Movers & Shapers: A Dance Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

A special announcement from host and Artistic Director of The Moving Architects, Erin Carlisle Norton.

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Movers & Shapers has been podcasting interviews with those who shape the dance field since 2015. Connect with our archive of 175 interviews: themovingarchitects.org/podcasts

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When Decisions are Commitments with Rachel Damon

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 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

Rachel Damon is a Chicago-based theatrical designer, choreographer, and performer whose self-made career bridges onstage and backstage.

For more on this episode: Movers & Shapers: A Dance Podcast

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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: A 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:

·       Her first experiences of dance and her lifelong love of music.

·       The changing dance scene of the 1960s.

·       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.

·       The eventual decision to leave the company due to pain. 

·       The birth of the Performance Garage in Philadelphia.  

·       The program Jeanne currently facilitates for dancers. 

·       What Martha Graham taught: dancers are acrobats of God. 

“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 former Principal Dancer with the Martha Graham Company where she performed throughout the World, on Broadway, served on the faculties of The Juilliard School, Alvin Ailey School, colleges and universities in the US and abroad, founded Jeanne Ruddy Dance, and a center for dance – the Performance Garage, in Philadelphia.

More on the episode: Movere & Shapers

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The organization behind the podcast: The Moving Architects presents "O my soul", where fierce femininity and intergenerational dance meet. Dec 1 in Montclair, NJ. For more info: The Moving Architects

Today's guest is Eva Dean. Eva is the founder and Artistic Director of Eva Dean Dance, based in Brooklyn and established in 1985.  Eva has a rich history as a Brooklyn-based choreographer of site-specific and theatrical contemporary dance, and is also a community leader mentoring other female choreographers and founding Union Street Dance studio. Known for rich visuals and genre-defying theatricality, the company has been featured on both the local and international stage. Notable NYC credits include The New Victory Theatre (Victory Dance 2018), The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Dance Theater Workshop, Danspace at St. Mark’s Church, The Brooklyn Museum and The Children’s Museum of Manhattan among many others. Also known for site-specific immersive dance, the company has staged numerous public productions in Prospect Park (Brooklyn, NY). 

Today's guest is Oxana Chi. Oxana is a choreographer, dancer, filmmaker, curator, and author. She founded the company Oxana Chi & Ensemble Xinren in Berlin, Germany in 1991 and moved to New York City in 2015. In 2018, she was listed in the Dance Enthusiast’s 2018 “A to Z” of People Who Power the Dance World. She is featured in several publications and films, and is the main protagonist of the movie Dancing Through Gardens. Chi is accompanied in this podcast by her main collaborator Dr. Layla Zami, Visiting Assistant Professor in the Performance + Performance Studies MFA Program at Pratt Institute and interdisciplinary artist (music, poetry, theater, film).

Today’s guest is Michele Wiles. Michele danced with American Ballet Theater from 1997-2011, beginning in the studio company and promoted to soloist in 2000 and principal in 2005. Michele left the position in 2011 to start BalletNext with the vision to pair classically trained dancers and live musicians in a collaborative setting that encourages risk taking and a focus on process.

Today's guest is Dunya Dianne McPherson. Dunya is a dancer, NEA choreographer, Shattari Sufi Master Teacher, Founder of Dancemeditation™, and author of Skin of Glass: Finding Spirit in the Flesh, a memoir about dance as a spiritual path.

Today's guest is Eduardo Vilaro. Eduardo joined Ballet Hispánico as Artistic Director in August 2009, becoming only the second person to head the company since it was founded in 1970. He has been part of the Ballet Hispánico family since 1985 as a dancer and educator, after which he began a ten-year record of achievement as founder and Artistic Director of Luna Negra Dance Theater in Chicago. Born in Cuba and raised in New York from the age of six, he is a frequent speaker on the merits of cultural diversity and dance education.

Today’s guest is Jody Oberfelder. Jody is a director, choreographer, and filmmaker, who creates visceral experiences for audiences, onstage and in alternative sites. Her work has been shown extensively internationally as well as at Jacob’s Pillow, MASS MoCA, The Yard, Museum of Jewish Heritage, New York Live Arts, and her immersive heart-themed work 4Chambers was performed 86 times: in an historic home on Governors Island and in a former hospital in Brooklyn.

Movers & Shapers: A Dance Podcast celebrates 75 interviews! And a special announcement from podcast host Erin Carlisle Norton about upcoming interviews (hint: see you 2019!)