Today's guest is Melanie George. Melanie is a dance educator, choreographer, scholar, and dramaturg. She is the founder and director of Jazz Is… Dance Project and an Associate Curator and Scholar-In-Residence at Jacob's Pillow. As a dramaturg, she has contributed to projects by David Neumann & Marcella Murray, Raja Feather Kelly, Ephrat Asherie, Susan Marshall & Company, Machine Dazzle, Kimberly Bartosik/daela, and Urban Bush Women among others. A highly sought after teacher and choreographer of the neo-jazz aesthetic, Melanie is featured in the documentary UpRooted: The Journey of Jazz, Dance.

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Today's guest is Duke Dang. Since 2006 Duke has served as the General Manager of Works & Process, the performing arts series at the Guggenheim (NYC), where he oversees nonprofit administration and manages the logistics of the artistic programming. He and Producer Caroline Cronson collectively curate the organization's programs and commissions that traditionally take place in the theater of the Guggenheim, but in recent years have expanded to include works commissioned and made in and for the Guggenheim rotunda. In response to the pandemic, since April 2020 Works & Process has virtually commissioned 85 new works and supported over 300 artists. Under Duke's leadership Works & Process has led the way in producing bubble residencies as a means for artists to safely gather, create, perform and work.

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Today's guest is Kathryn Alter. Kathryn a choreographer, teacher, and dancer living in New York City. She danced with the Limón Dance Company for 15 years and is currently the Associate Program Director of the Limón Professional Studies Program. She teaches the Limón Company and students of the Limón Institute, has reconstructed the works of José Limón for the Ballet Nacional de México in México City in 2018 and Ballet am Rhein en Düsseldorf in 2020, and leads Limón workshops nationally and internationally. Her choreographic work has been shown across the United States and abroad. Kathryn is a part of the N.A.D.I.N.E. Project and helps to organize the Choreographers' Collective concerts in New York City.

For more info on Kathryn and show notes: Movers & Shapers: A Dance Podcast

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Podcasts: Movers & Shapers: A Dance Podcast

Due May 21: Call for Submissions: From the Field

And catch the company behind the podcast! LONELAND, an evening of dance cinema, on June 3 @ 7.30pm ET. Ticket info at The Moving Architects.

Today's guest is Stefanie Batten Bland. Jerome Robbins awardee, Stefanie is an interdisciplinary global artist who interrogates contemporary and historical culture. She situates her work at the intersection of dance-theatre and installation. She is a 2021 commissioned artist by Baryshnikov Arts Center, Duke Performances, 2021 Toulmin Creator fellow Center for Ballet Arts at NYU, and 2019-2020 choreographer for American Ballet Theatre's inaugural Women's Movement Initiative. She created Company SBB in Paris in 2008 and established it in New York City in 2011, when she was in residency at Baryshnikov Arts Center and began her current residence at University Settlement. Regularly produced by LaMama Experimental Theater, she premiered her latest work "Look Who's Coming To Dinner" at LaMama in fall 2019 for FIAF's Crossing the Line Festival. COVID commissions include the digital performance of EU Day for the European Union at the United Nations, a distanced films for Brooklyn Botanic Gardens, Works & Process at the Guggenheim, and Duke Performances digital world premiere. For more on Stefanie and show notes: Movers & Shapers: A Dance Podcast

Today's guest is Megan Williams. Megan is an independent dance artist, choreographer, teacher and repetiteur. She performed and toured internationally in the 1980's with the companies of Laura Glenn, Ohad Naharin, and Mark Haim, among many others. In 1988, she joined the Mark Morris Dance Group, dancing for 10 years, touring worldwide, teaching, and appearing in several films. She is in demand as a master class teacher and guest lecturer, and founded Megan Williams Dance Projects in the summer of 2016. Her choreography has been produced by DanceNOW NYC at Joe's Pub, Dance Theater Workshop, Rivertown Artist's Workshop, Barnspace, MIXT Co., Purchase College, Marymount Manhattan College, Connecticut College and Interlochen Arts Academy.

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Today's guest is Kimberly Bartosik. Choreographer, performer, educator, and essayist, Kimberly creates viscerally provocative, ferociously intimate choreographic projects that are built upon the development of a virtuosic movement language, rigorous conceptual explorations, and the creation of highly theatricalized environments.

A member of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company for 9 years, Kimberly is a 2020 Bessie Honoree for Outstanding Performance & Outstanding Performer (Burr Johnson) for her recent work, through the mirror of their eyes. She is a 2019 Guggenheim Fellow in Choreography and a 2020 Virginia B. Toulmin Women Leaders in Dance Fellow at Center for Ballet and the Arts (CBA) at NYU. She has an extensive history of touring, commissions, and creative residencies, including as a a 2017-20 New York Live Arts Live Feed Residency Artist; a 2019-20 Harkness Dance Center Artist-in-Residence @ the 92nd St Y; and a 2019 Exploring the Metropolis (EtM) recipient with Composer Sivan Jacobovitz. She currently teaches at SUNY/Purchase Conservatory of Dance and the Merce Cunningham Trust.

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Today's guest is Deborah Damast. Deborah is Associate Professor and Program Director of Dance Education at NYU Steinhardt where in addition to teaching, she is Artistic Director of concerts, Kaleidoscope Dancers, and the Uganda study abroad program. She is also a Doctoral student at Columbia Teachers College and on faculty at Little Red Schoolhouse, the Dance Education Laboratory in Manhattan, and the Yard in Martha's Vineyard. Deborah has recently received the 2020 Dance Teacher Magazine Award for Higher Education and the 2021 National Dance Education Organization (NDEO) Executive Director Award.

For more in this podcast with episode show notes: Movers & Shapers: A Dance Podcast

Today's guest is Dr. Carla Stalling Walter. Carla teaches and writes about dance, spirituality, and wellbeing. A former professor with a PhD in Dance History and Theory, she is also a Certified Somatic Psychotherapist, and a Certified Spiritual Counselor. Her company, Dance in the Spirit, LLC provides personal and corporate retreats, classes, and workshops on sacred dance meditation, and diversity, equity, and inclusion practices. She is a member of The Sacred Dance Guild, the Dance Studies Association, and a board member with the San Francisco Zen Center.

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Megan Slayter is a dance educator, administrator, historian, and lighting designer at Western Michigan University where she is the Acting Associate Director of the School of Theatre and Dance with a research focus on the reconstructions of works by modern dance pioneer, Loïe Fuller. Her ongoing collaborative research with dance historian Jessica Lindberg Coxe has resulted in the reconstruction of Fuller's "Fire Dance", "Night", "Lily of the Nile", and "La Mer" that have been reconstructed and commissioned for performance by universities, dance companies, and art museums across the country.

For more on this podcast with episode show notes: Movers & Shapers: A Dance Podcast.