The Adult Ballet Studio is a podcast featuring conversations with dancers who have returned to ballet or discovered it for the first time later in life, as well as anyone working to make the ballet industry more welcoming for dancers of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds. This podcast celebrates the beauty of ballet with the aim of encouraging dancers to embrace individuality, challenge tradition, and advocate for an industry where age, ability, and background are not obstacles, but sources of strength and diversity.
Kadeem Alston-Roman is in the studio this month! He is a Brooklyn, New York-based wellness coach, choreographer and theater artist who helps people find balance, peace, and happiness in their daily lives. What makes Kadeem’s work especially powerful is the way he bridges the worlds of dance, wellness, and theater. After spending more than a decade creating performances that fuse movement and mindfulness through Full Force Wellness and Dance Repertory, a company he co-founded, he later founded his wellness company, Kadeem One.
In this episode, we dive into Kadeem’s journey as a dancer and choreographer, how his work in the wellness space continues to shape his artistry and teaching, and the importance of creating a sense of belonging in ballet - a field that can feel very exclusive. Kadeem shares his advice for dancers who are still finding their place in that world. For all of the adult ballet dancers listening, Kadeem has a message for you: stop worrying about what other people think, and dance because you love it. Whether at the barre, on stage, or simply moving through life, Kadeem reminds us through this conversation that purpose and joy are always worth pursuing. Check it out!
A staged reading of Hidden in Plain Sight: The Story of Alice Barker will take place on November 7 and 8 at 7 p.m. at Dancewave Studio at 182 4th Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11217. Follow @hips1940 on Instagram for more information about the show or email hiddeninplainsightprod@gmail.com.
Music in this episode:
Waltz of the Flowers - Tchaikovsky
Barroom Ballet - Silent Film Light - Kevin MacLeod
Choreographer Stefanie Nelson is in the studio this month! This year marks a milestone for her impactful and groundbreaking contemporary dance company - the 25th anniversary of Stefanie Nelson Dancegroup. Founded by Stefanie in New York City in 2000, the company has been described as instinctual and untamed, pushing the boundaries of performance while creating meaningful connections between artists, audiences, and communities.
Stefanie has staged work all over the world from Lincoln Center and Jacob’s Pillow to international venues across Italy. She is also the founder of Dance Italia, a summer program in Lucca, Italy.
Stefanie’s impact extends far beyond the stage as well. In collaboration with AHRC NYC, she launched the Everyone Dance program, providing weekly classes and performance opportunities for dancers with intellectual and developmental disabilities across New York City. This spring, that work took center stage at Columbia University’s Miller Theater with Everyone Dance: Spring 25, a free performance featuring original works by award-winning choreographers—and an audience dance party to close it out.
Stefanie also founded The Moving Memory Project, an ongoing initiative that brings together artists, caregivers, and seniors to explore memory, identity, and dementia through performance.
She joined The Adult Ballet Studio to talk about 25 years of creating dance — her vision, her collaborations, and how her company continues to bring movement into new spaces of joy, healing, and transformation. Check it out!
Follow Stefanie Nelson Dancegroup on Instagram: @sndancegroup
Eduardo Vilaro, artistic director and CEO of Ballet Hispánico, is in the studio this month!
Ballet Hispánico was founded back in 1970 by Tina Ramirez, and the company has spent more than five decades celebrating the vibrant diversity of Latino cultures through dance. The company says it’s not just about performances—it’s also about breaking barriers, challenging stereotypes, and making space for Latino/Latina voices on stages all around the world.
Eduardo originally joined the company as a dancer and educator in the ‘80s after taking a class and being hand selected by Tina. After spending his next ten-year chapter as founder and artistic director of Luna Negra Dance Theater in Chicago, his career brought him back to Ballet Hispánico as artistic director in 2009 - becoming the second person ever to head the company since its founding - and CEO in 2015. Born in Cuba and raised in New York, Eduardo not only shaped the company’s contemporary style but has also expanded its reach.
We talked about his career and his approach to carrying Ballet Hispánico’s legacy forward. He also shared what he learned from Tina, a trailblazer in New York’s ballet community, and what it means to connect his community with this art form and tell stories through dance that resonate across generations. He spoke about why dance is an important vehicle for Latino artists to honor their heritage and explore their identities. Check it out!
Learn more about Ballet Hispánico: www.ballethispanico.org
Janine Kovac joined the studio for this episode! As a retired professional dancer turned award-winning author, she shares her journey from the stage to the page after a twelve-year international ballet career spanning Iceland, Italy, and the U.S. Her latest memoir, The Nutcracker Chronicles: A Fairytale Memoir, intertwines her personal experiences in ballet with stories from one of ballet’s most iconic tales, offering a reflection on ambition, artistry, and identity. It’s available now from She Writes Press!
Janine’s accomplishments extend beyond the stage as well. As a graduate of UC Berkeley, she has authored multiple books. Her memoir, Spinning: Choreography for Coming Home, won a National Indie Excellence Award, and she’s been published in outlets such as Salon, Writer’s Digest, and Publishers Weekly. Janine’s contributions to literature have earned her fellowships, residencies, and literary awards, solidifying her reputation as a voice in both the ballet and literary worlds.
In this episode, Janine discusses her transition from the demanding world of professional ballet to the equally challenging and sometimes much more solitary world of writing. She talks about how her dance background shapes her creative process today, the parallels and differences between dance and writing, and why she’ll always identify as a ballet dancer. She also discusses her experience teaching adults and how amateur adult dancers can find their identity in a ballet studio too. Check it out!
This month’s guest for The Adult Ballet Studio is Marilyn Klaus, the visionary artistic director and founder of Ballets with a Twist, a New York City-based ballet company that brings the glamour and charm of Old Hollywood to life through dance. Marilyn’s company redefines classical ballet, adding a pop-culture twist with choreography inspired by iconic American cocktails, like the Mai Tai and Martini, in its signature production, Cocktail Hour: The Show. With original choreography by Marilyn, music by Grammy-nominated composer Stephen Gaboury, and costumes by Catherine Zehr, each performance offers a unique experience, weaving elements of improvisation and Hollywood-inspired drama and humor.
In our conversation, Marilyn shares how Ballets with a Twist attracts diverse audiences by making ballet accessible and exciting, bringing it back into the cultural mainstream. We dive into her journey from LA to NYC, her early influences, and how she’s crafted performances that appeal to both ballet enthusiasts and newcomers alike. Marilyn’s passion for reimagining ballet shines through, and this episode offers insight into how she’s breaking new ground in the dance world. Check it out!
Check out Ballets With a Twist: www.balletswithatwist.com
Barroom Ballet - Silent Film Light - Kevin MacLeod
Episode 22: Dante Puleio and Kayla Farrish
Season 1 · Episode 22
Tuesday, October 1, 2024 • Duration 41:08
The Limón Dance Company is presenting its 78th season this year, and on this episode of The Adult Ballet Studio, we have two incredible guests to celebrate: Limón Dance Company Artistic Director Dante Puleio and Choreographer Kayla Farrish!
After a career performing with The Limón Dance Company, touring national and international musical theatre productions, television and film, Dante received his MFA from the University of California, Irvine. His research focuses on contextualizing mid-20th century dance for the contemporary artist and audience. Dante shares his vision for honoring the company’s rich history while evolving its storytelling to resonate with modern audiences.
Kayla is a New York-based dancer, choreographer, director, and photographer who has been commissioned to create a new piece for the company’s upcoming season that examines two of Limón’s previous works, “Redes” and El Grito.” Her multi-disciplinary work has been recognized by Sundance, the New York Times, and the Harkness Promise Award. She was also awarded a Bessie Performance Award for her solo “People Above the Moon.”
In this conversation, Dante and Kayla discuss the intersection of ballet and modern dance, the responsibility of preserving history while pushing creative boundaries, and the ways dance can inspire social change. Check it out!
Chelsea Weidmann joined The Adult Ballet Studio for this episode! She is a ballet instructor and the founder of Geeky Ballerina, a platform offering resources and curriculums for ballet instructors and students alike.
Chelsea has been teaching ballet for more than 25 years, She taught for Ballet West Academy for four years and has an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts. She’s fully ABT certified, fully certified in mUvmethod and certified in level 1 of PBT.
She says teaching is a big passion for her and has dedicated her time to developing in-depth teaching resources, curriculums for various levels of ballet, and a framework for what she views as the nine elements of artistry, all available on her website.
She also has a monthly newsletter and moderates the New Ballet Teachers Group on Facebook. In this episode, Chelsea shares her journey to finding her own space in the ballet world and offers her advice for other dancers to do the same. She also shares insights on developing a classroom for adult ballet dancers versus for kids and teens and ways adults can take care of their mental and emotional well-being while engaging in an art form that is physically demanding. Check it out!
Joining the studio for this episode is Helen Banks, owner and CEO of the sustainable dancewear brand, Imperfect Pointes!
Helen founded Imperfect Pointes in 2020 out of frustration at the lack of dancewear brands focusing on sustainability. After working in fast fashion and seeing the darker side of the fashion industry, she was upset by the amount of waste going to landfills and the poor working conditions in some factories where dancewear is made. To support her journey in launching a more sustainable method of producing and selling dancewear, she studied sustainable business leadership at the University of Cambridge and is now on a mission to bring about what she calls “a dancewear revolution.”
While not a dancer herself, Helen became interested in the dancewear space in part by watching her daughter develop a love for ballet. Imperfect Pointes’ main objectives are to create a community where everyone who loves ballet can feel included through representation, diversity, and body positivity, and to make sure that the company isn’t adding to landfills and is helping to keep plastic waste out of oceans. The company is committed to repairing, reusing and recycling while aiming for zero waste. All of Imperfect Pointes’ products are made from recycled materials, such as nylon.
Helen also wants to encourage the broader ballet community to make changes by educating other dancewear brands on switching to more sustainable production practices. In this episode, she shares tips about what everyone, from individual dancers to studios to brands and companies, can do to practice sustainability. Check it out!
Pirkko Markula, contemporary dancer and professor of socio-cultural studies of physical activity at the University of Alberta in Canada, is in the studio!
She has a Ph.D in kinesiology and major sport sociology from the University of Illinois. Beyond academia, she’s a dancer herself, previously training in the Dance Department at the University of Illinois with an emphasis on Merce Cunningham, Paul Taylor, and José Limón techniques. She is currently a choreographer and dancer for Initial 6, a contemporary dance company for dancers above the age of 40 at the University of Alberta.
Combining her love for movement and academia, one of her areas of research is dance and exercise in contemporary culture, with an emphasis on dance and the aging process. Through her Psychology Today blog, Fit Femininity, she examines how adult ballet dancers discover a new sense of self in a ballet class. A collection of essays Pirkko edited alongside colleagues and students in January 2018, titled “The Evolving Feminine Ballet Body,” explores a range of topics regarding the ways ballet has influenced contemporary culture throughout its evolution.
In this episode, we discuss how the ideal ballet body - both celebrated and criticized at times - has evolved alongside ballet as an art form, how ballet has contributed to broader cultural narratives, and especially, how body ideals in ballet have influenced societal views of femininity, beauty, and womanhood. Check it out!
**This episode discusses body image and touches on disordered eating, which can be a sensitive topic. That discussion begins around 14:00 and continues until 29:00, for any listeners who want to skip ahead.
The Adult Ballet Studio has another special guest for this episode! Cecelia Beam, faculty member for adult ballet and dance classes for people with Parkinson’s at San Francisco Ballet, is in the studio.
Cecelia is a former dancer, training at School of American Ballet in New York City and graduating from the high school ballet program at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. After dancing in Oakland, California, North Carolina, Indiana and New York, Cecelia found teaching. She earned a master’s degree in ballet at Indiana University and has taught ballet at universities and private ballet schools, including Mills College, Indiana University, and San Francisco Ballet School.
She has a passion for teaching ballet for adults, and in addition to that, she manages and is the lead teacher for San Francisco Ballet School’s Dance Class for People with Parkinson’s and has coordinated San Francisco Ballet Adult Education Programs for more than 15 years.
She shared some of the ways she structures her classes to make them as inclusive as possible while remaining committed to ballet technique and challenging her students. She also talked about the ways she’s seen ballet change throughout her time studying it, and where she hopes things are headed in the future. Check it out!
Vote for The Adult Ballet Studio in the arts & design category for the Women in Podcasting Awards! Voting ends October 1st: https://www.womenpodcasters.com/vote
Music in this episode:
Waltz of the Flowers - Tchaikovsky
Barroom Ballet - Silent Film Light - Kevin MacLeod
Vote for The Adult Ballet Studio in the arts & design category for the Women in Podcasting Awards! Voting ends October 1st: https://www.womenpodcasters.com/vote
Music in this episode:
Waltz of the Flowers - Tchaikovsky
Barroom Ballet - Silent Film Light - Kevin MacLeod
Vote for The Adult Ballet Studio in the arts & design category for the Women in Podcasting Awards! Voting ends October 1st: https://www.womenpodcasters.com/vote
Music in this episode:
Waltz of the Flowers - Tchaikovsky
Barroom Ballet - Silent Film Light - Kevin MacLeod
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