Body and Soul

During the pandemic, dance artist and photographer Ricarrdo Valentine continued to work towards a graduate degree in Dance, keenly aware of academia's

To learn more about Ricarddo Valentine, visit InfiniteBody blog here.

Also visit www.ricarrdovalentine.com and www.bhooddance.com.

US-raised Palestinian artist Samar Haddad King (Artistic/Founding Director of Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre) ruminates on what pregnancy, birth, and raising her daughter have taught her about time.

Learn more about Samar Haddad King on InfiniteBody blog here. And read The New York Times' review of the Spring 2022 Gibney presentation of YSDT's Last Ward here.

https://ysdt.org/

In her work with Afro-Puerto Rican bomba traditions and contemporary dance, Megan Curet considers the relationship between movement, sound, and decolonization within communal practice in Black diaspora.  She says, "I wanted to be a part of the conversation that shakes up the body, that shakes up the way we think, and I believe no other approach does so better than the act of moving, the act of repeating movement, and that act of coming into space together."

Listen to Megan Curet's Body and Soul episode here, and learn more about her on InfiniteBody blog here.

http://megancuret.com/

Russian-born dance artist and educator Elena Demyanenko traveled from her adopted home in New York to Berlin to support the growing community of artists fleeing Russia's devastating war on Ukraine. In this moving talk, Demyanenko reflects on questions for herself and other artists making work in times of war, propaganda, censorship, and courageous disobedience.

Learn more about Elena Demyanenko on InfiniteBody blog here.

www.elenademyanenko.com

Cory Nakasue sees complexity all around us and within us--from the cosmic realm above to the most intimate spaces below here on planet Earth.  Self-described as "a theater artist, writer, and astrologer whose work  includes choreography, dramaturgy, and video," Nakasue likely inhabits far more than even those multiple identities and roles. In this talk for Body and Soul, she shares thoughts about how our tendency to avoid complexity denies us the pleasure of engaging with what's real.

Read more about Cory Nakasue on InfiniteBody blog here.

www.corynakasue.com and www.astrologybycory.com

My guest today, george emilio sanchez, is a passionate and critical voice for our times. A skilled artist and activist, he brings a gift for blending factual historical and cultural knowledge, lived experience, and creative storytelling in solo performances that inform, captivate, and challenge audiences. In this episode of Body and Soul, sanchez discusses a 19th-century Supreme Court ruling that violated indigenous tribal sovereignty; In the Court of the Conqueror, a performance in collaboration with visual artist Patty Ortiz; and The Shed's great exhibition on Brazil's indigenous Yanomami people. 

To learn more about sanchez, visit InfiniteBody blog here.

Please forgive the abrupt ending of this episode! Details I edited out--concerning The Yanomami Struggle exhibition at The Shed, a New York City arts space--can be found at https://theshed.org/program/262-the-yanomami-struggle. The exhibition runs through Sunday, April 16, and I do highly recommend it.

https://www.georgeemiliosanchez.com/

Bessie Award-winning Stephanie Skura is widely noted not only for her long career as a performer, maker, and teacher of post-modern dance but for being a magical catalyst for other artists' creativity. In today's talk, she shares how her imaginative practice, called scores, opens up liberating possibilities. For Skura, dance is a path to consciousness; a method to access the balancing, healing capacity of intuition; a way to play her role in repairing the world.

Listen here, and learn more about Stephanie Skura on InfiniteBody blog here.

www.stephanieskura.com

Ballet dancer Daphne Lee, currently with world-renowned Dance Theatre of Harlem, has learned much about the joys and rigors of touring. In this talk, she shares her observations, concerns, and tips for young performers and challenges the dance field to consider how it develops new leaders.

Listen here and learn more about Daphne Lee on InfiniteBody blog here.

www.daphnemlee.com

Initially trained in dance in her native Cuba, Judith Sánchez Ruíz has enjoyed an illustrious international career that includes performing for one of the towering figures of post-modern dance, Trisha Brown, who died in 2017.  Fans of both Sánchez and Brown rejoiced last year when the Trisha Brown Dance Company named Sánchez as the troupe's first commissioned guest choreographer.

Listen here and visit InfiniteBody blog (here) to learn more about Judith Sánchez Ruíz!

https://www.judith-sanchez-ruiz.com/

As Canadian tap dancer and podcaster Travis Knights recorded this episode, he used a great word to describe one of his beloved colleagues, and I, in turn, will choose the same word to describe Knights's performing--impeccable. I first learned of Travis through another tap artist you've heard on this podcast--Lisa La Touche--and, coincidentally, I later met Travis and shared space with him in a discussion on the state of tap today. And, yeah, maybe there are no coincidences!

I'm never sure how these Body and Soul podcast talks will turn out, but I've come to believe in their emergent magic, all so unique. Learning more about the charming--and very frank--Travis Knights did my heart good, and I hope you'll enjoy his talk, too.

Visit InfiniteBody blog for more about Travis Knights. Click here.

www.travisknights.com