MOVERS & SHAPERS: A DANCE PODCAST

The personal stories, experiences, and ideas from those who shape the dance field. Available anywhere you get your podcasts.

 

“I love Movers and Shapers: it focuses my mind on the important things in life: I love the care with which it’s choreographed(!).” Review, Apple Podcasts

“This podcast sounds so vivid and interesting! I am really grateful to be able to hear all these stories from all of these artists. This podcast is a work of art.” Review, Apple Podcasts

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MSP 176: Clare Cook

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PODCAST 176: Clare Cook

Release Date: 9.30.24

TO DOWNLOAD PODCAST OR LISTEN:

    • Apple: Subscribe, Listen, Rate Us HERE

    • Spotify: Follow and Listen HERE

    • Any Smartphone Podcast app: Subscribe and Listen

Cultivating Genuine Connections with Clare Cook

Episode 176: Show Notes

Our guest today is the remarkable Clare Cook. Based in Lafayette, Louisiana, Clare is the Founder and Creative Director of Basin Arts, a non-profit arts incubator dedicated to helping Louisiana artists develop sustainable creative practices. Basin Arts aims to expand access to professional contemporary arts experiences while fostering genuine connections between artists and the broader community. In our interview, we explore how dance was positively cultivated in different spaces throughout her life, what she’s grateful for, and unpack her decision to pursue a life in dance. She shares insights into being the youngest in her NYU Tisch Dance program, her passion for storytelling and collaboration, and her interest in the theatre-dance hybrid. We also discuss her experience with an observership, the decision to return to Lafayette, and go deeper into the heart and vision behind Basin Arts. For all this and much more, be sure to tune in!

Key Points From This Episode:

  • We’re introduced to our guest Clare Cook and her life and dance journey.
  • She reflects on how dance was cultivated in different spaces throughout her life and what she’s grateful for.
  • Clare unpacks her decision to pursue a life in dance.
  • How she thought of dance as a way to become more of herself.
  • Being the youngest dancer in the NYU Tisch Dance program.
  • Her love and interest in storytelling and collaboration.
  • How she got her first gig choreographing a musical.
  • She talks about her interest in the theatre-dance hybrid.
  • Clare shares about her opportunity to do an observership.
  • The impetus to move back to Louisiana and what it was like navigating that transition.
  • How the concept for Basin Arts started to unfold.
  • She speaks to the idea of trajectory as continued evolution along the path of creative process, collaboration, and community.
  • Clare breaks down what creating authentic relationships with the community looks like through Basin Arts.
  • What Basin Arts is all about and the heart of their goals.
  • Clare shares what she’s excited about and upcoming events.

“[Basin Arts] was this idea of how can we, in the simplest, least encumbered way, find a space for people to come together and do their work.” — Clare Cook

ABOUT Clare

Clare Cook (Choreographer) is a hyphenate artist working simultaneously as a choreographer, dancer, teacher, and arts administrator through her work as Founder & Creative Director of Basin Arts, a interdisciplinary arts incubator in Lafayette, La. Throughout Louisiana, she can be found creating dances, facilitating artistic opportunities for others, advocating for new models integrating the arts, and envisioning a more sustainable arts ecosystem for all. Past dance projects include presenting choreography at Joe’s Pub/DanceNOW Festival, the New York Musical Theatre Festival, Triskelion Arts, Opera Slavica, Columbia University, NYU, and the New School for Drama. Clare was the choreographer for the First National Tour of Bullets Over Broadway, re-setting Susan Stroman’s Tony-Nominated choreography, and traveled to Bulgaria with the Drama League of NYC to choreograph the Sofia Puppet Theatre of Bulgaria’s American Musical Theatre Showcase. Recent performance projects include Full Head of Hair with Elana Jacobs (CabinFever Live Art), The Panic of Fixing Things with visual artist Hagit Barkai, Paige Barnett’s A Song of Visions, and Ten Tiny Dances – Lafayette. She has presented work at the Acadiana Center for the Arts, Hilliard Art Museum, with the Acadiana Symphony Orchestra, and for UL Lafayette’s Dance Program. Clare has been on the faculties of LSU, UL-Lafayette, NYU Tisch Dance, and the Metropolitan Opera Guild. She holds an MFA in Dance from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.

Connect with Clare Cook

Basin Arts

Clare M Cook

Clare on Instagram

Basin Arts on Instagram

Clare Cook on Vimeo

 

 

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

Movers & Shapers: Summer Break

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PODCAST: Summer Break Announcement

Release Date: June 2024

TO DOWNLOAD PODCAST OR LISTEN:

    • Apple: Subscribe, Listen, Rate Us HERE

    • Spotify: Follow and Listen HERE

    • Any Smartphone Podcast app: Subscribe and Listen

Thank you for listening to Movers & Shapers! As we celebrate 9 years of our podcast and look toward year 10, we’re excited to announce some changes on the horizon. We will be back with updates at the end of summer. In the meantime, enjoy our archive of 175 interviews with a magnificently wide array of artists who shape the dance field. Stay tuned!

 

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

MSP 175: Rachel Damon

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PODCAST 175: Rachel Damon

Release Date: 6.3.24

TO DOWNLOAD PODCAST OR LISTEN:

    • Apple: Subscribe, Listen, Rate Us HERE

    • Spotify: Follow and Listen HERE

    • Any Smartphone Podcast app: Subscribe and Listen

When Decisions are Commitments with Rachel Damon

Episode 175: Show Notes

Joining us today is Rachel Damon, a choreographer, theatrical designer, performer, and co-founder and artistic director of Synapse Arts, a Chicago-based dance theater company. Rachel’s self-made career is a testament to her multidisciplinary talents, blending onstage and backstage roles to create dynamic performance works through collaboration, improvisation, and teamwork. In this episode, Rachel shares her remarkable journey from lovable weirdo at musical theatre summer camp to internationally-renowned production stage manager and performer who lives her life by making decisions as commitments. Tuning in, you’ll discover how her dual passions for choreography and crafting have fueled her personal and professional growth, the power of educating performers to negotiate their value, ensuring that art is recognized as legitimate work, and why diversity is a cornerstone of Synapse Arts’ identity. We also explore Rachel’s love for theatre production, her innovative partnership with the Chicago Park District, and the unique site-specific performances born from this collaboration. Join us for an engaging conversation that covers all this and more!

Key Points From This Episode:

  • An overview of Rachel’s background and what sparked her interest in dance and theatre.
  • The importance of exposing young people to theatre and the creative arts.
  • The immediacy that she loves about theatre production work and stage management.
  • How Links Hall in Chicago acted as a springboard for her career.
  • Insight into Synapse Arts, how it got started, and how it has evolved since.
  • Synapse’s partnership with the Chicago Park District’s Arts & Culture Unit (ACU).
  • Rachel’s site-specific and outdoor performances that punctuate everyday life.
  • The significance of her interdisciplinary work, including her “textile dances.”
  • Challenges she has encountered in her onstage and backstage career.
  • How Rachel empowers artists and advocates for art to be valued as work.
  • Ways that you can contribute to Synapse’s 20th Birthday Bash Campaign.
  • Why a diversity of identities and lived experiences is important in the arts.

“Being with the weird people who are risky, accepting, and idea-driven [is] where I feel safe and inspired.” — Rachel Damon

ABOUT Rachel

Rachel Damon (she/her) is a designer, choreographer, producer, and performer whose career bridges onstage and backstage. As a cofounder and Co-Director of Synapse Arts she has been honored to receive support from MetLife, The Saints, The Illinois Arts Council, 3Arts, and DCASE for projects that have been presented at The Dance Center, The Museum of Contemporary Art, The Detroit Institute of Art, Ingenuity Cleveland, TEK BOX Minneapolis, The Field Museum, Roy Hart International Arts Centre (France), and Vo’Arte (Portugal).

Damon has developed her dance-theatre, site-specific, film, and kinetic textile works through residencies with The Ragdale Foundation, The Morrison-Shearer Foundation, Links Hall, The Chicago Cultural Center, and South House (England).

A Stage Manager at Cirque du Soleil/Blue Man Group and a 2005 graduate of Columbia College Chicago, Damon loves to knit while watching action movies, and she eats dessert every day.

 

Connect with Rachel Damon

Synapse Arts

Synapse Arts on Instagram

 

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

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

MSP 174: Sydney Skybetter

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PODCAST 174: Sydney Skybetter

Release Date: 5.20.24

TO DOWNLOAD PODCAST OR LISTEN:

    • Apple: Subscribe, Listen, Rate Us HERE

    • Spotify: Follow and Listen HERE

    • Any Smartphone Podcast app: Subscribe and Listen

The Deeper Meaning of Dance, Dance and Emerging Technology, and Navigating an Economy that Exploits Dancers with Sydney Skybetter

Episode 174: Show Notes

Creating a successful career as a dancer in a world where there are few opportunities to thrive is particularly challenging. However, today’s guest has created a fascinating career for himself in the world of academia, research, and even dancing robots! Sydney Skybetter joins us today to discuss his life as a dancer, dance educator, and entrepreneur. In this conversation, you’ll hear all about how Sydney was introduced to dance, the beauty in the chosen family he created at art school, and his incredible Conference for Research and Choreographic Interfaces (CRCI). After Sydney’s studies, he was forced to hustle his way through a variety of odd jobs to survive financially and he tells us all about the important lessons he has learned from every job he’s ever had. We also delve into why dance programs should consider the dangers of sending dancers out into a world and economy that isn’t built for them, the connection between dance and emerging technology, potential problems for dancers and AI, and much more. Tune in now!

Key Points From This Episode:

  • An overview of Sydney’s life and how he got into dance.
  • The connection between dance history and emerging technology.
  • A commentary about the body-type expectations for dancers.
  • Insight into Sydney’s dance training and the chosen family he created.
  • All about the Conference for Research and Choreographic Interfaces (CRCI) he started.
  • Comparisons between writing and performance.
  • Some of his “weird jobs” and why he did them.
  • The danger of pumping out dancers into an economy that will not make good use of them.
  • How Sydney got into academia and what his experience at Brown University has been like.
  • What he is most excited about right now and the research he is currently doing.
  • How artists and dancers are being exploited, especially when it comes to technology.
  • What Sydney is excited about for his career in the near future.

“I came to realize that the academy was one of the few places where artists held longitudinal power.” — Sydney Skybetter

ABOUT Sydney

Sydney Skybetter is a choreographer. Hailed by the Financial Times as “One of the world’s foremost thinkers on the intersection of dance and emerging technologies,” Sydney’s choreography has been performed at such venues as The Kennedy Center and Jacob’s Pillow. He has lectured at SXSW, Yale, Mozilla and the Boston Dynamics AI Institute, and consulted for The National Ballet of Canada, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Hasbro, and The University of Southern California, among others. His work has been supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and a Creative Capital “Wild Futures” Award. He is a Senior Affiliate of metaLAB at Harvard University, a frequent contributor to WIRED and Dance Magazine, the Founder of the Conference for Research on Choreographic Interfaces and Host of the podcast, “Dances with Robots.” Sydney serves as the Deputy Dean of the College for Curriculum and Co-Curriculum, is an Associate Professor of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies, and was the first choreographer at Brown University to receive tenure.

 

Connect with Sydney Skybetter

choreographicinterfaces.org

danceswithrobots.org

Skybetter.org

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

 

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

MSP 173: Giada Matteini

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PODCAST 173: Giada Matteini

Release Date: 4.29.24

TO DOWNLOAD PODCAST OR LISTEN:

    • Apple: Subscribe, Listen, Rate Us HERE

    • Spotify: Follow and Listen HERE

    • Any Smartphone Podcast app: Subscribe and Listen

Dance for a Violence-Free Future with Giada Matteini

Episode 173: Show Notes

Today’s guest, Giada Matteini, embodies the belief that artists have the extraordinary ability to shape a world free from violence. As a performer, educator, choreographer, and cultural producer, Giada founded WADE (Wandering Avian Dance Experience), a women-led performing arts company that brings awareness to gender-based violence and offers healing through the transformative power of dance. In this episode of Movers & Shapers, Giada shares a panoramic view of her international dance career, brimming with hope and inspiration for those driven by their passion for art, movement, and self-expression. She speaks candidly about her personal experience with domestic violence and the profound role that dance played in her healing process; emphasizing how WADE emerged as a platform to raise awareness, initiate important conversations, empower survivors, and build a compassionate community of creative minds. You’ll gain insight into Giada’s journey, her dedication to her craft, and her unwavering commitment to using art as a catalyst for social change. This episode is a testament to the boundless potential of dance and resilience, so be sure to tune in today!

Key Points From This Episode:

  • Giada’s love for movement and teaching and an overview of her dance career.
  • The story of how she first came to the United States (and what made her stay).
  • How she learned English from The Cure and honed her American slang with TV.
  • Her early days in New York and how she began to build a career for herself.
  • Insight into her passion for learning and her formal dance education.
  • The haven that dance provided for Giada when life was difficult.
  • How WADE was born and how it became so much more than a dance company.
  • The bird that inspired the name and the four foundational pillars in the logo.
  • Touching stories about some of the most poignant moments from Giada’s career.
  • Why Giada refers to ballet as “the greatest equalizer” and her somatic approach to it.
  • Insight into her plans to use dance as a tool to build a violence-free future for all.

“My life was hard; emotionally hard, physically hard, financially hard. Dance was – my haven.” — Giada Matteini

 

ABOUT Giada

Giada Matteini is an Italian performer, educator, choreographer, and cultural producer based in New York City. She is the Founder and Director of WADE (Wandering Avian Dance Experience), a women-led multifaceted performing arts company working at the intersection with social justice and focused on supporting the voices and artistic expressions of women and historically underrepresented artists. WADE offers numerous points of entry into art and activism through educational programs and curated festivals in the US and Europe. Her WADEintoACTIVISM Festival began during the Covid-19 Pandemic lockdown as a response to the global increase of violence against women and continues its efforts today. The Festival joins the Global 16 Days Campaign, launched by the Center for Women’s Global Leadership and feminists from around the world and has forged collaborations with artists across the globe and with organizations fighting all forms of violence in schools, college campuses, dance studios and work places such as Speak About It: Consent Education, Project Callisto, Dance Data Project, Dance Education Equity Association, and White Ribbon.

Giada is an Assistant Arts Professor at NYU Tisch School of the Arts in NYC and has traveled as a guest artist to Germany, Sweden, Austria, Finland, Spain, China, The Philippines, Mexico and across the U.S. and Italy.

Her 30 year long and on-going ballet research is based in debunking the idea of elitism in the art form, by nurturing the appreciation of the many shapes and sizes of the moving body and of gender fluidity, with the intention to support the training of her students who might feel marginalized in the studio.

As a company director, Giada has produced and/or facilitated over 60 residencies with international artists including Roy Assaf (Roy Assaf Dance), Davide Di Pretoro (Sasha Waltz), Janet Wong (Bill T Jones), Diane Madden (Trisha Brown Dance Company), Kirsten Foote (Limón Dance Company), Cindy Salgado (Crystal Pite), Rashaun Mitchell (Merce Cunningham Dance Company), Shamel Pitts, Rena Butler, Netta Yerushalmy, Stefanie Batten Bland, Bobbi Jene Smith, Loni Landon, Gregory Dolbashian (Dash Ensemble), Shannon Gillen (Vim Vigor), Nathan Trice, Vita Osojnik, Charlotte Boye-Christenson, Cora Bos-Kroese (NDT), Richard Chen See (Paul Taylor Dance Company), Arcell Carbuag (Ronald K. Brown Evidence), Madboots, Sonya Tayeh, Studio Wayne McGregor, Ori Flomin, Sadé and Kristina Alleyne, Molissa Fenley and Company, Sarah Cernaux, and many more.

Giada holds a BA in Dance and Education from Empire State College, an Embodied Social Justice Certificate from the Embody Lab, a Parent Leadership Certificate from Rise Magazine, and she is working on her Moving For Life Certification with Martha Eddy.

 

Connect with Giada Matteini

Wade Website 

Dance Hub: Italy

 

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

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

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