Ballet Uncovered ~ Balancing Pointe Podcast

Margaret Mullin is from Tucson, Arizona. She studied on scholarship at Ballet Arts Tucson with Mary-Beth Cabana and at Pacific Northwest Ballet School, and attended summer courses at Ballet Tucson, and Pacific Northwest Ballet School.

Margaret was the recipient of a Thurber Scholarship Award in 2003 and 2004, the 2007 Founding Director Scholarship Award from Angela Whitehill of Burklyn Ballet, and a 2011 Princess Grace Award recipient.

Margaret joined Pacific Northwest Ballet as an apprentice in 2008. She was promoted to corps de ballet in 2009 and soloist in 2014.

Margaret has choreographed works for Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Choreographers’ Showcase and Next Step performances. In 2012, she choreographed her first ballet, Lost in Light, for the Company. She has also choreographed works, performed as a guest artist, and served as guest teacher for Ballet Tucson and Ballet Arts School in Tucson.

Margaret has recently teamed up with Balancing Pointe's previous guest Nel Shelby to produce an amazing film called "No Dominion" which will celebrate the remarkable life the late Ian Horvath, dance champion and AIDS activist.  

No Dominion kickstarter campaign link

Pacific Northwest Ballet website

Margaret Mullin instagram

Margaret Mullin twitter

Balancing Pointe Facebook Page

Twitter - Balancing Pointe

Balancing Pointe instagram

My guest is Rebecca King who a soloist with the Finnish National Ballet. Rebecca is also the daughter of Shelly King who was the Director of Operations for the Youth American Grand Prix.  For those you unfamiliar with the Youth American grand prix – or YAGP, it is the largest global network of dance and probably the most popular and well known ballet competitions in the world.  Sadly Shelly recently passed away after dedicating the past 12 years of her life to becoming a "ballet mom" to thousands of young dancers all over the world through her dedicated work with YAGP program.  I know she has made a difference in lives throughout the globe and will continue to be greatly missed.

I caught up with Rebecca in Tampa, Florida during the YAGP Regional Competition.  At the time of our interview, Rebecca was finishing up her contract with the National Theater Prague and was just about to start her new contract with the Finnish National Ballet.

Rebecca flew in from the Czech Republic for YAGP Regionals to serve the as a judge in the competitions as well as to perform in the YAGP Gala, partnering with Amar Ramasar, who is a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet.

We met in the hotel lobby near the theater and had a such an enriching conversation.  Rebecca shares with us her journey in ballet and the fact that the YAGP program is truly the reason she is so successful today.

The interview was filled with great advice and information about the benefits of YAGP and the opportunities it can provide aspiring dancers who participate.

Finnish National Ballet website

YAGP website

Balancing Pointe website

Twitter

You Tube performance from Prague State Opera and Ballet

Step inside the halls of five NYC public schools and celebrate dance! Hosted by veteran TV journalist Paula Zahn, PS DANCE! is the new documentary that captures what happens when students have dance in their curriculum. The journey is one of imagination, curiosity, hard work and discipline. In these studios, dance is for every child.

PS DANCE!, two years in the making, interviews 16 kids and captures more than 100 students, who joyfully share the influence of dance on their daily learning. Created by today's guests; award-winning dance filmmaker Nel Shelby, dance ambassador Jody Gottfried Arnhold, and dance education consultant Joan Finkelstein, PS DANCE! shows that dance can be viewed as core curriculum at all levels PreK-12. Currently, there are close to 400 dance teachers serving New York City's 1,800 public schools, 192 of whom hold a New York State dance teacher license. With a significant new education budget allocation to support arts in schools, this is a definitive moment in New York City arts education history. Dance teachers are now listed as a high-need subject area, and this film shows us why!

PS Dance! website

PS Dance! Movie Trailer

PBS special

New York Post Article

Barry Kerollis was born in Philadelphia, PA. He began his training at the Chester Valley Dance Academy and continued on scholarship at the Kirov Academy of Ballet and the School of American Ballet. Mr. Kerollis began his professional career in 2003 with the Houston Ballet. The following season Barry joined Pacific Northwest Ballet, where he danced leading and featured roles for seven seasons. He currently works as a Choreographer, Principal Guest Artist, and Instructor based out of Philadelphia.

Barry is also an award-winning choreographer. He was selected out of over 60 applicants to choreograph at the 2014 National Choreographers Initiative in Irvine, CA. In 2015, Barry was selected as a finalist in both the McCallum Theatre’s 18th annual Choreography Festival and the Visions Choreographic Competition. Mr. Kerollis has also received an Outstanding Choreographer award at the Youth America Grand Prix. Beyond these achievement, Barry has created works for the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, Seattle’s “Men in Dance” festival, Alaska Dance Theatre (in collaboration with the Alaska Native Heritage Center), Pulse Dance Company, and four works for Pacific Northwest Ballet’s annual Next Step choreographers showcase. Currently, Barry is developing “Core-ography: A Global Dance Storytelling Project.” This mini-documentary style film project shares 12 professional dancer’s life-defining stories through revealing interviews and movement. These interviews can be viewed on Core-ography’s Youtube channel.

Barry Kerollis website

You Tube Channel

Barry's Blog

Balancing Pointe Facebook Page 

Twitter - Balancing Pointe

ASK MEGAN is a weekly show hosted by New York City Ballet's Principal Dancer Megan Fairchild and brought to you by Balancing Pointe Podcast.

On each episode Megan answers YOUR questions each and every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.  Each episode will feature an actual question submitted from someone like you!

Today's question come from:

Cosette who wants to know how to balance her Academic goals with her goal to pursue a career in professional Ballet. 

Megan reflects on some of her struggles with her personal experiences taking college courses at Fordham. 

Do you have a question about Ballet?  

YOU can be a part of the show by sending us your questions ~ it is EASY! Simply go to BalancingPointe.com and click on the "Leave Your Question Here" tab on the side of the page.  From there follow the directions and you are all set.

If you like the show, please take a moment to stop by ITunes and leave us a rating and review.  And be sure to stop by:

Contribute to my Indiegogo Campaign here!

Balancing Pointe Website - SUBMIT your questions here!

Megan Fairchild's website

NYCB Website with Megan's Bio

Balancing Pointe Facebook Page

Twitter - Balancing Pointe

Twitter - Megan Fairchild

ASK MEGAN is a weekly show hosted by New York City Ballet's Principal Dancer Megan Fairchild and brought to you by Balancing Pointe Podcast.

On each episode Megan answers YOUR questions each and every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.  Each episode will feature an actual question submitted from someone like you!

Today's question come from:

Stephanie who wants to what Megan's favorite role is to dance. 

Megan really gives us great insight into her personal experience with this role. 

Do you have a question about Ballet?  

YOU can be a part of the show by sending us your questions ~ it is EASY! Simply go to BalancingPointe.com and click on the "Leave Your Question Here" tab on the side of the page.  From there follow the directions and you are all set.

If you like the show, please take a moment to stop by ITunes and leave us a rating and review.  And be sure to stop by:

Contribute to my Indiegogo Campaign here!

Balancing Pointe Website - SUBMIT your questions here!

Megan Fairchild's website

NYCB Website with Megan's Bio

Balancing Pointe Facebook Page

Twitter - Balancing Pointe

Twitter - Megan Fairchild

My guest Ksenia Ovsyanick is a Soloist with the English National Ballet.  She is from Tihvin, Russia and began her training at received her training at the Belarus State Ballet College.  After competing in the Prix de Lausanne, Ksenia was offered the opportunity to move to London to train with the English National Ballet.  In 2013 she became First Artist and then in 2014 she was promoted to Soloist. Ksenia received ‘Outstanding Female Performance’ (Classical) at the Critics’ Circle National Dance Awards 2012 and in 2014 was nominated for the Company’s Emerging Dancer Award.

Ksenia provides thoughtful insight and compelling advice to aspiring dancers.  I thoroughly enjoyed meeting Ksenia and feel blessed to have her as a guest on my show.

Contribute to my Indiegogo Campaign here!

Balancing Pointe Facebook Page 

Twitter - Balancing Pointe

Ksenia Facebook page

Ksenia Twitter 

In this episode, host Kimberly Falker reflects on the life lessons she learned from 100 episodes and makes an exciting announcement at the end.

Colby Damon has spent his entire life exploring various types of movement. Born and raised in Richmond VA, Colby was active in various sports as a young child, including snow skiing and sailing, but he found his true calling in the arts, and began formal classical ballet training at age 7 at the Richmond Ballet. At age 15, he left home to attend the Virginia School of the Arts in Lynchburg, VA, a pre-professional boarding high school for dancers, and spent his summers training at the Boston Ballet. Upon graduation, Colby joined the Sacramento Ballet, where for five years he performed soloist and principal roles.  While living in California, Colby also began studying Qi Gong and Chen style Tai Ji Quan with renowned Grandmaster Bing Fan YeYoung, and eventually received certification to teach. In 2007, Colby relocated to Brooklyn, NY, in order to explore life's options, and to pursue a career as a freelance artist. While living in New York, Colby also began studying other forms of Chinese Martial arts, including Ba Gua Zhuang, and also embarked on a personal study of Yoga.  In 2008, Colby joined BalletX in Philadelphia, PA. As a company member, Colby has been featured in over 20 world premieres.     As a choreographer, Colby's style blends an inevitable fluidity with a sense of classical line and virtuosity. He began his choreographic explorations while dancing with the Sacramento Ballet, where he produced a total of five works on fellow company members, including the piece 3 to 1, which was performed for the Sacramento Ballet's annual contemporary repertoire program, Modern Masters, in 2004. After focusing primarily on performing for a number of years, Colby began choreographing again in 2012, when he created the structured improvisational piece, Run Barefoot Down the Mountain, for Pennsylvania Ballet's annual 

Ida Praetorius, a soloist with Royal Danish Ballet has become one Denmark's upcoming stars. In 2012 she was named" best female dancer" by the prestigous Erik Bruhn COmpetition in Toronto. Since that time she has continued to rise through the ranks at Royal Danish Ballet, most recently being promoted to soloist.

Ida is humble and sweet and appreciative of being able to live her dream as a ballerina.  

Balancing Pointe's website

Balancing Pointe's twitter

Pointe Magazine article on Ida

Ida's Twitter

Ida's Instagram

Ida's vimeo of Swan Lake