Ballet Uncovered ~ Balancing Pointe Podcast

Today's interview comes LIVE from Lincoln Center Plaza in NYC with Kaitlyn Gilliland.

Kaitlyn's journey in Ballet began before birth.  She was born into a most prestigious legacy of ballerinas.  Her grandmother is renowned choreographer and founder of Minnesota Dance Theater and  and "Loyce Houlton's Nutcracker Fantasy" which just celebrated its 50th anniversary and is Minnesota's longest running Nutcracker.  Kaitlyn's mother, Lise Houlton danced with American Ballet Theater and Stuttgart Ballet and took over the leadership of MDT in 1995.   Kaitlyn began her training at the Minnesota Dance Theatre before moving to New York at age 16 to train with the School of American Ballet. She attended full-time for one year and in 2004 received the school’s Mae L. Wien Award for outstanding promise. From 2006 to 2011, Ms. Gilliland danced with the New York City Ballet, performing corps, soloist, and principal roles. Due to an injury, Kaitlyn retired from NYCB in 2011 and pursuing an equally grueling goal as a pre-med student at Columbia University.  Today, she is a graduating senior with a degree in psychology.  Along her academic journey, Katilyn re-discovered her passion for dance when she was coaxed into the studio by then budding choreographer Emery LeCrone (also a previous Balancing Pointe guest).  After this Kaitlyn began working with the  Columbia Ballet Collaborative.  Since that moment, Kaitlyn's renewed dance career is skyrocketing.

In fact, Kaitlyn is becoming an icon for freelance dancers worldwide as she is not only making a name for herself; but she is purposefully designing her path along the way ~ a feat few dancers are able to accomplish.

Balancing Pointe website

Kaitlyn Gilliland's website

Dance Magazine: "Why I Dance" by, Kaitlyn Gilliland

New York Times article

Dance Magazine: "On Her Own" by, Joseph Carmen

In this episode I share with you one of my pre-show chats with guest Nel Shelby. You will hear us discuss Ballet, our kids and how we are so impressed by Wendy Whelan. This is your chance to get to know my guest in a much more personal level.

Balancing Pointe Website

Nel Shelby's website

PS Dancer! website

Wendy Whelan's "Restless Creature"

Nel Shelby Productions is New York City’s premier source for dance videography, editing promotional films and live-streaming performance. 

Now, Nel Shelby Productions has grown from a one-woman show to a thriving operation with an excellent team of creative videographers, editors, marketing minds, client relations and project managers. Nel’s company is deeply dedicated to the preservation of dance through documentation of live performances, while also focusing on digital marketing and promotion with fully edited marketing reels, documentaries and dance films.

Nel’s company has  filmed more than 700 dance events and performances in traditional theaters, outdoor plazas and gallery spaces.She also works as Festival Videographer for the internationally celebrated Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in the Berkshires and as Resident Videographer at the Vail International Dance Festival in Colorado. Be sure to check out her half-hour documentary (link below) on Vail’s festival, The Altitude of Dance, debuted on Rocky Mountain PBS in May 2013.Nel has also created four short films for Wendy Whelan’s Restless Creature project, and “Folie a Deux,”.  Nel’s short dance film made in collaboration with Adam Barruch Dance, was selected and screened at the Dance on Camera Festival in New York City and the San Francisco Dance Film Festival. She recently edited a dance documentary titled Where Women Don’t Dance, featuring Nejla Y. Yatkin and filmed during a month-long tour in Central America.Her latest project, PS Dance! which is a documentary about dance education in public schools hosted by TV journalist Paula Zahn. (link below)

BalancingPointe.com

http://www.psdancenyc.com/

http://www.nelshelby.com/dance-video-portfolio/#.VUz1Yo5VhBc

http://www.nelshelby.com/dance-video-portfolio/#.VUz1jY5VhBc

Born in Yorkshire, England, Iain started ballet at the age of 14 and moved to London at 16, where he trained for two years with The Rambert School of Ballet, a year at The Royal Ballet School and a further year as an apprentice with The Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet where he was offered a full time position. 

In 1989 he transferred to The Royal Ballet, Covent Garden. In 1996, Iain Webb retired from The Royal Ballet, but was invited back as a guest artist to give three farewell performances.  After retiring as a dancer, he was invited by Matthew Bourne to be Rehearsal Director for The West End, L.A. and Broadway seasons of Swan Lake.  He continued to work with Bourne on his production of Cinderella. 

In 1999, Iain was asked by Tetsuya Kumakawa to join his newly formed K-Ballet Company in Japan as Ballet Master. Two years later was appointed Assistant Director.

In July 2007, Webb took over the directorship of The Sarasota Ballet and during the last four seasons the company has performed 102 ballets & divertissements which include 16 world premieres, 55 Sarasota premieres, 4 new productions and 27 American premieres. 

Iain's interview not only inspires but provides valuable tips and words of wisdom for anyone interested in a career in dance.

http://balancing-pointe.com/

http://www.sarasotaballet.org/

http://www.yourobserver.com/article/leaping-page

Emmy Award winning Tyce Diorio is first and foremost a dancer but most famously known for his work as a choreographer and guest judge for Fox T.V. Network So You Think You Can Dance (SYTYCD).  His work on this show has helped to promote and elevate dance to a much greater and main stream level. 

Before becoming a choreographer Tyce began as a dancer.  He grew up in NYC and wound up in LA after competing on Star Search.  

Tyce has danced on tour with Paula Abdul and Janet Jackson and Ricky Martin as well as performing on Broadway in the show Fosee and Chicago.  Most recently Tyce choreographed taylor swift’s “red as tour as well as her “1989” world tour.

www.BalancingPointe.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1wr42lSuo8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNBSCdbJ6EM

Ballet 422 Producer Ellen Bar is the wife of Director Jody Lee Lupas and shares with Balancing Pointe more about her experience in producing this most amazing documentary that made its world debut at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2014 and is now being presented in movie houses all over the U.S.

In 2011, after 13 years as a professional ballerina, Ellen became the Director of Media Projects at NYCB, where she is responsible for developing and producing the company's film and video content. In less than two years, she has worked with some of the best young filmmakers in New York to produce and/or direct over 30 short documentary films for the company. BALLET 422 is her first feature-length documentary. 

From first rehearsal to world premiere, BALLET 422 takes us backstage at New York City Ballet as Justin Peck, a young up-and-coming choreographer, crafts a new work. With unprecedented access to an elite world, BALLET 422 illuminates the process behind the creation of a single ballet.

Ballet 422 Producer Ellen Bar is the wife of Director Jody Lee Lupas and shares with Balancing Pointe more about her experience in producing this most amazing documentary that made its world debut at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2014 and is now being presented in movie houses all over the U.S.

In 2011, after 13 years as a professional ballerina, Ellen became the Director of Media Projects at NYCB, where she is responsible for developing and producing the company's film and video content. In less than two years, she has worked with some of the best young filmmakers in New York to produce and/or direct over 30 short documentary films for the company. BALLET 422 is her first feature-length documentary. 

From first rehearsal to world premiere, BALLET 422 takes us backstage at New York City Ballet as Justin Peck, a young up-and-coming choreographer, crafts a new work. With unprecedented access to an elite world, BALLET 422 illuminates the process behind the creation of a single ballet.

Today I continue with Part Two of my interview with Lauren and Francis as we dive deeper into turning hurdles or disappointments into opportunities to learn and grow. As you will hear, Francis leaves the interview to meet with a friend ~ Matthew Neenan who will be a guest in an upcoming episode.  Before he leaves, however, he shares with us his words of wisdom for aspiring dancers. Lauren and I continue our discussion as she shares with me what it was really like to to dance in the hit movie, "Black Swan". (she still received royalty checks from that experience)  Be sure to take a look at their Shownotes page where you will see some fantastic footage of their photo shoot with award winning photographer (and Balancing Pointe's previous guest), Jordan Matter.  

You can find their show notes page at BalancingPointe.com under Podcast.

Today I am bringing to you another husband & wife team, Lauren and Francis Veyette.  You may recognize the last name from a few of my previous interviews and this is because Francis is Andy Veyette’s brother.  This also means that Megan Fairchild, Robbie Fairchild and Tiler Peck are all intertwined not only through ballet but also through marriage.  You’ll hear today that they spend most of their holidays together and the six of them are extremely close.  I truly loved this interview for so many reasons – one because of the most unique journey taken by Lauren in dance. She was interestly quite fast tracked into the New York City Ballet, while still in high school, but then chose a different path – one that was more of a perfect fit for her.  Lauren actually left her professional career to pursue college and then went back to dance and is now a Principal dancer with Pennsylvania ballet.  And her husband, Francis….one of the four Veyette brothers shares a ton about his life growing up in California and the amazing sacrifices his parents made to help him pursue his career in ballet.  Francis is also a principal dancer with Pennsylvania Ballet and has recently received a promotion and is now the director of Pennsylvania Ballet 2 which is their second company.  

Grier began ballet lessons at age five and left home at fourteen to study at the School of American Ballet in New York. She has performed on three out of seven continents with companies such as San Francisco Ballet, Miami City Ballet, and Pacific Northwest Ballet, totaling more than thirty years of experience as a dancer, teacher and performer.

Her work has been praised as “poignant and honest” with “emotional hooks that penetrate deeply.” She writes and blogs about dance in the San Francisco Bay Area and has interviewed and photographed a diverse collection dancers and performers including Clive Owen, Nicole Kidman, Glen Allen Sims and Jessica Sutta. She is the author of Build a Ballerina Body and The Daily Book of Photography.

Grier, who touts herself as “a writer in a dancer’s body” just released her debut novel WISH, which is book one in a three part series for young adults.  The series features Indigo Stevens, an aspiring ballet dancer who hopes to have what it takes to become a professional.  Grier impressively uses her personal life as a professional to paint a perfect portrayal of a teenager striving for success in the world of professional dance.