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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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