Podcast

Who you are as an artist is undoubtedly influenced by the teachers you encounter along the way. Similarly, being exposed to different artistic practices can have a significant impact on your development. Today’s guest, Annie Rigney, started dancing at the tender age of three and hasn’t looked back since. She spent her childhood and teenage years rigorously honing her craft as a ballet dancer and even founded a local dance company with her friend, where she had her first experience as a choreographer. It was only after Annie arrived at the SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance that she became aware of the liberation that lay in other dance forms and approaches to movement. In our conversation, Annie recounts how she was first introduced to new techniques (like Graham and Gaga), the teachers that took the time to work with her one on one, and how these experiences gave her the tools to begin to move beyond the limitations of ballet. We hear about her time in Israel, her discovery of the Ilan Lev method, and why becoming an Ilan Lev practitioner was one of the best decisions she ever made. Annie then moves on to describe her return to New York, the culture shock she experienced after four years abroad, and how the American approach to dance and movement differs from those of Israelis. We wrap things up by discussing Annie’s recent return to choreography after a ten-year hiatus, why she felt she had needed to wait before returning to it, and what her plans are for the future. Annie’s love for dance is evident throughout this conversation, and the knowledge she has accumulated is nuanced, profound, and thought-provoking. Be sure to tune in to hear all this along with her wonderful insights on a range of fascinating topics, from healing through dance to the art of repetition! 

Key Points From This Episode:

• Get to know today’s guest, Annie Rigney, and how she first fell in love with dance.
• Annie’s love of music and her dedication to ballet throughout her childhood and teens.
• The dance company Annie and her friend started as teens.
• How running a dance company introduced Annie to choreography.
• Annie’s time at SUNY Purchase and how she was introduced to modern dance.
• The rigor, discipline, pain, and emotional abuse that characterized Annie’s early dance training.
• How new dance techniques and teachers helped Annie rediscover her body.
• The show by Batsheva that changed Annie’s plans to focus on choreography after college.
• The Gaga dance course that Annie took with Bobbi Jene Smith and how it altered her trajectory.
• Annie’s move to Israel and the time she spent training in Tel Aviv.
• The support and love Annie has always felt from her parents.
• An overview of the Ilan Lev method and how it transformed Annie’s mobility and movement.
• How Annie became an Ilan Lev practitioner and how her understanding has grown over the past 12 years.
• Why the Ilan Lev method is all about efficiency and effortlessness.
• How conflict can stimulate art and healing practices.
• Annie’s experience playing Lady Macbeth for three years in Sleep No More
• What this taught her about repetition and performance.
• The pressure Annie felt to create excellent choreography after her ten-year hiatus.
• How the COVID-19 pandemic gave her the freedom to experiment with choreography.
• What Annie is working on right now and how she has been influenced by surrealism and theatricality.
• The community that Annie has been able to build around the Ilan Lev method in New York.

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

ilanlev.org

annierigney.squarespace.com

Annie Rigney on Instagram

Conservatory of Dance | Purchase College

Gaga

Martha Graham Dance Company

Batsheva Dance Company

Bobbi Jene Smith

Ilan Lev

Moshe Feldenkrais

BIO

Elizabeth Yilmaz-Dobrow is a professional dancer, teacher and producer in New York City. She received her B.A in Dance from Marymount Manhattan College where she now serves on the Dance Advisory Board as the Nominating Chair. She is a former company member with Ballet Hispanico of New York.  This is Elizabeth’s ninth season dancing with The Metropolitan Opera Ballet. Productions at the Metropolitan Opera include Bluebeard’s Castle, Eugene Onegin, Turandot, Le Nozze De Figaro, Meistersinger, Werther, Die Zauberflöte, Parsifal, Manon, La Traviata, Aida, The Magic Flute and Tannhäuser. The last five of which have been transmitted live in HD to over 70 countries across the globe.  Elizabeth is a co-producer of the salon series Art Bath NYC. Art Bath is part art party part immersive concert, featuring world renowned artists in the historic Blue Building on East 46th St.  Elizabeth toured internationally with “Angelina Ballerina, The Musical", danced at Walt Disney World, and is a proud member of the American Guild of Musical Artist Union.  Elizabeth teaches dance throughout the United States and is on faculty with the 92nd Street Y and the Joffery Ballet Trainee Program in NYC. She has also taught ballet and musical theatre for Regional Dance America, Mile Square Theatre, Marymount Girls School, the Passport to learning project in New Jersey, the National Choreography Intensive and private lessons in Manhattan, Metro-Atlanta, and virtually.

Carmen Caceres is a dance artist originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina. She received a BA in Dance and Education at SUNY Empire State College and deepened her studies in dance, performance, and choreography at the former Merce Cunningham Studio in New York. In her native city, she graduated from the National School of Dance and studied Dance Composition at the National University of the Arts UNA. Caceres has been creating and presenting dance works in Argentina and NY since 2009. In 2012, she founded DanceAction, a creative platform composed of artists from multiple disciplines to produce performing artworks in collaboration and provide educational opportunities. Her works have been presented in several venues, such as Dixon Place, Green Space Studio, Triskelion Arts Center, Teatro Sea, The Mark Morris Dance Center, the Center at West Park, and the Center for Performance Research. As a performer and collaborator, she has worked with Ines Armas, Katie Rose McLaughlin, Isabel Lewis, Jillian Peña, Lisa Parra, Elia Mrak, Jody Oberfelder, and Sarah Berges, among other artists. Carmen also works as a dance educator and program director for different art education programs in New York City, Brooklyn, and the Bronx. www.carmencaceres.com

DanceAction is a contemporary dance company based in New York, led by Argentinian choreographer Carmen Caceres. The company’s culturally diverse team is comprised of artists from several disciplines, such as dance, music, drama, media, and visual arts. Together, they create dance works that reflect social realities that concern people, relationships, and social justice with the purpose of interpreting these issues and using the works to propel change. DA participated in numerous festivals, and performance series in New York, and their works have been awarded the Brooklyn Arts Fund Community Grant, the Dance/NYC Emergency COVID-19 Grant, and most recently, the City Artist Corps Grant. DA has also been invited to numerous international dance festivals. Its first full-length work, Game Night, was part of the 2016 International Contemporary Dance Festival of Mexico City (FIDCDMX). In 2018, the company participated at the International Contemporary Dance Festival and Campus “Ticino in Danza” in Ticino, Switzerland, performing 2 Minutes Hate. The same year, this thought-provoking piece was also presented in NYC at Women Center Stage Festival – Directors Weekend II, organized and curated by Culture Project.

The Hard Nut

National University of the Arts, Argentina

SUNY Empire

Mikhail Baryshnikov

Robert Swinston

“Revelations” by Alvin Ailey

Dixon Place

CPR

“Game Night”

“Art of Loving” Eric Fromm

Alessia Della Casa

“Blindspot”

“Welcome to ImagiNation”

Casita Maria Center for Arts & Education 

The Center at West Park

“Open Veins of Latin America”

Amanda Selwyn (Artistic Director/Choreographer) founded Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre/Notes in Motion in 2000 and in 23 seasons, has directed over 85 productions, developed a network of artists, and created the curriculum for Notes in Motion’s dance education programs. Amanda’s choreographic works include: Threads, Hindsight, Crossroads, Refuge, Renewal, It’s a Game, Detour, Five Minutes, Passage, Undercurrent, Hearsay, Interiors, Disturbance, Salut, Tilt, Tidal, Shift, Siren, Contradicting Unity, Save My Spot, Hold On, Momentum, and Behind Us. Amanda recently taught workshops at New Women, New York, the New York Gender Conference, and a Choreography Master Class at Temple University. Her 20th Anniversary Season was presented at Baruch Performing Arts Center as part of the CUNY Dance Initiative.  She has choreographed dance for Chicago’s Motivity; for theatre productions including House on Mango Street, Free to be You an Me, Once Upon a Mattress, The Wiz, Little Shop of Horrors, and Charlie & The Chocolate Factory; and for her original theatre productions which include Herland, Yellow Feather, and Slitting the Clouds. In addition to her choreographic work, Amanda has directed off-broadway theatre in NYC at John Houseman Studio, 30th Street Theatre, Grove Street Theatre, Kraine Theatre, Center Stage, and the Producer’s Club. Amanda teaches dance and theatre to New York City children and has been on faculty at The Brearley School, Brooklyn Friends School, Beit Rabban School, Solomon Schechter School, and the New Acting Company. She has taught dance composition and technique at the Berkshire Institute for Music and Art and taught dance and theatre in Israel at the Israel Museum, English Village, and the Arad Community Center. Amanda led the workshops “Accessing Inspiration for Dance-Making” and “Teaching a Choreographic Process” at the 3 NYC Arts-in-Education Roundtable’s Face to Face conferences. She has also presented her choreography at NYU’s Women and Theater conference and at Dance Teacher Summit. She is the recipient of grants from the NY State Council on the Arts, The Harkness Foundation for Dance, the Friars Foundation, Dizzy Feet Foundation, Bronx Council on the Arts, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs Cultural Development Fund, NY City Council Members Bill DeBlasio, Andy King, Carlina Rivera, Margaret Chin, and Rosie Mendez, Manhattan Borough President, Met Life, City National Bank, Credit Suisse, and the Bossak/Heilbron Charitable Foundation. Amanda participated in the Choreographer’s Lab program at Jacob’s Pillow. Her work has been presented twice on Jacob’s Pillow Inside/Out Stage, at Tribeca Performing Arts Center, in the DUMBO Dance Festival, APAP Conference, COOL NY Dance Festival, Wassaic Dance Festival, WestFest Dance Festival, Movement Research’s Performance Series, Earth Celebrations, Dixon Place, and Pushing Progress at Peridance. Amanda has a 500-hour yoga teacher’s certification from Laughing Lotus Yoga Center in NYC and teaches yoga privately and at Crunch Gym in NYC. She has a Masters from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in performance studies and a B.S. from Northwestern University in theatre, women’s studies, and dance.

McClaine is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Contemporary Dance Choreography Festival (CDCFest). She is an awarded choreographer, Nationally Certified Pilates instructor, business owner, and dance educator.

McClaine received her MFA in Dance from the University of California, Irvine and her BA in Dance from Columbia College Chicago. Prior to receiving her degrees, she trained with Orlando Ballet School/Company and North Carolina School of the Arts in the ballet program. Post graduate school she held the position of Assistant Director of Dance and Adjunct Faculty at Sacred Heart University for 3 years.

Her choreography has been awarded “Best Choreography” in regional and national competitions, presented in the “New Grounds” Choreography Festival at University South Florida, the “EAST meets WEST” International Dance Festival at University California Irvine, the ‘Dance-Forms’ 72nd International Choreographer’s Showcase in Scotland, and the WHITE WAVE Solo/Duo International Choreography Festival in NYC, adjudicated in the ACDA Baja Regional Conference in Torrence CA, and competed in the 19th Annual McCullum Theater Education Choreography Festival as a finalist in Palm Desert CA. She was also a guest choreographer for the US International Ballet Company.

Palm Desert Choreography Festival

Adele Myers is a Miami based dance maker and Artistic Director of Adele Myers and Dancers (AMD), a national touring contemporary dance theater company made up of female athletes of the heart. For over a decade, AMD has been presented throughout the U.S with funding from the New England Foundation of the Arts, National Dance Project, and National Performance Network. Since relocating to Miami, she received commissions from Miami Light Project, Live Arts Miami and South Miami Dance Cultural Arts Center.

Adele received a BA from Sarah Lawrence College, a One-Year Special Certificate from the London School of Contemporary Dance; and earned an MFA with a focus on Dance Pedagogy and Choreography at Florida State University, and an MA and PhD (ABD) in Performance Studies from New York University. She was an Assistant Professor of Dance at Tulane University and Connecticut College and has taught on faculty at New World School of the Arts in Miami.

PODCAST INTERVIEW LINKS 

Sarah Lawrence College 

Viola Farber

Pina Bausch

Joy Kellman

Florida State University – Dance

Jawole Willa Jo Zollar

Tulane University – Dance

NYU Performance Studies Program

Connecticut College Dance

NEFA

NPN

Rosie Herrera

NDP Grant

South Miami-Made Cultural Arts Center

New World School of the Arts – Dance

Founded in 1992, award-winning mother/daughter artists Ranee and Aparna Ramaswamy are the Artistic Directors of Ragamala Dance Company, a pioneering company rooted in the South Indian dance form of Bharatanatyam. Over the last four decades, Ranee and Aparna have forged a path for culturally rooted performing arts organizations and made Ragamala a standard-bearer within the American dance landscape. The New York Times says, “Ragamala shows how Indian forms can be some of the most transcendent experiences that dance has to offer.”

Ranee and Aparna’s choreographic work has been commissioned and presented extensively throughout the U.S., India, and abroad, highlighted by the Kennedy Center (Washington, D.C.), Joyce Theater (New York), Lincoln Center (New York), Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival (MA), Walker Art Center (Minneapolis), American Dance Festival (Durham, NC), The Soraya (Southern California), Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, International Festival of Arts & Ideas (New Haven, CT), Cal Performances (Berkeley), Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates), Just Festival (Edinburgh, U.K.), Bali Arts Festival (Indonesia), Sri Krishna Gana Sabha (Chennai, India), and National Centre for Performing Arts (Mumbai, India), among others.

Ranee serves on the National Council on the Arts, appointed by President Barack Obama. Among her recent awards and honors are a Guggenheim Fellowship, Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, Bogliasco Foundation Fellowship (Italy), Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Research Fellowship (Italy), United States Artists Fellowship, and McKnight Distinguished Artist Award. Ranee immigrated to the United States in 1978 and, since that time, her work has merged the rich traditions and deep philosophical roots of her Indian heritage with her hybridic perspective as a first generation South Indian American, including bold experimental collaborations with national and international artists across forms and genres.

Aparna is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, Bogliasco Foundation Fellowship (Italy), Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Research Fellowship (Italy), Joyce Award, and Bush Fellowship for Choreography, among others, and has been selected as one of Dance Magazine’s 25 to Watch for 2010. Her projects include solo, evening-length works which have toured widely, nationally and internationally, and commissions from the American Dance Festival and the Silk Road Ensemble.

Gloria McLean (Founder, Dancer, Choreographer, Dance Educator) is artistic director of LIFEDANCE/Gloria McLean and Dancers. She choreographs, teaches and performs from her base in New York City and Andes, NY.  LIFEDANCE is dedicated to the integration of body, mind and spirit through the creative process. McLean’s dances often collaborate with new music, art, language and the environment.  Her choreography has been presented in NYC and internationally, including the American Dance Festival, festivals in Ireland, Paris, Montreal, Germany, Switzerland, Japan, Korea, and China. In October 2019, she produced “Lucky Dragon 5 Voyage to Hope,” with sculptor Ken Hiratsuka, bringing together artists from around the world on the theme of world peace in memory of the those who perished in the Bikini Island nuclear tests in 1954. In June 2018 in Beijing, McLean collaborated with leading Chinese avant-garde choreographer Wen Hui and Ken Hiratsuka to produce “Stone.Paper, Line. Sky. Water”—dance interacting with drawing, live stone carving, water and audience in the unique 3-story architectural space of painter Huang Rui’s Cloud Pavillion.  In 2012 McLean’s “Dancing Without Illusion” paid tribute to painter Will Barnet. Her video “Twice Marked” was exhibited at Brattleboro Museum in 2008 and the ADF Dancing for the Camera Festival 2009.

Teaching credits include: Professor of Modern Dance for two years at Keimyung University in Daegu, South Korea (2009-2011);  Henry-Bascom Visiting Professor at UW/Madison (2000); George Washington University (1997 and 2000). Adjunct positions and Guest Artist residencies at Manhattanville College, American University, Dowling College, Hofstra University, University of Texas/Edinburgh and San Marcos, and numerous others. She first received acclaim as a leading member of the Erick Hawkins Dance Company from 1982-1993, performing major female roles in the repertory, teaching at the Hawkins School, and touring the U.S. and internationally. Currently McLean is President of the American Dance Guild producing festivals live and online. She teaches live and through zoom.

“I make dances to celebrate human existence, the miracle of the expressive body, with other artists, people, places, forms, media, with ideas that inspire us, and speak to our shared condition.  I am. It dances.”