Movers & Shapers: A Dance Podcast

Today's guest is Lar Lubovitch. Lar is one of America’s most versatile and widely seen choreographers. He founded the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company in 1968. Over the course of 54 years, it has gained an international reputation as one of America’s top dance companies, produced more than 120 dances and performed before millions across the U.S. and over 40 countries. Many other major companies throughout the world have performed the company’s dances, including American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, the Joffrey Ballet, Martha Graham Dance Company, and more. Recent awards: 2011 designated a Ford Fellow by United States Artists and received the Dance/USA Honors Award; 2012 his dance “Crisis Variations” awarded the Prix Benois de la Danse for outstanding choreography at the Bolshoi Theatre; 2013 honored for lifetime achievement by the American Dance Guild; 2014 awarded an honorary doctorate by The Juilliard Scho

Today's guest is Nadia Adame. Nadia is a Spanish multidisciplinary award-winning artist with a spinal cord injury and the Artistic Director at AXIS Dance Company. She was a company member with AXIS (2001-2003) and Candoco Dance Company (2007-2008). In 2004, she co-founded and was the Co-Artistic Director of Compañía Y in Spain, a multimedia and performance collective. Nadia’s credits include dance, theatre, commercial, and independent film projects in the UK, Spain, US, and Canada. As a performer, she has been featured in works by Stephen Petronio, Bill T. Jones, Arthur Pita, Rafael Bonachela, Davis Robertson, Sonya Delwaide, Marc Brew, Chevi Muraday and Asun Noales, among others.  For more on this episode: Movers & Shapers: A Dance Podcast

Today's guest is Erica Hornthal. Erica, a licensed clinical professional counselor and board-certified dance/movement therapist, is the CEO and founder of Chicago Dance Therapy. Since graduating with her MA in dance/movement therapy and counseling, Erica has worked with thousands of patients from age 3 to 107. Known as “The Therapist Who Moves You,” Erica has truly changed the way people see movement with regard to mental health: moving people toward unlimited potential, greater awareness, and purpose by tapping into their innate body wisdom. In addition to her passion for working with cognitive and movement disorders, neurologic conditions, anxiety, depression, and trauma, she is an advocate for the field of dance/movement therapy. Erica created the Dance Therapy Advocates Summit in 2020 in order to spread awareness and inspire and connect individuals and practitioners from all over the world. For more on Erica and this episode: Movers & Shapers: A Dance Podcast

Today's guest is Shamel Pitts. Shamel is a dancer, choreographer, teacher, as well as performance, conceptual, and spoken word artist. Since 2019, he is the artistic director/founder of TRIBE, a New York-based multidisciplinary arts collective which was a 2020-21 Artist-In-Residence at 92Y Harkness Dance Center. Born in Brooklyn, New York, he started his professional dance career with Mikhail Baryshnikov’s Hell’s Kitchen Dance and BJM_Danse Montreal. Between 2009-2016, he was a company member of the Batsheva Dance Company, led by Ohad Naharin where he studied Gaga movement language, of which he is now a certified teacher. Since 2015, Shamel has created a triptych of award-winning multidisciplinary works known as “BLACK Series,” which has been performed and toured extensively to many festivals around the world. He is the recipient of a 2018 Princess Grace Award in Choreography, a 2019 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship Award winner in Choreography, and a 2020 Jacob’s Pillow artist in residence, a 2020 Guggenheim Fel

Today's guest is Cara Hagan. Cara is a mover, maker, writer, curator, champion of just communities, and a dreamer. Cara's adventures take place as live performance, on screen, as installation, on the page, and in collaboration with others in a multitude of contexts. In recent years, Cara and her work have traveled to such gatherings as the Performática Festival in Cholula, Mexico, the Conference on Geopoetics in Edinburgh, Scotland, the Loikka Dance Film Festival in Helsinki, Finland, the Taos Poetry Festival in Taos, New Mexico, and to the Dance on Camera Festival in New York City. Extended residencies have taken place at Thirak India in Jaipur, India, Playa Summer Lake in the dynamic outback of Oregon, Roehampton University in London, the University of Colorado at Boulder, and the University of North Carolina, School of the Arts. Since becoming a parent and navigating a global pandemic, Hagan’s work takes place a bit closer to home these days. She is working on a new book titled, Ritual is Both Balm and Res

Today's guest is Peggy Baker. Peggy Baker has been a vivid presence in contemporary dance since 1973, performing internationally in the work of Lar Lubovitch, Mark Morris (with Mikhail Baryshnikov’s White Oak Dance Project), Doug Varone, Tere O’Connor, Molissa Fenley, and Charles Moulton (NYC); with Fortier Danse-Creation (Montreal); and Dancemakers, Toronto Dance Theatre, and James Kudelka, (Toronto). She established Peggy Baker Dance Projects in 1990, and for the first 20 years she dedicated herself to solo performance, winning rapturous praise for the eloquence and depth of her dancing, and accolades for her collaborative partnerships with extraordinary choreographers, directors, musicians, and designers. Since 2010 her choreography has focused on works for small ensemble. Over its 32-year history Peggy Baker Dance Projects has been presented at major festivals and dance centres in North America, Asia and Europe, including Danspace, The Kitchen, Symphony Space, and the Harkness Festival in New York; the Lu

Today's guest is Moses Pendleton. Moses has been one of America’s most innova­tive and widely performed choreographers and directors for over 40 years.  A co-founder of the ground-breaking Pilobolus Dance Theater in 1971, he formed his own company, MOMIX, in 1980. Mr. Pendleton has also worked extensively in film, TV, and opera and as a choreographer for ballet companies and special events. Moses is an avid photographer with works presented in Rome, Milan, Florence, and Aspen. Images of his sunflower plant­ings at his home in northwestern Connecticut have been featured in numerous books and articles on gardening.  Momix at Staller Center for the Arts, Stony Brook, NY on April 2, 2022 For more on this episode: Movers & Shapers: A Dance Podcast

Today's guest is Netta Yerushalmy.  Netta is an award winning choreographer and performer originally from Galilee, Israel. Based in New York City since 2000, her work aims to engage with audiences by imparting the sensation of things as they are perceived, not as they are known, and to challenge how meaning is attributed and constructed.   Most recently recognized with a 2022 United States Artists Fellowship, Netta has also been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, Princeton Arts Fellowship, Research Fellowship from New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Toulmin Fellowship for Women Leaders in Dance at the Center for Ballet and the Arts at New York University, New York City Center Choreography Fellowship, Jerome Robbins Bogliasco Fellowship, Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants-to-Artists Award, National Dance Project Grant, LMCC’s Extended Life, Six Points Fellowship, and a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship. For more on Netta and this episode  including her upcoming work with Peak Performa

Today's guest is Hannah Kahn, founder and artistic director of the Hannah Kahn Dance Company.  Hannah is a master teacher with fifty-two years of experience creating over one hundred and forty dances. Some of the strongest influences on her choreography were her childhood classes in Ithaca, New York with Iris Barbura, her studies of the techniques of Jose Limon and Martha Graham, and her performance of dances by Doris Humphrey and Anna Sokolow.  The practice of Tai Chi has also influenced her movement style.  After graduating from the Juilliard School in 1972, Kahn founded the Company in New York, and directed it there for twelve years before moving to Colorado in 1988, where she has directed the company ever since.  In addition to her own company, her works have been in the repertories of over a dozen other dance companies.  For more on this episode: Movers & Shapers: A Dance Podcast Catch The Moving Architects at Green Space, NYC March 18-19, for premieres of new work. For more info: The Moving Architec

Today's guest is Lisa La Touche. As a proud Canadian and former New Yorker, Lisa’s credits are world renowned. She was an original cast member in Broadway’s Shuffle Along, choreographed by Savion Glover and Directed by George C. Wolfe, where she received both the Fred Astaire Award and the Actor’s Equity Award for Outstanding Broadway Chorus. Her TV credits include the 70th Annual Tony Awards and Amazon’s Original “Z, The beginning of everything”. Previous highlights have also included touring with the Savion Glover production, Stepz, and also performing with both New York's Off-Broadway and the North American touring casts of STOMP. Since 2010 she has run her own performance company Tap Phonics and has been commissioned to present for organizations such as The Brooklyn Museum, 92Y, Gibney Dance and Fall For Dance North. As an educator and Professor she has taught for PACE University, NYU, The School of Jacob’s Pillow, University of Calgary, Decidedly Jazz Danceworks, Rosie’s Theater Kids and member of the

Today's guest is veteran choreographer and dance educator, JoAnna Mendl Shaw. JoAnna has been devising performance works for stage, rural and urban landscapes since the 1980’s. Her body of interspecies work initiates visceral engagement with the natural and cultural environment. Redefining the possibilities for dance-making, Shaw’s research into the human-equine dialogue began in 1998. Her company, The Equus Projects, tours throughout the States and Europe creating site-specific works through immersive collaboration with local equine and arts communities. An internationally recognized dance educator, Shaw has taught on faculty at NYU, The Juilliard School, Alvin Ailey, Princeton, Mount Holyoke, and Montclair State. Shaw is the recipient of NEA Choreographic Fellowships and multiple NEA grants for Interdisciplinary Performance. She has brought her somatic practice of Physical Listening into elementary schools and academic think tanks, into the Strategic Studies group at the Naval War College and NYU Medical sc

Today’s podcast is a re-airing of an interview with Nai-Ni Chen on Movers & Shapers from February 2018.  Nai-Ni passed away unexpectedly on December 12, 2021 in a swimming accident in Hawaii. Since starting her dance company Nai-Ni Chen Dance in 1998, her choreography has brought the dynamic freedom of American modern dance together with the elegant splendor of Asian art.  Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company has been one of the most visible Asian American dance companies in America, touring nationally and internationally over the last 30+ years.  Her signature technique, Kinetic Spiral, is a fusion the dynamism of contemporary dance with the essence of Chinese traditional art.  As a beloved member of the New Jersey and NYC dance communities, she will be deeply missed and her work and spirit will continue to resonate with everyone she touched. For more on this episode: Movers & Shapers: A Dance Podcast

Today's guest is Loni Landon.  Loni is a Dancer, Choreographer, and Movement Consultant based in New York City. In addition to creating dances for her own collective Loni Landon Dance Project, her work is commissioned by dance companies and film directors across the country. Born and raised in New York City, Loni performed with Aszure Barton and Artists, Ballet Theater Munich, Tanz Munich Theater, and The Metropolitan Opera, and is a Princess Grace Choreography Fellowship Winner.  As a sought after choreographer, her work has been commissioned by such institutions as The Joyce Theater, Keigwin and Company, BODYTRAFFIC, The Juilliard School, American Dance Institute, Northwest Dance Project, and Groundworks Dance Company.  Her company has performed at The Joyce Theater, Pulse Art Fair, Jacob’s Pillow, Insitu Dance Festival, Bryant Park, Beach Sessions in Rockaway Beach and Guggenheim Works and Process Series. Loni has won numerous choreography awards, with residencies at New Movement Residency at USC Glorya Ka

Today's guest is Margaret Jenkins. Margaret Jenkins, founder and artistic director of the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company, celebrating the 50th anniversary of her Company in 2022, is a choreographer and mentor to many artists as well as a designer of unique community-based dance projects. In the 1960's, Margaret moved to New York to study at Juilliard, continued her training at UCLA and returned to New York to dance in the companies of Jack Moore, Viola Farber, Judy Dunn, James Cunningham, Gus Solomons, Jr. and Twyla Tharp’s original company with Sara Rudner. In addition, Jenkins was a member of the faculty of the Merce Cunningham Studio and restaged his works for companies in Europe and the United States for over 12 years. In 1970, Jenkins returned to San Francisco, and in 1973, formed the MJDC. She opened one of the West Coast's first studio-performing spaces and a school for the training of professional modern dancers. In the last five decades, she has created an impressive body of work, with over 85 works

Today’s guest is Rosie Herrera. Rosie is a Cuban-American dancer and choreographer working within the fields of modern dance, opera, cabaret, theater and film. She is the artistic director of Rosie Herrera Dance Theater in Miami. Rosie has been commissioned by such groups as The Miami Light Project, The Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, Ballet Hispanico, Jose Limon Dance Company, and the American Dance Festival (ADF) in 2010, 2011, 2013, 2016 and 2018.  Her company, Rosie Herrera Dance Theatre, has been presented by the Northrop Dance Series, New World Symphony, Baryshnicov Arts Center, Texas A & M University, Maui Arts and Cultural Center, Dance Place, Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans, The Yard at Marthas Vineyard, Gotham Dance at Skirball and Focus Dance at The Joyce as well as by The American Dance Festival at the Joyce NYC in 2016 and 2018, among others.  Rosie is a 2016 USArtist Sarah Arison Choreographic Fellow, a 2010 and 2018 MANCC choreographic fellow, a 2014 Bates Dance Festival

Today's guest is Ali Kenner Brodsky. Ali makes gesturally rich and emotionally driven dance-theater works that ask the viewer to indulge in a world of reflection, remembering, and connection. Her dance company, ali kenner brodsky & co., produces, presents, and tours original works of choreography and dance films. Ali was recently accepted into NEFA’S New England Regional Dance Development Initiative, was a 2019 artist-in-residence at the Croft: Ground for Art, a 2018-19 Catalysts artist at the Dance Complex, 2016 Emerging Choreographer in Residence at Bates Dance Festival, and 2014 recipient of the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts Choreography Fellowship. Alongside David Henry, Lila Hurwitz and Andy Russ, Ali co-founded Motion State Arts which presents innovative dance-films and live performances from local, national and international artists. For more on this podcast episode: Movers & Shapers: A Dance Podcast

Today's guest is Colleen Thomas. Colleen is a New York-based choreographer, scholar, teacher, and performing artist. She is the director of Colleen Thomas Dance, co-director of Bill Young/Colleen Thomas Co., and co-curator for LIT (loft into theater). She began her professional career with the Miami Ballet and went on to work with renowned contemporary choreographers such as The Kevin Wynn Collection, Nina Wiener Dance Company, Donald Byrd/The Group, Bebe Miller Dance Company, and Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, among others. Her work has been seen throughout the United States as well as in Europe, Asia, and South America and has been presented in NYC at Danspace Project, Movement Research at Judson Memorial Church, Dance Theatre Workshop/New York Live Arts, and La MaMa MOVES! Dance Festival, to name just a few. She is currently a Professor of Professional Practice at Barnard College of Columbia University. For more on this podcast: Movers & Shapers: A Dance Podcast

Today's guest is Daniel Gwirtzman.  A Rochester, NY native, Daniel is a producer, choreographer, educator, filmmaker, and dancer, and directs the New York City-based Daniel Gwirtzman Dance Company, celebrating its 23rd Anniversary and operating with the belief that everyone can join the dance. Gwirtzman was a member of Garth Fagan Dance, toured internationally as a guest artist for multiple years with the Mark Morris Dance Group, and co-founded Artichoke Dance Company, for which he choreographed and danced. Daniel Gwirtzman Dance performance highlights include Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Edinburgh International Fringe Festival, The Kennedy Center, The Studios at Key West, Whitney Center for the Arts (Wyoming), The Yard (Martha’s Vineyard), and, in New York, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Queens Museum of Art, La MaMa, Joyce SoHo, and The Flea Theater, among others.  Daniel has been awarded many residencies including by the Joyce Theater Foundation (NYC), The Yard (MA) Raumars (Finland), Sacatar (Brazil), Djer

Today's guest is Tina Fehlandt. Tina Fehlandt was a founding member and integral part of the Mark Morris Dance Group for twenty years, performing in over 50 works choreographed by Mark Morris. With the Group she toured the world and appeared in several television specials, most notably as “Louise” in Mr. Morris’ production of The Hard Nut. In Ballet Review, she was hailed as “one of the most beautiful dancers anywhere.” Tina has staged Mark Morris’ work at San Francisco Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Royal New Zealand Ballet, English National Ballet, Royal Ballet Covent Garden, Boston Ballet, Miami City Ballet, Houston Ballet, Dutch National Ballet, and many others. Tina is a full time Lecturer in Dance at Princeton University’s Lewis Center for the Arts where she teaches all levels of Ballet and Modern Dance.  She continues her association with MMDG as an instructor in the Summer Intensives and as Faculty at The School teaching Professional/Advanced Ballet. For more on this podcast episode: Movers & Sh

Today's guest is Melanie George. Melanie is a dance educator, choreographer, scholar, and dramaturg. She is the founder and director of Jazz Is… Dance Project and an Associate Curator and Scholar-In-Residence at Jacob’s Pillow. As a dramaturg, she has contributed to projects by David Neumann & Marcella Murray, Raja Feather Kelly, Ephrat Asherie, Susan Marshall & Company, Machine Dazzle, Kimberly Bartosik/daela, and Urban Bush Women among others. A highly sought after teacher and choreographer of the neo-jazz aesthetic, Melanie is featured in the documentary UpRooted: The Journey of Jazz, Dance.  For more on this episode: Movers & Shapers: A Dance Podcast