invisible ways and means of feminine thinking and action which have been celebrated, erased, or criminalized; legal systems that attempt but often fail to bend our actions towards a fairer and more just world; and how a group of intergenerational artists brings their personal lives to the stage within characters that are imagining futures.

Among her current projects is building the Atlas of Creative Tools, an online resource intended to create a better, more interesting realm of learning and discovery. Users will be able to interact with dozens of tools and learn how to use them. Resources will include art-making techniques, essays and stories about the tools, examples of their applications and an extensive glossary.

Liz’s most recent book, Critique is Creative: The Critical Response Process in Theory and Action (with co-author John Borstel), was published just last year. It addresses the Critical Response Process, a communication system for giving and receiving feedback that Liz invented decades ago as an antidote to kind of comments that can kill inspiration and rob a creative person of their agency.

Her signature blend of dance, spoken word, music, technology, social commentary and audience involvement has garnered her countless awards and honors, including most recently a Guggenheim Fellowship, the 2017 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award and a MacArthur "Genius" award in 2002.

One reviewer had this to say about Liz: “She’s not so easy to sum up; but among the things that go into her makeup are assuredly an impish sense of humor (she could have been a fine stand-up comedian), an almost metaphysical intensity and seriousness, the imagination of a born fabulist, manic energy and no small dollop of plain old chutzpah.”

 

Connect with Liz Lerman

Liz Lerman website
Linktree
Facebook
Instagram
Wikipedia

Books:
Hiking the Horizontal
Liz Lerman’s Critical Respone Process
Critique Is Creative: The Critical Response Process® in Theory and Action

 

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Liz Lerman: Critical Response Process

Hiking the Horizontal

Ethel Buttler

Martha Graham

Florence West

Ruth Page

Life Magazine Marilyn Monroe Covers 1952-1962

Merce Cunningham

Jan van Dyke

The Dance Exchange

Leslie Jacobson on LinkedIn

Why Survive?

A Woman of Clear Vision

Podcast produced by: The Moving Architects
Interviewer: Erin Carlisle Norton

Sep 04
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Movers & Shapers: Anna Pasternak and Blair Brown with Movement Exchange

By Podcast

PODCAST 162: Anna Pasternak and Blair Brown with Movement Exchange

Release Date: 8.4.23

 

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Anna Pasternak and Blair Brown with Movement Exchange 

Building Community through Arts Education

Episode 162: Show Notes

Our guests today are passionate about dance, dance education, and serving communities. Join us today as we share a podcast with you featuring an interview with Anna Pasternak, the Founder of Movement Exchange, and Blair Brown, the organization’s current Executive Director. During our conversation, we hear about their journeys with dance, what captivates them about the arts, and how their life paths led them to Movement Exchange. Movement Exchange is an international non-profit organization that provides accessible and sustainable dance education to youth of all ages. They share all about how it started, how it evolved, and their plans for expansion. We hear more about their university chapters and international volunteer dance exchanges and how they build leadership development, cultural awareness, and a passion for community building through arts education. To hear more about their year-round sustainable programs in underresourced communities, be sure not to miss out on today’s episode with Anna and Blair from Movement Exchange!

Key Points From This Episode:

  • Anna shares her personal history and transformative journey with dance.
  • What it was about dance that drew her in and sparked her love for dance.
  • She elaborates on her aspirations after high school and how getting into Harvard impacted her dance journey.
  • A gift from Harvard: how anthropology influenced and broadened her knowledge of culture and dance.
  • Fly and be free; the pull to see and experience everything the world had to offer.
  • Anna talks about the exciting journey of founding the Movement Exchange.
  • Her biggest worry stepping down as Executive Director at Movement Exchange.
  • What it meant to Anna working at and being part of Movement Exchange.
  • We hear from Blair about who she is, where she’s from, and what brought her to dance!
  • Blair expresses what it is about the arts that captivate her.
  • Her plans for after high school: ditching the pointe shoes for modern dance.
  • She elaborates on the biggest shift that altered her life as an artist: dance education.
  • Meeting Anna and Movement Exchange; the second jump in her career.
  • She elaborates on her thesis topic and completing her MFA.
  • We discuss the realization of the barrier to dance, even in the USA.
  • Blair expresses her favorite aspects of the role she holds at Movement Exchange.
  • They talk about any pushback experienced with Movement Exchange (and how they counter it).
  • How you can get involved in the Movement Exchange programs.

“There will be nothing in my life that will be as important or have made me as happy as running Movement Exchange.” — Anna Pasternak

Anna Pasternak with Movement Exchange

Anna Pasternak, founder of Movement Exchange, was 25-years-old and working in international development when she dreamed of a way for dancers to make a difference in the world. She asked, “How can dance education reach underserved populations, and how can trained dancers use their skills to give back to the world?” It was her work with Global Brigades in the rural and indigenous regions of Panama that connected Anna to the dance community of Panama, and subsequently inspired her vision for Movement Exchange. Like many young dancers, Anna spent endless hours in a dance studio and thought she was on the path to becoming a professional dancer. However, her interdisciplinary studies at Harvard and years living abroad allowed Anna to look at dance from a different perspective. Intent on the idea of creating a global community of like-minded dancers passionate about service and social justice, Anna founded Movement Exchange in 2010. Anna’s work has been featured in the Harvard Magazine, as a young artist on National Public Television, among other international publications. Anna received her BA from Harvard University and her MS, Nurse Practitioner from UCSF. She previously studied dance at the San Francisco High School of the Arts, the National Arts School of Cuba, and received her early training with Shely Pack-Manning. In 2011, she was a Fulbright Scholar in Mexico City. She is now a proud member of the board of directors for Movement Exchange and continues to guide the organization.

 “Dance is social. It’s all about community and how do we connect with that and make our communities stronger.” — Blair Brown

Blair Brown with Movement Exchange

Blair Brown (MFA, BA) received her BA in Dance from Loyola Marymount University and her MFA in Dance from University of California, Irvine. Since 2012 she has been involved with the non-profit organization Movement Exchange taking part in and leading international exchanges focused on building community through dance. For 10 years she was teaching dance in public schools, community centers, artist residency programs and more in California and New York before taking the position of Executive Director for Movement Exchange. Her career has been led by the passion to create more accessible opportunities for all students to have exposure to arts education. In New York City she created a comprehensive yoga, dance and health program at Storefront Academy Harlem and then spent five years as the dance specialist at Bronx Charter School for the Arts where she created a sequential curriculum for the dance program, oversaw implementation of new arts integration curriculum, and choreographed five productions per year. She has been a big proponent of dance and media technology having created four dance films that have won awards both domestically and internationally. She also used her background in film and media to integrate technology into the dance classroom. Her research has centered around the effects of service learning on developing artists and how experiential learning involving service and cultural exchange can have a lasting impact on one’s artistry and career. She has presented at NDEO conferences and continues to be an active member of the dance education community.

 

 

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Revelations by Alvin Ailey

Pittsburg Ballet Theatre

Martha Graham

Le Moyne Dance 

Bob Fosse

San Francisco High School of the Arts

Harvard University 

The Theatre Oppressed, Brazil 

‘The Theatre of the Oppressed’ 

Habitat for Humanity

Indiana University 

UC Irvine 

Guna People (Atlas of Humanity)

University of Panama

Loyola Marymount University

Trinity Laban

NDEO Conferences

Podcast produced by: The Moving Architects
Interviewer: Erin Carlisle Norton

Aug 01
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Movers & Shapers: Mark Morris

By Podcast

PODCAST 161: Mark Morris

Release Date: 7.31.23

TO DOWNLOAD PODCAST OR LISTEN:

    • Apple Music: Subscribe, Listen, Rate Us HERE

    • Stitcher: Subscribe and Listen HERE

    • Spotify: Follow and Listen HERE

    • Any Smartphone Podcast app: Subscribe and Listen

 

Around the World with Mark Morris

Episode 161: Show Notes

From the age of seven, Mark Morris was enamored with dance. Immersing himself in everything from flamenco to Israeli folk to ballet to modern, Mark has lived, trained, and worked in many different parts of the world. In this episode, Mark takes us on a journey from the audition that signaled the start of his career to the Mark Morris Dance Company’s first show in 1980 to his years in Brussels, where he did his “grandest work.” We also take a look at the work that Mark devotes his time to these days, which involves choreographing “dances of the future” that are only intended to be seen by the public after his death.  His life has been eventful, to say the least, and this episode will give you a taste of the passion and flair that epitomize Mark Morris!

Key Points From This Episode:

  • Where Mark’s love for dance originated.
  • Different dance forms that he has been drawn to during his life.
  • How his life changed when he was just 11 years old.
  • Mark’s experience training and working overseas.
  • Why he moved to New York and the various companies he danced for while there.
  • The driving force for the founding of the Mark Morris Dance Group.
  • Mark Morris Dance Group’s first show and how the company evolved from there.
  • Some of Mark’s career highlights.
  • Where he did his grandest work.
  • The contradictory attitudes that he dealt with during his time in Brussels.
  • How the Mark Morris Dance Center came to be.
  • Where Mark finds inspiration to continue to choreograph.
  • Insight into his “dance of the future” concept.
  • The profound role that music plays in his life.

“I like excellence and I like surprise. I’m very interested in work that engages me and that’s not necessarily what everybody else agrees with.” — Mark Morris

MARK MORRIS, praised as “the most successful and influential choreographer alive, and indisputably the most musical” (New York Times), was born on August 29, 1956, in Seattle, Washington, where he studied with Verla Flowers and Perry Brunson. In the early years of his career, he performed with the companies of Lar Lubovitch, Hannah Kahn, Laura Dean, Eliot Feld, and the Koleda Balkan Dance Ensemble. He formed the Mark Morris Dance Group (MMDG) in 1980 and has since created over 150 works for the company. From 1988 to 1991, he was Director of Dance at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels, the national opera house of Belgium. In 1990, he founded the White Oak Dance Project with Mikhail Baryshnikov. Morris is also an acclaimed ballet choreographer, with twenty-two works commissioned by ballet companies worldwide.

Noted for his musicality, Morris has been described as “undeviating in his devotion to music” (The New Yorker). He began conducting performances for MMDG in 2006 and has since conducted at Tanglewood Music Center, Lincoln Center, and BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music). In 2013, he served as Music Director for the Ojai Music Festival. Morris also works extensively in opera, directing and choreographing productions for The Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, English National Opera, and The Royal Opera, Covent Garden, among others.

He was named a Fellow of the MacArthur Foundation in 1991 and has received eleven honorary doctorates to date. He has taught at the University of Washington, Princeton University, and Tanglewood Music Center.

He is the subject of a biography, Mark Morris, by Joan Acocella (Farrar, Straus & Giroux), and Marlowe & Company published a volume of photographs and critical essays entitled Mark Morris’ L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato: A Celebration. Mark Morris: Musician-Choreographer, by musicologist Stephanie Jordan, was released in 2015. Morris’s memoir, Out Loud, co-written with Wesley Stace, was published in paperback by Penguin Press in October 2021.

A Doris Duke Artist, Morris is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, and has served as an Advisory Board Member for the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative. He has received the Samuel H. Scripps/American Dance Festival Award for Lifetime Achievement, the Leonard Bernstein Lifetime Achievement Award for the Elevation of Music in Society, the Benjamin Franklin Laureate Prize for Creativity, the International Society for the Performing Arts’ Distinguished Artist Award, the Cal Performances Award of Distinction in the Performing Arts, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s Gift of Music Award, and the 2016 Doris Duke Artist Award. In 2015, Morris was inducted into the Mr. and Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney Hall of Fame at the National Museum of Dance in Saratoga Springs, New York.

Morris opened the Mark Morris Dance Center in Brooklyn, New York, in 2001 to provide a home for his company, subsidized rental space for local artists, community education programs for children and seniors, and a school offering dance classes to students of all ages and levels of experience with and without disabilities.

Connect

Mark Morris Dance Group

 

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

José Greco

Verla Flowers

Chamber Dance Company

Joffrey Ballet

The Juilliard School

Eliot Feld

Lar Lubovitch Dance Company

Laura Dean

Hannah Kahn

New Jersey State Council of the Arts

Brooklyn Academy of Music

Harvey Lichtenstein

Arlene Croce

Nixon in China

John Adams

Alice Goodman

Peter Sellars

The Death of Klinghoffer

Béjart Ballet Lausanne

Gerard Mortier

La Monnaie / De Munt

George Balanchine

Annie Leibovitz

Sam Black

Trisha Brown Dance Company

Stephen Petronio

Nancy Umanoff

Future Library

 

 

Podcast produced by: The Moving Architects
Interviewer: Erin Carlisle Norton

Jul 04
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Movers & Shapers: Melissa M. Young

By Podcast

PODCAST 160: Melissa M. Young

Release Date: 7.3.23

TO DOWNLOAD PODCAST OR LISTEN:

    • Apple Music: Subscribe, Listen, Rate Us HERE

    • Stitcher: Subscribe and Listen HERE

    • Spotify: Follow and Listen HERE

    • Any Smartphone Podcast app: Subscribe and Listen

 

Take Up Your Space with Confidence with Artistic Director Melissa M. Young

Episode 160: Show Notes.

Often, as dancers, we have a choice to take up space with confidence or feel defeated and hold back. Our guest on today’s episode is one that continuously chose to take up space and inspired others to follow their intuitions, pursue what they love, and embrace their curiosity. This is an inspiring interview with the Artistic Director of Dallas Black Dance Theatre (DBDT), Melissa M. Young. Our conversation with Melissa is incredibly touching as she talks about why she loved the exploration of dance and remembers certain key impressions that impacted her greatly throughout the years. She tells us why she always chose to dance to the beat of her own drum and why she pursues uncovering herself in the most authentic ways before sharing about her time spent in New York City and how she ultimately ended up dancing at the Dallas Black Dance Theatre. She’s an amazing individual with a passion for dance and holds the responsibility of being an artistic director with such fervor. Tune in now to hear about the pure joy derived from Melissa’s life in dance. Enjoy.

Key Points From This Episode:

  • Melissa talks excitedly about who she is and where her love for dance ignited from.
  • Why she loved the exploration aspect of dance.
  • She talks about the impact of The Stack-Up by Talley Beatty (Alvin Ailey) on her life’s journey.
  • Melissa remembers taking a class from Donald McKayle and the impression it left on her.
  • Why Melissa never put a timeline on her career and allowed the journey to flow.
  • The pull to New York and the blossoming opportunities to do as they were doing at Ailey.
  • She shares thoughts on her firm belief in doing what you see for yourself.
  • Navigating the shoulds, the coulds, and the woulds, and why she chooses to dance to the beat of her own drum.
  • What you see is what you get: uncovering herself in the most authentic way.
  • How the culture shock of moving to New York City made her feel more alive.
  • We hear about her time spent in New York at The Ailey School.
  • How she came upon the DBDT audition notice and took a chance.
  • How her journey at DBDT has allowed her to discover herself.
  • What it was like to move to Dallas: another culture shift.
  • She shares information regarding the current dance and art scene in Dallas.
  • The DBDT and her journey with the company.
  • Her thoughts on the culture, dynamic, and community at DBDT (as a dancer and as staff).
  • How she transitioned from being a dancer to a staff member after 10 years of performing.
  • Looking back at her career, she reflects on some challenges she’s faced and overcame.
  • How she approaches being the artistic director at DBDT (and any role she’s ever filled).
  • Things that are sparking excitement in Melissa for the future.
  • Why she looks for great human beings first when looking at prospective dancers.

“What I love about dance is I look at it like professional problem-solving. The choreography is the problem and the equation of how you get there working with everyone else, that’s how you get to the “answer”.” — Melissa M. Young

Melissa M. Young is a Honduran American raised in Santa Ana, California. She attended Orange Coast College with a focus in Business Administration. She is a graduate of The Ailey School—The Official School of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York City. During her Fellowship studies, she was one of five students selected to train as an exchange student at Amsterdam University of the Arts in the Netherlands.

Melissa is celebrating her twenty-ninth season with Dallas Black Dance Theatre (DBDT). Young started her career at DBDT as a dancer for eleven years, then moved up the ranks as Rehearsal Director, Academy Director, Associate Artistic Director, Interim Artistic Director, and was appointed as Artistic Director in September 2018. Her most notable performances include The Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors, and for the U.S. Ambassadors to Ireland and Zimbabwe. She has restaged and rehearsed the diverse repertoire of DBDT, which spans over 100 ballets. She was an Assistant to the Choreographers, Hope Clarke for The Dallas Opera’s Porgy and Bess and Christopher L. Huggins for Dallas Theater Center’s production of The Wiz. Melissa is most proud of thoughtfully leading DBDT through the pandemic by using the many restrictions as a guide to push the boundaries of her imagination into a creative reality.

Teaching master classes both nationally and internationally, Melissa specializes in the Dance Technique of Lester Horton. She was the primary Horton Technique Instructor for the Dallas Black Dance Theatre company dancers from 1998-2017. As an Adjunct Instructor, she has taught at Southern Methodist University, Texas Woman’s University, and Abilene Christian University. Over the years, she has led several movement workshops for Leadership North Texas and Leadership Dallas.

Melissa is a graduate of the Leadership Arts Institute, Class of 2022, a program of Business Council for the Arts in Dallas County. She is a member of the International Association of Blacks in Dance, Inc. Melissa has served as an advisory panelist for arts organizations that include the City of Dallas Office of Arts and Culture, Texas Commission on the Arts and Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, and is a former board member for the Dance Council of North Texas.

Melissa was presented with The Dancer’s Award in 2000 for her artistic excellence and dedication to Dallas Black Dance Theatre. She was chosen as one of “The Talented Tenth” by The Dallas Weekly in 2010, for being a Young and Emerging Leader. In 2014, she received an Award of Recognition from the South Dallas Dance Festival for her service to dance and in 2016, the Natalie Skelton Award for Artistic Excellence. In 2017, Melissa received the Shining Star Award from the Texas Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance for her significant contributions to dance in Texas and beyond. During the 57th Annual South Central District Conference of the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women’s Clubs, Inc. in 2019, Melissa was honored with the “We Speak Your Name” Career Achievement Award.

Connect:

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

 

Podcast produced by: The Moving Architects
Interviewer: Erin Carlisle Norton

Jun 19
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MSP 159: Susan Klein

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PODCAST 159: Susan Klein

Release Date: 6.19.23

TO DOWNLOAD PODCAST OR LISTEN:

    • Apple Music: Subscribe, Listen, Rate Us HERE

    • Stitcher: Subscribe and Listen HERE

    • Spotify: Follow and Listen HERE

    • Any Smartphone Podcast app: Subscribe and Listen

 

Creating a Technique that Honors the Individual with Susan Klein

Episode 159: Show Notes

Today’s guest Susan Klein is a true luminary, having shaped the modern dance landscape with her groundbreaking theories as creator of the renowned Klein Technique. In this episode, we explore her transformative journey as a movement pioneer, uncovering her dance background, the hurdles she overcame following a series of debilitating knee injuries, and her return to the world of movement. We discover how her experience ignited her passion for understanding the body and teaching others about movement, and how this ultimately led to the development of the Klein Technique. Susan recounts the pivotal moment she realized the limitations of imitation-based teaching and explains why she believes in nurturing individuality within dance. She opens up about her quest to safeguard her unique contributions, and why she decided to concede, despite her concern about the potential harm of her work being taught incorrectly. Join us as Susan shares her unique journey to quietly becoming one of the most valuable and influential players in the modern dance field.

Key Points From This Episode:

    • Introducing Susan Klein, an “unsung hero of modern dance” and creator of Klein Technique.
    • Susan’s dance background and training.
    • Why she believes teaching through imitation to be ineffective.
    • Her influences and how they shaped her journey.
    • The series of knee injuries that temporarily derailed her dancing career and her return to dance, post-injury.
    • How Susan’s experience ultimately led to the development of the Klein Technique.
    • The importance of individuality in dance and Susan’s continued fascination with movement and teaching.
    • Susan mentions notable dancers she taught.
    • What drew people to her work in the modern dance field.
    • The various methods she attempted to protect her work from being copied.
    • Why she finds the widespread adoption of her work both gratifying and concerning.
    • Her journey of developing a technique class based on Laban’s principles.
    • Challenges she’s faced in her dancing career and the various career paths she’s explored.
    • Susan teases her plan to share her knowledge in book form.

“When I work with people, that’s always exciting because their potential and what’s going on in their lives or in their body is infinitely interesting.” — Susan Klein

Susan Klein is founder and director of the Susan Klein School of Movement and Dance.  She has been developing Klein Technique™ since 1972, teaching dancers to use their bodies correctly thus decreasing their possibility of injury and increasing their capacity and longevity as dancers. Her work has been most influenced by Barbara Vedder, D.C., Irmgard Bartenieff, Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, Fritz Smith, M.D., and J.R. Worsley, D.Ac. Susan started dancing at 5 years old and by 19 years old was seriously injured. Klein Technique™ is a result of her personal journey to get well, and serves as a way for people to work through individual injuries, to understand the workings of their bodies, and to heal themselves. Susan has a private practice as a Movement Therapist, Certified Zero Balancer, Senior Zero Balancing Teacher, and Traditional Acupuncturist, L. Ac., M.Ac., B. Ac. (UK), Dipl. Ac. (NCCAOM).

Connect: KleinTechnique

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

 

Podcast produced by: The Moving Architects
Interviewer: Erin Carlisle Norton