Janine Kovac joined the studio for this episode! As a retired professional dancer turned award-winning author, she shares her journey from the stage to the page after a twelve-year international ballet career spanning Iceland, Italy, and the U.S. Her latest memoir, The Nutcracker Chronicles: A Fairytale Memoir, intertwines her personal experiences in ballet with  stories from one of ballet’s most iconic tales, offering a reflection on ambition, artistry, and identity. It’s available now from She Writes Press!

Janine’s accomplishments extend beyond the stage as well. As a graduate of UC Berkeley, she has authored multiple books. Her memoir, Spinning: Choreography for Coming Home, won a National Indie Excellence Award, and she’s been published in outlets such as Salon, Writer’s Digest, and Publishers Weekly. Janine’s contributions to literature have earned her fellowships, residencies, and literary awards, solidifying her reputation as a voice in both the ballet and literary worlds.

In this episode, Janine discusses her transition from the demanding world of professional ballet to the equally challenging and sometimes much more solitary world of writing. She talks about how her dance background shapes her creative process today, the parallels and differences between dance and writing, and why she’ll always identify as a ballet dancer. She also discusses her experience teaching adults and how amateur adult dancers can find their identity in a ballet studio too. Check it out!

Music in this episode:

Waltz of the Flowers - Tchaikovsky

Barroom Ballet - Silent Film Light - Kevin MacLeod

Barroom Ballet - Silent Film Light by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100310

Artist: http://incompetech.com/

@eblosfield  | [email protected]

Support this podcast on Patreon! https://patreon.com/TheAdultBalletStudio?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

This month’s guest for The Adult Ballet Studio is Marilyn Klaus, the visionary artistic director and founder of Ballets with a Twist, a New York City-based ballet company that brings the glamour and charm of Old Hollywood to life through dance. Marilyn’s company redefines classical ballet, adding a pop-culture twist with choreography inspired by iconic American cocktails, like the Mai Tai and Martini, in its signature production, Cocktail Hour: The Show. With original choreography by Marilyn, music by Grammy-nominated composer Stephen Gaboury, and costumes by Catherine Zehr, each performance offers a unique experience, weaving elements of improvisation and Hollywood-inspired drama and humor.

In our conversation, Marilyn shares how Ballets with a Twist attracts diverse audiences by making ballet accessible and exciting, bringing it back into the cultural mainstream. We dive into her journey from LA to NYC, her early influences, and how she’s crafted performances that appeal to both ballet enthusiasts and newcomers alike. Marilyn’s passion for reimagining ballet shines through, and this episode offers insight into how she’s breaking new ground in the dance world. Check it out! 

Music in this episode:

Waltz of the Flowers - Tchaikovsky

Barroom Ballet - Silent Film Light - Kevin MacLeod

Barroom Ballet - Silent Film Light by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100310

Artist: http://incompetech.com/

@eblosfield  | [email protected]

Support this podcast on Patreon! https://patreon.com/TheAdultBalletStudio?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

The Limón Dance Company is presenting its 78th season this year,  and on this episode of The Adult Ballet Studio, we have two incredible guests to celebrate: Limón Dance Company Artistic Director Dante Puleio and Choreographer Kayla Farrish! 

After a career performing with The Limón Dance Company, touring national and international musical theatre productions, television and film, Dante received his MFA from the University of California, Irvine. His research focuses on contextualizing mid-20th century dance for the contemporary artist and audience. Dante shares his vision for honoring the company’s rich history while evolving its storytelling to resonate with modern audiences. 

Kayla is a New York-based dancer, choreographer, director, and photographer who has been commissioned to create a new piece for the company’s upcoming season that examines two of Limón’s previous works, “Redes” and El Grito.” Her multi-disciplinary work has been recognized by Sundance, the New York Times, and the Harkness Promise Award. She was also awarded a Bessie Performance Award for her solo “People Above the Moon.”

In this conversation, Dante and Kayla discuss the intersection of ballet and modern dance, the responsibility of preserving history while pushing creative boundaries, and the ways dance can inspire social change. Check it out!

Purchase tickets to Leigh Purtill Ballet Company's upcoming performance, Sweet Sorrow: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sweet-sorrow-a-zombie-ballet-tickets-952037418547

Use this access code for a 10% discount on tickets: ADLTBALL10

Music in this episode:

Waltz of the Flowers - Tchaikovsky

Barroom Ballet - Silent Film Light - Kevin MacLeod

Barroom Ballet - Silent Film Light by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100310

Artist: http://incompetech.com/

@eblosfield  | [email protected]

Support this podcast on Patreon! https://patreon.com/TheAdultBalletStudio?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

Chelsea Weidmann joined The Adult Ballet Studio for this episode! She is a ballet instructor and the founder of Geeky Ballerina, a platform offering resources and curriculums for ballet instructors and students alike.

Chelsea has been teaching ballet for more than 25 years, She taught for Ballet West Academy for four years and has an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts. She’s fully ABT certified, fully certified in mUvmethod and certified in level 1 of PBT.

She says teaching is a big passion for her and has dedicated her time to developing in-depth teaching resources, curriculums for various levels of ballet, and a framework for what she views as the nine elements of artistry, all available on her website.

She also has a monthly newsletter and moderates the New Ballet Teachers Group on Facebook. In this episode, Chelsea shares her journey to finding her own space in the ballet world and offers her advice for other dancers to do the same. She also shares insights on developing a classroom for adult ballet dancers versus for kids and teens and ways adults can take care of their mental and emotional well-being while engaging in an art form that is physically demanding. Check it out!

Vote for The Adult Ballet Studio in the arts & design category for the Women in Podcasting Awards! Voting ends October 1st: https://www.womenpodcasters.com/vote

Music in this episode:

Waltz of the Flowers - Tchaikovsky

Barroom Ballet - Silent Film Light - Kevin MacLeod

Barroom Ballet - Silent Film Light by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100310

Artist: http://incompetech.com/

@eblosfield  | [email protected]

Support this podcast on Patreon! https://patreon.com/TheAdultBalletStudio?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

Joining the studio for this episode is Helen Banks, owner and CEO of the sustainable dancewear brand, Imperfect Pointes! 

Helen founded Imperfect Pointes in 2020 out of frustration at the lack of dancewear brands focusing on sustainability. After working in fast fashion and seeing the darker side of the fashion industry, she was upset by the amount of waste going to landfills and the poor working conditions in some factories where dancewear is made. To support her journey in launching a more sustainable method of producing and selling dancewear, she studied sustainable business leadership at the University of Cambridge and is now on a mission to bring about what she calls “a dancewear revolution.”

While not a dancer herself, Helen became interested in the dancewear space in part by watching her daughter develop a love for ballet. Imperfect Pointes’ main objectives are to create a community where everyone who loves ballet can feel included through representation, diversity, and body positivity, and to make sure that the company isn’t adding to landfills and is helping to keep plastic waste out of oceans. The company is committed to repairing, reusing and recycling while aiming for zero waste. All of Imperfect Pointes’ products are made from recycled materials, such as nylon.

Helen also wants to encourage the broader ballet community to make changes by educating other dancewear brands on switching to more sustainable production practices. In this episode, she shares tips about what everyone, from individual dancers to studios to brands and companies, can do to practice sustainability. Check it out!

Vote for The Adult Ballet Studio in the arts & design category for the Women in Podcasting Awards! Voting ends October 1st: https://www.womenpodcasters.com/vote

Music in this episode:

Waltz of the Flowers - Tchaikovsky

Barroom Ballet - Silent Film Light - Kevin MacLeod

Barroom Ballet - Silent Film Light by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100310

Artist: http://incompetech.com/

@eblosfield  | [email protected]

Support this podcast on Patreon! https://patreon.com/TheAdultBalletStudio?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

Pirkko Markula, contemporary dancer and professor of socio-cultural studies of physical activity at the University of Alberta in Canada, is in the studio!

She has a Ph.D in kinesiology and major sport sociology from the University of Illinois. Beyond academia, she’s a dancer herself, previously training in the Dance Department at the University of Illinois with an emphasis on Merce Cunningham, Paul Taylor,  and José Limón techniques. She is currently a choreographer and dancer for Initial 6, a contemporary dance company for dancers above the age of 40 at the University of Alberta.

Combining her love for movement and academia, one of her areas of research is dance and exercise in contemporary culture, with an emphasis on dance and the aging process. Through her Psychology Today blog, Fit Femininity, she examines how adult ballet dancers discover a new sense of self in a ballet class. A collection of essays Pirkko edited alongside colleagues and students in January 2018, titled “The Evolving Feminine Ballet Body,” explores a range of topics regarding the ways ballet has influenced contemporary culture throughout its evolution. 

In this episode, we discuss how the ideal ballet body - both celebrated and criticized at times - has evolved alongside ballet as an art form, how ballet has contributed to broader cultural narratives, and especially, how body ideals in ballet have influenced societal views of femininity, beauty, and womanhood. Check it out!

**This episode discusses body image and touches on disordered eating, which can be a sensitive topic. That discussion begins around 14:00 and continues until 29:00, for any listeners who want to skip ahead. 

Vote for The Adult Ballet Studio in the arts & design category for the Women in Podcasting Awards! Voting ends October 1st: https://www.womenpodcasters.com/vote

Music in this episode:

Waltz of the Flowers - Tchaikovsky

Barroom Ballet - Silent Film Light - Kevin MacLeod

Barroom Ballet - Silent Film Light by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100310

Artist: http://incompetech.com/

@eblosfield  | [email protected]

Support this podcast on Patreon! https://patreon.com/TheAdultBalletStudio?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

The Adult Ballet Studio has another special guest for this episode! Cecelia Beam, faculty member for adult ballet and dance classes for people with Parkinson’s at San Francisco Ballet, is in the studio.

Cecelia is a former dancer, training at School of American Ballet in New York City and graduating from the high school ballet program at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. After dancing in Oakland, California, North Carolina, Indiana and New York, Cecelia found teaching. She earned a master’s degree in ballet at Indiana University and has taught ballet at universities and private ballet schools, including Mills College, Indiana University, and San Francisco Ballet School. 

She has a passion for teaching ballet for adults, and in addition to that, she manages and is the lead teacher for San Francisco Ballet School’s Dance Class for People with Parkinson’s and has coordinated San Francisco Ballet Adult Education Programs for more than 15 years.

She shared some of the ways she structures her classes to make them as inclusive as possible while remaining committed to ballet technique and challenging her students. She also talked about the ways she’s seen ballet change throughout her time studying it, and where she hopes things are headed in the future. Check it out!

Vote for The Adult Ballet Studio in the arts category for The People's Choice Podcast Awards! Voting ends July 31. https://www.podcastawards.com/app/signup

Music in this episode:

Waltz of the Flowers - Tchaikovsky

Barroom Ballet - Silent Film Light - Kevin MacLeod

Barroom Ballet - Silent Film Light by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100310

Artist: http://incompetech.com/

@eblosfield  | [email protected]

Support this podcast on Patreon! https://patreon.com/TheAdultBalletStudio?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

Emmy-nominated documentary filmmaker Daniel Watt is in the studio for this episode! Dan is producer and director of the award-winning documentary “Everybody Dance” — currently available on iTunes, Apple TV, and Amazon Prime, which is offering it for free in recognition of the month of July as Disability Pride Month.

The film follows five kids with different disabilities and their families as well as their dance teacher, Bonnie Schlachte, as they prepare for their end of year recital. Bonnie is founder and director of Ballet For All Kids, a non-profit program that teaches classical ballet and other dance styles using The Schlachte Method - a certified curriculum developed by Bonnie to accommodate all abilities, body types, and learning styles in ballet. The film explores how dance has changed the lives of these kids and many others studying through Bonnie’s organization.

“Everybody Dance” won in the category of best direction of a documentary at the 2023 Chita Rivera Awards. It was a 2022 Cleveland International Film Festival nominee, premiered at the 2024 Santa Barbara International Film Festival, and most recently, was nominated for an Emmy in the independent programming category in Los Angeles.

Dan began his dance career in Cleveland, Ohio, and continued studying in New York City and Los Angeles. He performed with the Joffrey Ballet in Los Angeles before transitioning into a career in film, in which he spent five years in film development at Columbia Pictures and five years working at Syco Entertainment, a London-headquartered music, television, and film production company founded by Simon Cowell with Sony Music Entertainment. Dan has previously worked on the 2013 documentary “One Direction: This Is Us” and was a producer on the award-winning documentary “The Center: Gibbons and Guardians.”

He joined the podcast to talk about the process of creating “Everybody Dance,” his dance and film career, the importance of taking risks and following your passion, and what projects he’s working on next. Check it out!

Vote for The Adult Ballet Studio in the arts category for The People's Choice Podcast Awards! Voting ends July 31. ⁠https://www.podcastawards.com/app/signup⁠

Music in this episode:

Waltz of the Flowers - Tchaikovsky

Barroom Ballet - Silent Film Light - Kevin MacLeod

Barroom Ballet - Silent Film Light by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100310

Artist: http://incompetech.com/

@eblosfield  | [email protected]

Support this podcast on Patreon! https://patreon.com/TheAdultBalletStudio?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

Julie Dupas, founder of Amsterdam Amateur Ballet and Morlaix Ballet Camp, is in the studio for this episode!

After beginning ballet in her 20s and noticing a lack of performance opportunities for adult ballet dancers, Julie founded Amsterdam Amateur Ballet, an inclusive and affordable amateur adult performance group based in Amsterdam. She also founded international summer camp Morlaix Ballet Camp, in which adult dancers take class, learn and perform a complete ballet alongside professional dancers in the course of eight days.

Julie studied jazz as a form of dance for most of her childhood and eventually went on to become a scientist with a PhD in biology. She taught biology for five years before deciding to switch careers, founding two ballet non-profits and working as a pilates instructor. 

She joined the studio to discuss how her science background has served her in ballet, how dancers can build strength and flexibility with pilates, and what she hopes adults take away from her classes. She also discussed the anxieties, and ultimately, the benefits of making a mid-career shift and her advice for other adults beginning ballet later in life. Check it out!

Music in this episode:

Waltz of the Flowers - Tchaikovsky

Barroom Ballet - Silent Film Light - Kevin MacLeod

Barroom Ballet - Silent Film Light by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 

Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100310

Artist: http://incompetech.com/ 

@eblosfield | [email protected]

Support this podcast on Patreon! https://patreon.com/TheAdultBalletStudio?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

Adriana Pierce is a dancer, choreographer, and director based in New York City, and she joined the studio to talk about her work elevating queer artists in ballet, creating community, and her career in classical ballet as well as musical theater! 

Adriana is the founder of Queer the Ballet, an initiative with the mission to widen the scope of classical ballet by producing queer work by queer dance artists. Queer the Ballet says on its website that it seeks to “queer” our ballet spaces and explore choreography often absent from ballet stages.

After training at School of American Ballet, Adriana began her dancing career with New York City Ballet and Miami City Ballet before realizing another dream of hers - working in Broadway, film and tv! She appeared in the 2018 Broadway revival of Carousel, in Steven Spielberg’s 2021 West Side Story film, and in the 2019 limited series on FX, Fosse/Verdon. 

She’s currently the associate director and associate choreographer for Justin Peck’s “Illinoise" on Broadway. Adriana’s other choreographic work features movement and partnering that allows dancers of all genders equal agency, dismantling the traditional gender dynamics of dance. Her choreography has been performed by American Ballet Theatre, Carolina Ballet, Columbia Ballet Collaborative, Ashley Bouder Project, and more. She’s also completed residencies with Center for Ballet and the Arts at NYU and Bridge Street Theatre, and she was recognized by Dance Magazine as one of 25 to watch in 2022.

Music in this episode:

Waltz of the Flowers - Tchaikovsky

Barroom Ballet - Silent Film Light - Kevin MacLeod

Barroom Ballet - Silent Film Light by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100310

Artist: http://incompetech.com/

@eblosfield | [email protected]

Support this podcast on Patreon! https://patreon.com/TheAdultBalletStudio?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=join_link