Music & Dance: Musicians, Composers, Singers, Dancers, Choreographers, Performers Talk Art, Creativity & The Creative Process

Max Stossel is an Award-winning poet, filmmaker, and speaker, named by Forbes as one of the best storytellers of the year. His Stand-Up Poetry Special Words That Move takes the audience through a variety of different perspectives, inviting us to see the world through different eyes together. Taking on topics like heartbreak, consciousness, social media, politics, the emotional state of our world, and even how dogs probably (most certainly) talk, Max uses rhyme and rhythm to make these topics digestible and playful. Words That Move articulates the deep-seated kernels of truth that we so often struggle to find words for ourselves. Max has performed on five continents, from Lincoln Center in NY to the Hordern Pavilion in Sydney. He is also the Youth & Education Advisor for the Center for Humane Technology, an organization of former tech insiders dedicated to realigning technology with humanity’s best interests.

"I enjoy dancing, but I would not call myself a dancer by any means compared to the people I'm working with here who are so wonderful at it. I worked with a lot of in this piece, especially immersive theater actors and dancers. So there's a show called Sleep No More in New York, which is like an adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth. It's immersive theater. You walk through the room and all these different actors have these interactions with the people as they're moving through this entire building. And I love immersive theater so much, and I was really glad to work with these very talented, immersive theater actors as I just think they're such good captures of humanity, and they tend to be very good dancers as well.

There's a lot of dance in those shows. Then Sleep No More and Then She Fell are both just truly spectacular immersive theater programs. And Taylor Myers, Isabel Umali, Jonothon Lyons, and Rachel Berman, they were all part of those shows, and they worked with me on the Aliens piece and on Subway Love."

www.wordsthatmove.com/

www.instagram.com/maxstossel/

www.humanetech.com
https://vimeo.com/690354718/54614a2318

www.creativeprocess.info
www.oneplanetpodcast.org
IG www.instagram.com/creativeprocesspodcast

"For me, there is something about art, it's not a monologue. When I do a video dance for a Japanese audience or a sci-fi comedy for a French audience then I do try to think about if I want to shock the audience at a certain moment. I think that the same things that would shock a French person would not necessarily shock an Israeli or a Japanese person, you know? I think that what's funny is that for a lot of people, the fact that my TV show The Middleman (L'Agent Immobilier) is very extreme, but in Israel when they watched it, they never thought it was extreme. They said it was very funny, but because the Israeli reality is much more extreme, so the idea of people shouting at each other or breaking a wall or punching each other or doing weird stuff, the French said, 'Oh, it's over the top.' In Israel, they felt that it was just like the way things are. So it's very, very interesting."

"Some people, it doesn't matter who they speak to, they will speak in the same way they would speak to a five-year-old or to an intellectual or to somebody who doesn't speak the language very well. They would speak the same way and they don't care because this is what they have to say, but I think that the natural thing in the dialogue is really to look into the eyes of the person you speak to and see when he understands or when she doesn't understand or when she's moved or when he's angry. And basically out of that, kind of create your own language. And I think the same way that people are excited about learning and speaking different languages - because I think each language has different merits and different aspects."

Author, Screenwriter, and Director Etgar Keret is a recipient of the French Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, the Charles Bronfman Prize, and the Caméra d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival for Jellyfish, which he directed with his wife Shira Geffen. Most recently, they created the TV mini series The Middleman (L’Agent Immobilier) starring Mathieu Amalric. His books include the short story collections Fly Already, Suddenly a Knock on the Door, and his memoir The Seven Good Years. Etgar’s work has been translated into forty-five languages and has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review,The New York Times, and This American Life.
A frequent collaborator with visual and performing artists, an exhibition inspired by his mother called Inside Out is currently showing at the Jewish Museum in Berlin until February 5th, 2023.

www.etgarkeret.com
The Middleman www.imdb.com/title/tt11523800
www.jmberlin.de/en/exhibition-inside-out-etgar-keret
https://etgarkeret.substack.com
Jellyfish http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0807721

www.creativeprocess.info
www.oneplanetpodcast.org
IG www.instagram.com/creativeprocesspodcast

Photos:
Outside - a video dance by Etgar Keret and Inbal Pinto
The Inconsistent Pedaler, Keret in collaboration with Pilobolus Dance Company, Photo by Grant Halverson

Author, Screenwriter, and Director Etgar Keret is a recipient of the French Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, the Charles Bronfman Prize, and the Caméra d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival for Jellyfish, which he directed with his wife Shira Geffen. Most recently, they created the TV mini series The Middleman (L’Agent Immobilier) starring Mathieu Amalric. His books include the short story collections Fly Already, Suddenly a Knock on the Door, and his memoir The Seven Good Years. Etgar’s work has been translated into forty-five languages and has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review,The New York Times, and This American Life.
A frequent collaborator with visual and performing artists, an exhibition inspired by his mother called Inside Out is currently showing at the Jewish Museum in Berlin until February 5th, 2023.

"For me, there is something about art, it's not a monologue. When I do a video dance for a Japanese audience or a sci-fi comedy for a French audience then I do try to think about if I want to shock the audience at a certain moment. I think that the same things that would shock a French person would not necessarily shock an Israeli or a Japanese person, you know? I think that what's funny is that for a lot of people, the fact that my TV show The Middleman (L'Agent Immobilier) is very extreme, but in Israel when they watched it, they never thought it was extreme. They said it was very funny, but because the Israeli reality is much more extreme, so the idea of people shouting at each other or breaking a wall or punching each other or doing weird stuff, the French said, 'Oh, it's over the top.' In Israel, they felt that it was just like the way things are. So it's very, very interesting."

"Some people, it doesn't matter who they speak to, they will speak in the same way they would speak to a five-year-old or to an intellectual or to somebody who doesn't speak the language very well. They would speak the same way and they don't care because this is what they have to say, but I think that the natural thing in the dialogue is really to look into the eyes of the person you speak to and see when he understands or when she doesn't understand or when she's moved or when he's angry. And basically out of that, kind of create your own language. And I think the same way that people are excited about learning and speaking different languages - because I think each language has different merits and different aspects."

www.etgarkeret.com
The Middleman www.imdb.com/title/tt11523800
www.jmberlin.de/en/exhibition-inside-out-etgar-keret
https://etgarkeret.substack.com
Jellyfish http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0807721

www.creativeprocess.info
www.oneplanetpodcast.org
IG www.instagram.com/creativeprocesspodcast
Photo credit: Lielle Sand

"I've always thought that filmmaking rhymes with classical music, the process of making classical music that I observed as a child. When I discovered filmmaking, I thought these things, they're very similar. They rhyme with each other. I hope this doesn't sound pretentious, but what operating a camera does resemble the physicality of conducting an orchestra. I was in a certain proximity to my father's orchestra playing on Stephen Spielberg's and Clint Eastwood's soundtracks, and I grew up playing the cello.

My favorite conductor that I ever got to see was Seiji Ozawa, who was the musical director of the Boston Symphony and the Tokyo Symphony. But he was my father's orchestra was the Boston Symphony, and he was musical director for 35 years or something like that. And this was like, he was like a dancer, really beautiful, elegant movements. And I watched him rehearse and perform for so many hours when I was a child. And I think subconsciously as a camera operator, that it informed my sensibility, and maybe if I'm able to pull off like an elegant, smooth camera move, like on Noah Baumbach's Mistress America movie we did a lot of big flourishy movements all in one shot. And I think Seiji was a huge influence on me in terms of movement. And even if, Confess, Fletch, I didn't operate the camera, but I had an amazing operator named Julian Delacruz. And just being able to communicate like what the movement should be and just speak that language, I think getting to watch Seiji as a kid really helped that for me.”

Sam Levy studied film in Paris with French New Wave director Eric Rohmer and began his career as an apprentice to legendary cinematographer Harris Savides. Sam first gained recognition as a cinematographer when he photographed Wendy and Lucy for director Kelly Reichardt - voted “One of the Best 25 Films of the 21st Century” by The New York Times. He went on to shoot Frances Ha, Mistress America and While We’re Young for director Noah Baumbach, Changers and Frank Ocean's Blonded for Spike Jonze, Sermon on The Mount for Jerrod Carmichael, Maggie’s Plan for Rebecca Miller and Green Porno for Isabella Rossellini. Sam also photographed Lady Bird for writer/director Greta Gerwig - nominated for 5 Academy Awards including Best Picture and winner of The Golden Globe for Best Picture. Other new films include Mayday, which he also produced, Confess, Fletch, and She Came to Me.

https://samlevydp.com
www.imdb.com/name/nm1240085/
www.instagram.com/samlevydp/
www.creativeprocess.info
www.oneplanetpodcast.org
Instagram @creativeprocesspodcast

Sam Levy studied film in Paris with French New Wave director Eric Rohmer and began his career as an apprentice to legendary cinematographer Harris Savides. Sam first gained recognition as a cinematographer when he photographed Wendy and Lucy for director Kelly Reichardt - voted “One of the Best 25 Films of the 21st Century” by The New York Times. He went on to shoot Frances Ha, Mistress America and While We’re Young for director Noah Baumbach, Changers and Frank Ocean's Blonded for Spike Jonze, Sermon on The Mount for Jerrod Carmichael, Maggie’s Plan for Rebecca Miller and Green Porno for Isabella Rossellini. Sam also photographed Lady Bird for writer/director Greta Gerwig - nominated for 5 Academy Awards including Best Picture and winner of The Golden Globe for Best Picture. Other new films include Mayday, which he also produced, Confess, Fletch, and She Came to Me.

"I've always thought that filmmaking rhymes with classical music, the process of making classical music that I observed as a child. When I discovered filmmaking, I thought these things, they're very similar. They rhyme with each other. I hope this doesn't sound pretentious, but what operating a camera does resemble the physicality of conducting an orchestra. I was in a certain proximity to my father's orchestra playing on Stephen Spielberg's and Clint Eastwood's soundtracks, and I grew up playing the cello.

My favorite conductor that I ever got to see was Seiji Ozawa, who was the musical director of the Boston Symphony and the Tokyo Symphony. But he was my father's orchestra was the Boston Symphony, and he was musical director for 35 years or something like that. And this was like, he was like a dancer, really beautiful, elegant movements. And I watched him rehearse and perform for so many hours when I was a child. And I think subconsciously as a camera operator, that it informed my sensibility, and maybe if I'm able to pull off like an elegant, smooth camera move, like on Noah Baumbach's Mistress America movie we did a lot of big flourishy movements all in one shot. And I think Seiji was a huge influence on me in terms of movement. And even if, Confess, Fletch, I didn't operate the camera, but I had an amazing operator named Julian Delacruz. And just being able to communicate like what the movement should be and just speak that language, I think getting to watch Seiji as a kid really helped that for me.”

https://samlevydp.com
www.imdb.com/name/nm1240085/
www.instagram.com/samlevydp/
www.creativeprocess.info
www.oneplanetpodcast.org
Instagram @creativeprocesspodcast

"I met the founders Alan and Joshua who started NeueHouse in 2013. They are lovely gentlemen, and they called me aside and said, 'We'd love to get you involved in our coworking space that we are doing.’ And we really curated an interesting community of people. And have had a lot of interesting people do talks, from Paul Smith to Salman Rushdie to Wu-Tang Clan, Tom Sachs, and Ariana Huffington. And I've hosted Prince William and Princess Kate. We've had some incredible people here and I love talking to people, and I love hosting these conversations. I did one last night with my dear friend Carlos Alomar, who was the musical director and long-time collaborator with David Bowie for 30 years. And I just love people's stories. So for me, it's inspirational. The one thing I like to do is to inspire people -not me - but if I can show them someone's life, it's a way for people to learn."

Oberon Sinclair is the CEO and founder of the creative and branding agency, My Young Auntie. Since she founded the company in 1997, Oberon has collaborated with and managed an array of notable clients from the high luxury, art, fashion, food and lifestyle sectors, including Hermès, Vivienne Westwood, Fabergé, the Richemont Group, Jack Spade, ArtForum, Selfridges, Rizzoli Books, Island Records, David Lee Roth, among others. Oberon is known as the Queen of Kale for reviving an interest in the superfood across the world. She’s a Founding Member of NeueHouse where she moderates talks.

https://myyoungauntie.com

www.instagram.com/myyoungauntiepr

www.neuehouse.com

www.creativeprocess.info
www.oneplanetpodcast.org
Instagram @creativeprocesspodcast

Photo: Oberon hosting friends Duran Duran at NeueHouse for their press day in 2021

Oberon Sinclair is the CEO and founder of the creative and branding agency, My Young Auntie. Since she founded the company in 1997, Oberon has collaborated with and managed an array of notable clients from the high luxury, art, fashion, food and lifestyle sectors, including Hermès, Vivienne Westwood, Fabergé, the Richemont Group, Jack Spade, ArtForum, Selfridges, Rizzoli Books, Island Records, David Lee Roth, among others. Oberon is known as the Queen of Kale for reviving an interest in the superfood across the world. She’s a Founding Member of NeueHouse where she moderates talks.

"I met the founders Alan and Joshua who started NeueHouse in 2013. They are lovely gentlemen, and they called me aside and said, 'We'd love to get you involved in our coworking space that we are doing.’ And we really curated an interesting community of people. And have had a lot of interesting people do talks, from Paul Smith to Salman Rushdie to Wu-Tang Clan, Tom Sachs, and Ariana Huffington. And I've hosted Prince William and Princess Kate. We've had some incredible people here and I love talking to people, and I love hosting these conversations. I did one last night with my dear friend Carlos Alomar, who was the musical director and long-time collaborator with David Bowie for 30 years. And I just love people's stories. So for me, it's inspirational. The one thing I like to do is to inspire people -not me - but if I can show them someone's life, it's a way for people to learn."

https://myyoungauntie.com

www.instagram.com/myyoungauntiepr

www.neuehouse.com

www.creativeprocess.info
www.oneplanetpodcast.org
Instagram @creativeprocesspodcast

"Einstein on the Beach, it's a masterpiece. America, in 1976, was to be celebrating its 200th year of existence, and Michel Guy, the French Minister of Culture, came to New York to offer a commission to Philip Glass and Robert Wilson to write an opera. This was the gift that France would give for America's two-hundredth anniversary. That was the first time I met Robert Wilson."

"My son had died, and I had taken to two years to recover. So I went to New York. I had dinner with Laurie Anderson, and as I was getting up to leave, she said, 'What are you doing in New York?' I said, "I'm looking for work' She said, 'What are you doing next week?' I said, 'Well, I'm supposed to be in Atlanta, Georgia doing a music film with David Byrne and Talking Heads. Well, what do you have?' She said, 'I'm doing a piece next week at Brooklyn Academy of Music with Trisha Brown and Robert Rauschenberg, Set and Reset. Why don't you come? Bring your sax, we'll work it out then.' Two weeks after that concert, Laurie's manager called and said, 'Do you want to go on a 20-city tour of America with Laurie? Home of the Brave?' Of course, we did that. That was the beginning of the reconstruction of my career in New York through Laurie Anderson."

For nearly half a century, Richard “Dickie” Landry was at the center of the New York avant-garde. Born in the small Louisiana town of Cecilia in 1938, he began making pilgrimages to the city while still in his teens in search of the city’s most cutting edge gestures in jazz, and relaxed there not long after, falling in with a close knit community of artists and composers like Keith Sonnier, Philip Glass, Joan Jonas, Gordon Matt Clarke, Richard Serra, Robert Rauschenberg, Nancy Graves, Lawrence Weiner, Steve Reich, Jon Gibson, and Robert Wilson.
Landry remains one of the few artists of his generation who made important waves within numerous creative idioms. Having been trained from a young age on saxophone, not only is he a remarkably respected solo performer and bandleader, but he was an early and long-standing member of Philip Glass’ ensemble, playing on seminal records like Music With Changing Parts, Music in Similar Motion / Music in Fifths, Music in Twelve Parts, North Star, and Einstein on the Beach, and played with Talking Heads, Laurie Anderson, and jazz giants like Johnny Hammond, Gene Ammons, and Les McCann. He was also one of the most important photographic documenters of the New York Scene, until he left the city for his native Louisiana, following 9/11.

http://www.dickielandry.com

https://unseenworlds.com/collections/dickie-landry

Music on this episode courtesy of Dickie Landry:

E-mu & Alto Saxophone composed by D.L. for Robert Wilson's production of "1433 The Grand Voyage" based on the story of Zheng He. Premier National Theater Taipei, Taiwan 2009

Philip Glass’"Einstein on the Beach”. Original recording on Tomato Records 1977. D.L. on flute

“Home of the Brave” on the Late Show with Laurie Anderson

Image: "Solo Concerts" by Dickie Landry and Philip Glass held on April 13th and 14th, 1973 at 112 Workshop. Photos by Gerard Murrell, Robert Mapplethorpe

www.creativeprocess.info
www.oneplanetpodcast.org
Instagram @creativeprocesspodcast

For nearly half a century, Richard “Dickie” Landry was at the center of the New York avant-garde. Born in the small Louisiana town of Cecilia in 1938, he began making pilgrimages to the city while still in his teens in search of the city’s most cutting edge gestures in jazz, and relaxed there not long after, falling in with a close knit community of artists and composers like Keith Sonnier, Philip Glass, Joan Jonas, Gordon Matt Clarke, Richard Serra, Robert Rauschenberg, Nancy Graves, Lawrence Weiner, Steve Reich, Jon Gibson, and Robert Wilson.
Landry remains one of the few artists of his generation who made important waves within numerous creative idioms. Having been trained from a young age on saxophone, not only is he a remarkably respected solo performer and bandleader, but he was an early and long-standing member of Philip Glass’ ensemble, playing on seminal records like Music With Changing Parts, Music in Similar Motion / Music in Fifths, Music in Twelve Parts, North Star, and Einstein on the Beach, and played with Talking Heads, Laurie Anderson, and jazz giants like Johnny Hammond, Gene Ammons, and Les McCann. He was also one of the most important photographic documenters of the New York Scene, until he left the city for his native Louisiana, following 9/11.

"Einstein on the Beach, it's a masterpiece. America, in 1976, was to be celebrating its 200th year of existence, and Michel Guy, the French Minister of Culture, came to New York to offer a commission to Philip Glass and Robert Wilson to write an opera. This was the gift that France would give for America's two-hundredth anniversary. That was the first time I met Robert Wilson."

"My son had died, and I had taken to two years to recover. So I went to New York. I had dinner with Laurie Anderson, and as I was getting up to leave, she said, 'What are you doing in New York?' I said, "I'm looking for work' She said, 'What are you doing next week?' I said, 'Well, I'm supposed to be in Atlanta, Georgia doing a music film with David Byrne and Talking Heads. Well, what do you have?' She said, 'I'm doing a piece next week at Brooklyn Academy of Music with Trisha Brown and Robert Rauschenberg, Set and Reset. Why don't you come? Bring your sax, we'll work it out then.' Two weeks after that concert, Laurie's manager called and said, 'Do you want to go on a 20-city tour of America with Laurie? Home of the Brave?' Of course, we did that. That was the beginning of the reconstruction of my career in New York through Laurie Anderson."

http://www.dickielandry.com

https://unseenworlds.com/collections/dickie-landry

Music on this episode courtesy of Dickie Landry:

E-mu & Alto Saxophone composed by D.L. for Robert Wilson's production of "1433 The Grand Voyage" based on the story of Zheng He. Premier National Theater Taipei, Taiwan 2009

“Gloria” for Robert Wilson’s “Oedipus Rex”

Philip Glass’"Einstein on the Beach”. Original recording on Tomato Records 1977. D.L. on flute

"Are Years What" Phillip Glass. Composed for D.L. playing 3 soprano saxophones. On his lp "North Star”,1977

Swing Kings 1965, D.L. on flute

“Home of the Brave” on the Late Show with Laurie Anderson

"Taideco" Zydeco, for Wilson's production of "1433" Cedric Watson, Jermain Prejean, D.L.

“Ghosties” from “Dickie Landry Solo”

"It Keeps Rainin'", Robert Plant with Lil' Band O' Gold

www.creativeprocess.info
www.oneplanetpodcast.org
Instagram @creativeprocesspodcast

"It's because I  consider life a dance, really. A dance. Some dancers are clunky, and some dancers are graceful, but it's a dance, a compromise, a puzzle, kind of, and it just has a lot of elements that  I can draw comparisons with life. You know, the dance of the planets. There are so many dances all the time, all around us. And do you know what they're all saying? Yes, no, maybe...but that's what we're in. And we're trying to figure out why are we here? Why do I have to do this dancing? And what's animating me? I just like the way there are a lot of analogies between life and dance, between the way people interact. You know, people who are not dancers. I just like that. Lines can be drawn between regular life and dancing. But also the advantage that this art has over dance is it freezes the moment. A moment you miss because time goes by and the dancer has got to keep moving, but you miss something unless somebody freezes it."

Gloria Pacis is a painter dividing her time between New York City and Hoboken, where she has her studio. She received her BFA from the University of Washington in 1976. She credits her years working as a set designer and scene artist for the dramatic, character-based elements of her paintings. She has participated in exhibitions at public institutions and universities, including Wing Luke Museum, Mana Contemporary, University of Washington, Henry Art Gallery, Monroe Arts Centre, Seattle University, Act Theatreand Seattle Center Art Museum, where her work was chosen to showcase International Women’s Day. She has designed sets for many leading theatres, including notable productions of A Christmas Carol, Hamlet, The Doctors Dilemma, Hedda Gabler, and Salome.

IG @gloriapacis

www.artofgloriapacis.com

www.creativeprocess.info

www.oneplanetpodcast.org

Instagram @creativeprocesspodcast