MOVERS & SHAPERS: A DANCE PODCAST

The personal stories, experiences, and ideas from those who shape the dance field.

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Dec 01
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Movers & Shapers Podcast: Nel Shelby

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MOVERS & SHAPERS:
PODCAST No.14 – NEL SHELBY

Photo: Matthew Murphy

Release Date: December 1, 2015
Download Episode on iTunes and Rate Us HERE
Download Episode on Stitcher HERE
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Follow on Twitter @ShapersPodcast HERE

 

ABOUT NEL SHELBY

Nel Shelby demonstrates her dedication to the preservation and promotion of dance through excellent documentation of live performances, the creation of smart and engaging marketing videos, and the making of original documentaries and films covering a variety of topics in the field.

Nel produced and directed PS DANCE!, an hour-long documentary about dance education in NYC’s public schools, created with Jody Gottfried Arnhold and Joan Finkelstein and narrated by veteran television journalist Paula Zahn. PS DANCE! had its premiere broadcast on THIRTEEN/WNET in May 2015 and has since aired on public television networks across the country. Nel’s half-hour dance documentary featuring Nejla Y. Yatkin was filmed in Central America in 2010 and was recently screened during a PillowTalk at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. Nel has also created four short films for Wendy Whelan’s Restless Creature, and she collaborated with Adam Barruch Dance on a short film titled “Folie a Deux,” which was selected and screened at the Dance on Camera Festival in New York City and San Francisco Dance Film Festival.

Her New York City-based video production company, Nel Shelby Productions, has grown to encompass a diverse list of dance clients. Since 2004, Nel has served as Festival Videographer for the internationally celebrated Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in the Berkshires. Each season at the Pillow, Nel’s responsibilities include documenting aspects of festival culture in addition to its 20 mainstage dance performances, filming and overseeing documentation of more than 100 free performances and events, managing two dance videography interns and an apprentice, and educating students about the technical and philosophical aspects of filming dance.

She also serves as Resident Videographer at the Vail International Dance Festival where she creates short dance documentary films and marketing videos about the festival in addition to documenting its events and performances. Her longer-form, half-hour documentary on Vail’s festival, The Altitude of Dance, debuted on Rocky Mountain PBS in May 2013.

Nel has a long personal history with movement – she has a B.F.A. in dance and is a certified Pilates instructor. In addition to her dance degree, Nel holds a B.S. in broadcast video. She lives in New York City with her husband, dance photographer Christopher Duggan, and their kids Gracie and Jack.

MORE ON NEL:

 PODCAST INTERVIEW LINKS

“Water Ballet”

Up With People

Stephens College

Séan Curran

Loretta Livingston

Jacob’s Pillow Dance

Doug Varone

Jose Limón Company

Inbal Pinto

Jacob’s Pillow Dance Interactive

Savion Glover

Urban Bush Woman

Roxanne Butterfly

Wendy Whelan “Restless Creature”

Adam Barruch

Arvo Part

Max Richter

PS Dance! Documentary

Johannes & Jenny Holub

Christopher Duggan

Fabienne Fredrickson

Capacity Interactive

Vail International Dance Festival

NYCB Moves

American Dance Machine

Chita Rivera

Podcast produced by: The Moving Architects
Interviewer: Erin Carlisle Norton
Intro Music: “Singing Distance” by Elijah Aaron

Nov 17
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Movers & Shapers Podcast: Pat Graney

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MOVERS & SHAPERS:

Pat Graney

Photo by Marina Levitskaya, courtesy of Peak Performances at Montclair State University

Podcast No.13 – Pat Graney

Release Date: November 17, 2015

Download Episode on iTunes, Subscribe, and Rate Us HERE
Download Episode on Stitcher HERE
Join the Movers and Shapers Facebook Community HERE
Follow on Twitter @ShapersPodcast HERE

 

ABOUT PAT GRANEY: CHOREOGRAPHER

Seattle-based choreographer Pat Graney received Choreography Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts for 11 consecutive years, as well as from Artist Trust, the Washington State Arts Commission, the NEA International Program, National Corporate Fund for Dance and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. In 2008, Ms. Graney was awarded both the Alpert Award and a US Artists Award in Dance.

In 2011 Ms. Graney was the recipient of the ‘Arts Innovator’ Award from Artist Trust and the Dale Chihuly Foundation. In 2013, Ms. Graney was one of 20 Americans to receive a Doris Duke Performing Artist Award.

Ms. Graney hails from St. Augustine, Florida, where she spent her seminal years after the Graney family relocated there from Chicago. In 1969, with her family, Pat moved to Mechanicsville, VA and Philadelphia, PA, before returning to St. Augustine to finish high school. Starting her college career at Tallahassee Community College, Ms. Graney eventually went on to The Evergreen State College, then transferred to University of Arizona where she graduated with a BFA in 1979. While at U of A, Pat studied extensively with Dr. John M. Wilson. In the fall of 1979, Graney moved to Seattle, which has been her home for the past thirty years.

In 1981, Graney presented her first full evening of work entitled ‘go red go red, laugh white,’ set to the writing of Gertrude Stein. She went on to choreograph more work to Stein’s writing as well as the writing of Julio Cortazar and Raymond Carver. Departing from the written word, Graney started exploring the use of music combined with American Sign Language to create Colleen Ann, a work commissioned for the French/American Dance Exchange in 1986.

In 1987, with Beliz Brother, she created a work for 7 gymnasts on 7 sets of uneven parallel bars, set against the backdrop of Marymoor Park, and in 1988 Graney created an original work for Pacific NW Ballet. Seven/Uneven toured to the Serious Fun Festival at Lincoln Center and went on to appear at MayFest in Glasgow in 1991. Following the gymnastic works, Ms. Graney began to create a body of work related to women with Faith (1991), Sleep (1995), and Tattoo (2001). In between creating this Triptych of works, Ms. Graney created the full evening work Vivaldi, choreographed 150 gymnasts for the Goodwill Games, and worked with 130 female martial artists for the Movement Meditation Project in 1996. Following the 12 city national tour of Tattoo, Graney created the Vivian girls (set to the artwork of Henry Darger) with music by Martin Hayes and Amy Denio. In 2008, Graney created House of Mind, an installation performance work set in a 5000 square foot raw space featuring an eighteen foot high wall containing 4000 miniatures, a wall of 100,000 buttons with water flowing over it, a closet of giant little girls’ dresses, hundreds of gold shoes, a 50 x 4 foot-long room covered with 1940’s police reports and a large scale video installation by Ellen Bromberg.

Ms. Graney’s interest in working with incarcerated women began in 1992 after a conversation with Rebecca Terrell, then head of Florida Dance Festival. This conversation later morphed into what has become Keeping the Faith/The Prison Project. KTF is an arts-based residency program that features dance, expository writing and visual arts, and culminates in performances. This project has been conducted at FCI Lowell & FCI Broward in Florida, MCI Framingham in Massachusetts, Excelsior Girls School in Denver, Houston City Jail, Echo Glen Children’s Center & King County Juvenile Detention in Washington, Red Rock Juvenile Center in Maricopa County, AZ, Shakopee Women’s Prison in Minnesota, Estrella Jail in Phoenix, AZ, River City Correctional Center in Cincinnati, OH, Tokyo Girls Detention in Japan, Bahia Women’s Prison in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, Munich City Jail in Munich, Germany, the Dochas Centre/MountJoy Prison in Dublin, Ireland and Washington State Corrections Center for Women and Mission Creek Corrections Center for Women in Washington State.

Keeping the Faith/The Prison Project is one of the longest-running prison arts programs in the US.

Ms. Graney’s latest work, a peformance/installation project called girl gods, will premiere at On the Boards in Seattle in 2015. With National Dance Project Production and Touring support, the work will tour nationally and internationally through 2016.

MORE ON PAT GRANEY

Facebook Page

#GIRLGODS Blog

PODCAST INTERVIEW LINKS

Tallahassee Community College

Evergreen State College

Anna Halprin

On the Boards

John Wilson

Repertory Dance Theater

Margaret H’Doubler

Steve Paxton

Nancy Stark Smith

Pina Bausch

Bill Evans Dance

Gertrude Stein

Laurie Anderson

Robert McGinley

12 Minutes Max

DTW Fresh Tracks

David White

National Performance Network

Ann Carlson

Bebe Miller

Sharon Gannon 

“Childrenz Muzeum”

Elizabeth Zimmer

NDP

“Girl Gods”

 

Podcast produced by: The Moving Architects
Interviewer: Erin Carlisle Norton
Intro Music: “Singing Distance” by Elijah Aaron

Nov 03
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Movers & Shapers Podcast: Leslie Anderson-Braswell

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MOVERS & SHAPERS:FullSizeRender copy
Podcast No.12 – LESLIE ANDERSON-BRASWELL

Release Date: November 3, 2015

Download Episode on iTunes, Subscribe, and Rate Us HERE
Download Episode on Stitcher HERE
Join the Movers and Shapers Facebook Community HERE
Follow on Twitter @ShapersPodcast HERE

 

ABOUT LESLIE ANDERSON-BRASWELL: BALLET INSTRUCTOR

Leslie Anderson-Braswell’s love for dance began at the three years of age, continued through early childhood at Pittsburgh’s Kingsley House, with Mr. Miller (Jack), and becoming her love, destiny and ultimate life’s journey at the age of twelve when she joined the children cast of the newly forming Pittsburgh Ballet Theater, under the direction of choreographer Nicholas Petrov in 1969. In 1971, Leslie became one of the youngest members of the corps de ballet, training under renowned ballet masters / choreographers such as Edward Caton, Vitale Fokine, Leonide Massine, Fredrick Franklin, and many others, dancing in a variety of renowned classical ballets for three seasons. During the summer of 1972, Leslie was encouraged by teachers / resident principal dancers of the Pittsburgh Ballet Theater, Kenneth Johnson and Patricia Kleckovic. to spend the summer at Arthur Mitchell’s newly forming Dance Theater of Harlem in New York, which she did, and immediately, her goal was to one day return as a dancer for Arthur Mitchell’s African-American ballet company. In 1973, Leslie auditioned for John Cranko, director and choreographer extraordinaire of the Stuttgart Ballet, and was accepted into the exclusive pre-professional Stuttgart Ballet School, in Stuttgart, West Germany. While in Stuttgart, Leslie performed with the Stuttgart State Opera, in addition to the assigned roles with the Stuttgart Ballet School and Company. In 1975, Leslie auditioned, and was invited to join the Geneva Ballet, in Geneva Switzerland, by artistic director Patricia Neary, former principal dancer with the New York City Ballet; however, Leslie longed to return to the United States to work with Arthur Mitchell, the first Black principal dancer of George Balanchine’s, New York City Ballet, who is founder and director of the internationally acclaimed Dance Theater of Harlem in New York City. With Ms. Neary’s assistance, the audition was arranged, and Leslie was asked to join Dance Theater of Harlem in 1975. Prior to arriving in New York, Leslie underwent foot surgery, at home in Pittsburgh, for an injury that occurred in Stuttgart. Upon returning to New York as a member of The Dance Theater of Harlem, Leslie performed, touring extensively throughout America and Europe. Unfortunately, the results of the previous surgery were unfavorable, which led Leslie to make a decision to leave Dance Theater of Harlem, and professional ballet, much earlier than anticipated. Leslie returned home, beginning the most amazing journey of her life; teaching, imparting the wealth of knowledge and experience accumulated through the magnificent opportunities she experienced early in her life, to a multitude of exceptionally talented students that, she feels very blessed, have crossed her path.

In 1979, Leslie was the first dance teacher hired by Dr. Harry Clark, founding principal, and Dr. Marilyn Barnett, first Dance Department Chair to teach ballet at the newly forming, Pittsburgh High School for the Creative and Performing Arts, originally located in Homewood, the neighborhood where she grew up. Currently, CAPA 6-12, is located prominently in downtown Pittsburgh’s growing cultural district, Leslie and has been a member of the Dance Department faculty for 36 years, where she has inspired a generations of aspiring dancers. In 1980, Leslie was selected to serve as the second artistic director of the well established, professional performing group in the Black tradition of dance, Pittsburgh Black Theater Dance Ensemble, by artistic director/ founder, the late Bob Johnson, a position she held until the company folded in 1983. Equally prominent teaching credits include Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera Academy of Musical Theater, where Leslie taught for 16 years with Buddy Thompson, with whom she shares a kinship and bond, nurtured in the early years of the high school, to inspire excellence and greatness in every serious student of dance that crossed their paths, which is a shared on-going commitment. As a result of working together at the Academy, many former students have reached the pinnacle of success in their artistic careers; they include McArthur Genius Recipient, choreographer/ dance artist Kyle Abraham, “Kinky Boots” star and Tony Award Recipient, Billy Porter, Jason McDole, former dance artist with the David Parson and Lar Lubovitch dance companies, Quela Clancy, principal dancer and instructor with Lula Washington Dance Company, Brandon Cowles, former dance artist with the Merce Cunningham Company, Erin Carlisle-Norton, choreographer/ founder/ artistic director, The Moving Architects, Sarrah Strimmel, Broadway dancer/ actress/ singer, Courtney Mazza-Lopez, Broadway dancer/ actress/ singer, Lauren Morelli, Orange is the New Black, writer, to mention a few.

Throughout the years, Leslie has been a guest teacher for many schools, dance organizations and professional dance companies throughout Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan. Leslie has served as a guest master class teacher for the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, Philadanco Dance Company, International Association of Blacks in Dance Conference, Dance Masters of America (PA Chapter), Checchetti Ballet Council (PA Chapter), Lee’s School of Dance, Roger’s School of Dance, Dance Arts Academy. Leslie served as principal ballet teacher and consultant for the former August Wilson Dance Ensemble in Pittsburgh, PA., for founder and artistic director, Greer A. Reed, whom Leslie has proudly mentored throughout her successful journey and career in dance. Greer A. Reed’s AWDE was named, “25 to Watch in 2012” by Dance Magazine. August, of 2012, during the 5th annual, RDI, Reed Dance Intensive, Founder/ Director, gave the 1st annual award, named in honor of Leslie, The Brazzy Award, for her lifetime achievement in providing outstanding excellence in dance education and mentorship. Since 2012, the award has been given annually, presented during the concluding performance to two outstanding dance artist from the Pittsburgh area, selected by a panel of judges, headed by Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Dance Critic, Jane Vranish. Likewise, Leslie has been available for successful former student, Ayisha Morgan-Lee Smith, MAM, founder and director of HDAT, Hill Dance Academy Theater, a successful, innovative arts education institution, located in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, PA. Through the years Leslie has been available for HDAT workshops, conferences, master classes and the annual HDAT Summer Intensive. Recently, Ayisha Morgan-Lee Smith and the HDAT organization honored Leslie with their 2015 Bold Vision Shona Sharif Award, for outstanding artistic excellence, at their 10th Anniversary, Diamond Gala Celebration. Leslie, Ayisha and HDAT were commended with an official letter from Charon Battles, of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, whom is a dear friend and someone that Leslie looked up to, as the only soloist, Black ballerina, in the Pittsburgh Ballet Theater. Charon commended Leslie as a Pittsburgh legend in dance for the life-long love,commitment and promotion of the art of dance. Leslie is eternally grateful for Charon’s acknowledgement of her work.

Life long mentor and consultant, the late Jeraldyne Blunden, Founder/ Director of Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, constantly encouraged and urged Leslie to continually grow and share the wealth of accumulated knowledge. As a result, throughout the years, Leslie has been commissioned for choreographic works for a variety of organizations, dance companies, dance schools and individuals. Leslie received a choreography fellowship from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, National Association of Regional Ballet Choreographic Development Workshop/ Phyllis Lamhut, Director, and the Ann Vachon Choreographic Development Workshop. Leslie was commissioned for choreography for the AWDE/ Pittsburgh Symphony Collaboration, and in the past has choreographed for several northeastern performing arts groups, as well as an episode of Mister Roger’s Neighborhood. She was also a recipient of a choreography fellowships from the Heinz Endowment, the Greater Columbus Arts Council and the Ohio Council on the Arts. In 1986 Leslie was awarded an Outstanding Distinguished Teacher Award, for 1st place female dance award recipient, Janeen Elliott, of the Young Arts Scholarship Program, presented at the White House by President Ronald Reagan. She was honored with an Outstanding Woman of America Award in 1982, and, Outstanding Artist Award from the Pittsburgh’s Greater Legacy Council, in celebration of African-American Artists.

PODCAST INTERVIEW LINKS

Kingsley House

Pittsburgh Ballet TheaterNicolas Petrov

Natalia Makaravo

Point Park College

Charon Battles

Jon Cranko

Ruth Page

Joyce Cuoco

Maxine Sherman

Dance Theatre of Harlem

Arthur Mitchell

Janet Collins

Stephanie Dabney 

Keith Saunders

Greer Reed

Misty Copeland

Podcast produced by: The Moving Architects
Interviewer: Erin Carlisle Norton
Intro Music: “Singing Distance” by Elijah Aaron

Oct 20
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Movers & Shapers Podcast: Heidi Latsky

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MOVERS & SHAPERS:Heidi 2
Podcast No.11 – HEIDI LATSKY

Release Date: October 20, 2015

Download Episode on iTunes, Subscribe, and Rate Us HERE
Download Episode on Stitcher HERE
Join the Movers and Shapers Facebook Community HERE
Follow on Twitter @ShapersPodcast HERE

ABOUT HEIDI LATSKY: ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, CHOREOGRAPHER, PERFORMER

HEIDI LATSKY, originally from Montreal, first received recognition as a celebrated principal dancer for the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company (1987-1993). Her experience there profoundly influenced her style and her philosophy of dance as she developed a reputation in her own right as a choreographer for stage, theater, and film.

In 1993, she received a commission from the Cannes International Dance Festival. Three years later, she was chosen to represent Canada at the Suzanne Dellal International Dance Competition in Tel Aviv and at Danse a Lille in France. Since then, Latsky has toured extensively throughout the United States and Europe with her own company and as part of Goldhuber & Latsky (with former partner Lawrence Goldhuber) [1996-2000].

Latsky headed the Movement Department at The School for Film and Television from 1998-2005, where she developed her teaching practice: The Latsky Method. She has taught internationally throughout her career and her “Movement Portraits in Action” program has been implemented at the AIDS Service Center and The Creative Center in NYC.

While working with Theater Director Mary Fulham, she received two Innovative Theater Award nominations. She served as choreographer on Academy Award nominated Katja Esson’s film “A Season of Madness” and as director and choreographer on Susan Murphy’s GIRL/GROUP at the Marquee, NYC (2003).

In 2001, she founded her own company, Heidi Latsky Dance (HLD). During the fall of 2006, Latsky began an intensive period of creation with bi-lateral amputee, Lisa Bufano. This marked a significant shift of focus for HLD and a period of immense growth, during which she more fully developed the company’s mission and vision. HLD received an ARC grant through Pentacle that included mentoring Latsky for a period of 18 months, and in 2009 she was chosen by Creative Capital Foundation as one of four choreographers nationally to receive a three-year award for her evening-length work, GIMP. In 2014, she was selected as the first participant in “Dance for Film on Location at Montclair State University,” a three-year short film series underwritten by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The film will premiere as part of the company’s live show at Peak Performances in April 2015.

Her range of work is as varied as guest lecturing at Harvard University, performing with other Bill T Jones’ alumni in “SUMMER REUNION,” restaging a piece of Arnie Zane’s at the University of Wisconsin/Milwaukee, creating a work at the Aaron Academy for high school students with learning disabilities, directing workshops in performance skills, performing in 2012’s TEDxWomen, and developing new works for her contemporaries like Li Chiao Ping as featured in several films by Douglas Rosenberg, including Seven Solos in 2012.

Latsky has continued her work as an adjudicator of the American College Dance Festival Association’s (ACDFA) and serves on the Artist Advisory Board of Danspace Project. She has a BA in Psychology with Honors from Carleton University (1979), receiving the Senate Medal for Outstanding Academic Achievement and The Ottawa Ladies College Scholarship.

MORE ON HEIDI LATSKY

PODCAST INTERVIEW LINKS

Les Grands Ballets

Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal

York University

Twyla Tharp

Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company

Ligamentous Laxity

Sean Curran

Donald Byrd

Keith Young

Lawrence Goldhuber

Lisa Bufano

Jeremy Alliger

The Gimp Project

Bob Fosse

25th Anniversary Americans with Disabilities Act

Jerron Herman

Meredith Fages

Lawrence Carter-Long

Creative Capital

Abrons Arts Center

Simi Linton

Janet Wong

Podcast produced by: The Moving Architects
Interviewer: Erin Carlisle Norton
Intro Music: “Singing Distance” by Elijah Aaron

Oct 06
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Movers & Shapers Podcast: Elizabeth McPherson

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MOVERS & SHAPERS:
Podcast No.10 – ELIZABETH MCPHERSON

Release Date: October 6, 2015

Download Episode on iTunes, Subscribe, and Rate Us HERE
Download Episode on Stitcher HERE
Join the Movers and Shapers Facebook Community HERE
Follow on Twitter @ShapersPodcast HERE

 

ABOUT ELIZABETH MCPHERSON: PROFESSOR, WRITER, HISTORIAN, NOTATOR

Elizabeth McPherson is an associate professor and coordinator of the BA in Dance (with teaching concentrations) at Montclair State University. She received her BFA from Juilliard, followed by an MA from The City College of New York, and a PhD from New York University. Dr. McPherson is the author of The Bennington School of the Dance: A History in Writings and Interviews and The Contributions of Martha Hill to American Dance and Dance Education, 1900-1995, as well as a contributor of articles and reviews to Ballet Review, Dance Teacher Magazine, Attitude: The Dancers’ Magazine and The Journal of Dance Education. She worked as a historical consultant on the film Miss Hill, Making Dance Matter and is the Executive Editor of the journal Dance Education in Practice, produced by the National Dance Education Organization. The focus of her research is teaching and learning in dance education with an emphasis on history. She has particular expertise in oral interviews, which make up significant portions of both of her books.

Dr. McPherson has staged numerous 20th century dance works from Labanotation and other sources. Recent projects include Antony Tudor’s Continuo and excerpts from Anna Sokolow’s Rooms. She is a board member of the Martha Hill Dance Fund (since 2005) and on the professional advisory committee of the Dance Notation Bureau. Performance credits include: Ernesta Corvino’s Dance Circle Company, Avodah Dance Ensemble, and the Louis Johnson Dance Theatre.

MORE ON ELIZABETH MCPHERSON

PODCAST INTERVIEW LINKS

Nashville Metro Parks

Balanchine’s “Nutcracker”

Petipa’s “Sleeping Beauty”

Nashville Ballet

Burklyn Ballet Theatre

La Sylphide

Ellen Robbins

Lawrence Rhodes

Alfredo Corvino

Journal of Dance Education

Donald McKayle’s “Games”

Nijinksky’s “Afternoon of a Fawn”

Murial Topaz

Tina Curran

Labanotation

Avodah Dance Ensemble

Doris Humphrey’s “Invention”

Anna Sokolow

Martha Hill

BJ Sills

Helen Tamaris

Podcast produced by: The Moving Architects
Interviewer: Erin Carlisle Norton
Intro Music: “Singing Distance” by Elijah Aaron

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