MOVERS SHAKERS MAKERS

We start our mini series with THE RED SHOES (1948) and SUSPIRIA (2018) as Emma Lister, long time film lover, podcast host and ballet dancer guides us down the dark hallway that is the use of ballet in horror movies.

Guests Zoe Ashe-Browne and Diarmaid O'Meara join to give their insights as professional dancers and amateur cineasts on perhaps the foundational ballet horror film: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's The Red Shoes. They marvel at Moira Shearer's technique, discuss the feasibility of the film's stage calls and ponder the selective marathon that is the path to a professional dance career.

Fast forward 70 years and dance and horror has gone expressionist. Luca Guadagnino's Suspiria remake (don't worry we're cover the first one later!) is a bat-sh*t crazy mash up of choreographers Mary Wigman, Pina Bausch and Martha Graham's work, with some highly meme-able red string costumes to boot. Overflowing with ideas the film opens a discussion on the ultimate chosen one in The Rite of Spring and instances when the dancer/choreographer relationship can turn vampiric.

Bonus reel: Josephine Decker’s MADELINE'S MADELINE (2018)

Hailed as a “stirring voice” by the New York Times, Roopa Mahadevan is a leading second-generation Indian classical and crossover vocalist in the American diaspora known for her collaborative spirit. She leads the crossover ensemble Roopa in Flux, where she works with musicians in jazz, soul/R&B, and various global traditions, directs the innovative choir Navatman Music Collective, and sings for leading Bharathanatyam and modern dancers around the world. She has performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center,  MET Museum, Kennedy Millenium Stage and is a soloist on Christopher Tin’s Grammy Award-winning Calling All Dawns.

She and Emma discuss how to find your ‘flow’ in improv, the influence of her gurus and why Bulgarian choir is the perfect match with classical Indian music!

Roopa's website
Roopa's Album, Roopa in Six Yards

The three questions:

Was there a piece of art that changed everything for you?
A class by artist and activist Daniel Valdez college

Is there a piece of art that you respect, but don't like necessarily?
"Confessional art"

Give us a recommendation!
Maria Popova's The Marginalia  website/newsletter (formerly known as Brain Pickings)

Gavin Sutherland is a conductor, composer and orchestrator who specials in dance—he’s conducted for Northern Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Royal New Zealand Ballet,  Norwegian and Finnish National Ballet as well as English National Ballet where he is principal guest conductor. He and Emma discuss his career as a conductor that starting aged 18, his favourite joke to tell an orchestra and why certain music has the power to pull on our heartstrings.

Holst's Jupiter conducted by Susanna Mälkki
www.gavinsutherland.co.uk

The three questions...

What piece of art changed everything?
The Towpath a paint by Christopher Nevinson, has a personal reason as well as artistic for being your pick.

What piece of art do you nor like, but respect?
Not a (Mark) Rothko fan, but I understand its scale and complexity in so few elements of its construction.

Give us a recommendation...
The symphonies of Sir Arnold Bax 

Charlotte Maclet is an award winning violinist who first performed a Mendelssohn concerto at age nine! She has performed as a soloist in her native France and abroad. She led the acclaimed quartet Camerata Alma Viva and is now first violinist for Zaïde Quartet. She and Emma discuss her recent recording with Zaïde, Invisible, which places the music of Fanny Mendelssohn and Clara Schumann alongside the more famous men who share a surname, how to lead a quartet as democratically as possible and why she chose life in chamber music over a solo career.

Quatuor Zaïde
Buy their record: Invisible

The 3 Questions:

What piece of art changed everything for you?
The work of Gustav Klimt

What piece of art do you respect rather than like?
The work of Marina Abrahmovitch

Give us a recommendation...
Listen to Glen Gould! And read Haruki Murakami's Absolutely On Music

Andrew Mellor is a journalist and critic. He has written about music, architecture, design, and cultural politics for publications around the world and is a critic for Gramophone and the Financial Times.  He and Emma chat about his new book The Northern Silence, why it might be too late for meaningful access to classical music in Britain--especially in education and why Helsinki airport is so quiet?!

Andrew's blog
Buy The Northern Silence

The 3 Questions:

What piece of art changed everything for you?
Glynbourne Opera's  Theodora by Handel

What piece of art do you respect rather than like?
English Song

Give us a recommendation...
The films of Joachim Trier

In this, the last episode of our miniseries, Emma Lister and Amy Drew are joined by choreographer Morgann Runacre-Temple  and dancer/teacher Senri Kou to discuss how being pregnant and having a child fits (or doesn’t fit) into the dance sector. We talk morning sickness during a show of Sleeping Beauty, the physical and hormonal changes of pregnancy, the decision to go back to performing vs the decision to stop, how you're perceived in the dance world as a parent and the trials of finding childcare  ...we're getting it all out on the table! We also have a mini survey we conducted on UK and international ballet companies to help us decipher what the 'norms' are in the sector.

REFERENCES
https://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/21/arts/dance/21agui.html  

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/conceptionandfertilityrates/bulletins/childbearingforwomenbornindifferentyearsenglandandwales/2020  

https://pipacampaign.org/research/balancing-act-survey?referrer=/research  

https://www.dancedataproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Connecting-the-Dots-Update.pdf  

This week hosts Emma Lister, Amy Drew and Matthew Paluch continue their discussion of the phenomenon of “cancel culture” in the ballet and dance world. Please do listen to Part I first if you haven't! Where does the term 'cancel culture' come from, what are the mechanisms at work? How does it apply to ballet? What about calls to reclaim it as 'accountability culture'? We are talking about  the Rosie Kay debacle, Liam Scarlett and the recent pressure to ostracise Russian dancers who don't denounce Putin.

Wish us luck… 

This episode is in two, more digestible parts, both are out now. 

REFERENCES

·       https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/madness-of-crowds-9781472959959/

·      https://www.insider.com/cancel-culture-meaning-history-origin-phrase-used-negatively-2020-7

·      https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2021/12/22/cancel-culture-what-views-are-britons-afraid-expre

·      https://screenrant.com/gone-with-wind-movie-problematic-slavery-racism-reason/

·      https://www.dancemagazine.com/nutcracker-racist/

·      https://www.danceaustralia.com.au/expertise/cancel-culture-and-the-ballet

·      https://www.scotsman.com/whats-on/arts-and-entertainment/scottish-ballet-to-make-important-changes-to-the-nutcracker-after-anti-racism-review-3445761

·      Ratmanksy Instagram post

·      https://www.dancemagazine.com/liam-scarlett-cancel-culture/

·      Paris Opera Report

·      https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2022/feb/26/ballet-goes-on-as-uk-audience-backs-russian-dancers

This week, in part I, host Emma Lister and Matthew Paluch discuss the phenomenon of 'cancel culture' in the ballet and dance world. Where does this term come from and what are the mechanisms at work? How does it apply to ballet? What about calls to reclaim it as 'accountability culture'? We will be discussing the recent instances of 'cancelling' The Nutcracker and the removal of ballet from auditions at a UK dance institute.

Wish us luck…

This episode is in two, more digestible parts, both are out now. 

REFERENCES

·       https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/madness-of-crowds-9781472959959/

·      https://www.insider.com/cancel-culture-meaning-history-origin-phrase-used-negatively-2020-7

·      https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2021/12/22/cancel-culture-what-views-are-britons-afraid-expre

·      https://screenrant.com/gone-with-wind-movie-problematic-slavery-racism-reason/

·      https://www.dancemagazine.com/nutcracker-racist/

·      https://www.danceaustralia.com.au/expertise/cancel-culture-and-the-ballet

·      https://www.scotsman.com/whats-on/arts-and-entertainment/scottish-ballet-to-make-important-changes-to-the-nutcracker-after-anti-racism-review-3445761

·      Ratmanksy Instagram post

·      https://www.dancemagazine.com/liam-scarlett-cancel-culture/

·      Paris Opera Report

·      https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2022/feb/26/ballet-goes-on-as-uk-audience-backs-russian-dancers

Welcome to our new mini series! We’re talking about things that historically have been taboo to discuss in ballet.

In episode one, host Emma Lister is joined by series co-host Amy Drew,  they dissect what’s taboo about menstrual cycles in the context of ballet and get great advice and information from Dr Nicky Keay, Dr Stephanie Potreck and Julianne Rice-Oxley. We're talking heavy periods, missing periods, nutrition, cycle tracking, perimenopause and hormonal birth control.

Even if you’re not a dancer who has periods, we know you have a friend, partner, coworker, sibling, parent or dance teacher who does. This is essential listening to start reframing how we talk, train and feel about menstrual cycle—from day one to menopause.


REFERENCES

Dr Nicky Keay's book - Hormones, Health and Human Potential

Jennis.com- Jessica Ennis app

Athletes monitoring

Period Power

https://www.outsideonline.com/health/training-performance/menstrual-cycle-injury-risk/

Patriarchy pad picture

Lighting designer Jessica Hung Han Yun won a Knight of Illumination Award for Equus at Stratford East when she was just 24.  She’s since worked at the National Theatre, Donmar Warehouse, Rambert2, The Royal Court, and she has also designed lights for the revered theatre company Complicité and director Nicholas Hytner. Her upcoming work on RSC's My Neighbour Totoro can be seen at the Barbican from Oct 2022.

She and host Emma Lister talk about creativity under pressure, how lighting is like editing, why she struggles with Shakespeare and trying to live up to the beloved animated classic My Neighbour Totoro.

www.jessicahhy.com

The 3 Questions...

Was there a piece of art that changed everything for you? 

Artist Rei Naito and architect Ryue Nishizawa’s, Teshima Art Museum

Was there a piece of art that you think has value but don’t necessarily like?

Shakespeare

What/who should we check out that we may not know about?... 

Christopher Bauder’s work for Dark Matter  and ABBA Voyage