How does modelling help dancers perform better? And does one necessarily have to be 'beautiful' to pursue such a career? The fashion industry has progressed massively from the days of archetypal body types and facial features, where the one size fits all model loomed by and large. Nowadays, it is about compatibility and authenticity. Find the right agency or project, and a model is potentially born.

Ema Steindl is a student at the Academy for Performing Arts in Bratislava pursing her Bachelor's degree, but is also a professional model currently tied to three different international agencies. While she did not qualify fully as a model early on, she was discovered serendipitously on a bus and given the opportunity to realize her unique gifts in both fashion and dance.

Concluding the month of Dance Fashion, this episode explores life as both a dancer and fashion model, offering insights as to what these two industries entail when interweaved. Interested in joining a casting session soon? Consider picking up a move or two and surprise your panel! 

• Ema Steindl
• Agencies

Soundtrack: Birds - Tyler Twombly | Poison Ivy Yard Work - Uncle Milk

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How much does fashion influence dance and vice versa? Does dance photography differ from commercial fashion photography? The truth is, the dancer and the dancing body offers a model unlike any other, as the physical architecture and visual awareness potentially render a photographical experience something beyond just the image. 

Szabina Biro is a UK based freelance photographer whose portfolio ranges from audition shoots, dance classes, theatre performances and lifestyle or fashion shoots. While she dreamt of becoming a dancer when still a child, she now realizes her dreams through her lenses, dancing through life shot by shot, image by image, dancer by dancer.

Kickstarting the month of Dance Fashion, this episode shares insights into a dance photographer's life and how a cameraman helps fulfill a dancer's potential. Szabina is not the only photographer around, but she certainly is one who truly cares about her dancer.

"I found I could say things with colour and shapes that I couldn't say any other way - things I had no words for."  -  Georgia O'Keeffe

• Szabina Biro
• Dancing Through Life Photography

Soundtrack: Birds - Tyler Twombly | Poison Ivy Yard Work - Uncle Milk

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What is the hardest question to ask in dance or as a dancer? Regardless of one being a dancer, or wanting to become a dancer, there are questions that are always incredibly difficult to communicate such as salary, goals, aesthetics etc. Join All House Dance Collective director Jacob Caldwell and artists Elsea Mayes Brown as well as Megan Schneider to talk all things dance. 

Concluding the month of Bonus Content, this episode explores some of the most difficult questions within the industry through the first roundtable discussion involving guests of the Sol Fest 2021 virtual arts festival held in June. What is YOUR hardest question to ask? 

• Jacob | Elsea | Megan
• All House Dance Collective
• Sol Fest 2021

Soundtrack: Birds - Tyler Twombly | Poison Ivy Yard Work - Uncle Milk

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Are you happy with your career? A certain Chris Rock once joked: "there are people who have jobs, and there are those who have careers." We spend so much time in the workplace and often neglect the all important question - Is this the right profession for me? Jonathan Collaton is a student affairs coordinator at the University of Toronto Scarborough, and creator of the Career Crossroads Podcast, a platform investigating career transitions and lifelong professional development.

Kickstarting the month of Bonus Content, this episode explores the understanding of careers as the bedrock of human society, Jonathan's path to his current position and what it means to run the podcast.

"In order to find yourself, you have to lose yourself." -David Brooks.

• Jonathan Collaton
• Career Crossroads Podcast

Soundtrack: Birds - Tyler Twombly | Poison Ivy Yard Work - Uncle Milk

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How often have you engaged with technology and shirked? Is it something that annoys or even intrudes you? Love it or hate it, technology is the FUTURE. Maybe consider how it could enhance your livelihood instead, and suddenly it is more friend than foe. 

Concluding the month of Dance Technology, this episode introduces the FIVE must have apps as an artist or creative in today's age. Knowing technology is never enough anymore, we have to master it and...Trust it!

• Magisto
• Link in Bio
• Shazam
• Marquee TV
• Buymeacoffee

Soundtrack: Birds - Tyler Twombly

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Wish to dance differently? Within an augmented reality, the limits are endless both with technology and dance! Gilles Jobin is the founder and Artistic Director of Cie Gilles Jobin, a Geneva based dance company specializing in VR and technological integration. 

Continuing in the month of Dance Technology, this episode introduces the importance and potential of technology not just to dance, but life as we know it. Ready for a change? Come and join us in this augmented reality! 

• Cie Gilles Jobin
• Cosmogony
• La Comedie Virtuelle

Soundtrack: Birds - Tyler Twombly

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Ever noticed what you've been dancing on all this while? Research has proven the effectiveness of quality dance floors in preventing serious injuries as well as extending the life span of professional dancers. Guy Dagger is the Managing Director at British Harlequin / Harlequin Floors, one of the world's leading manufacturers of dance and performance flooring.

Kickstarting the month of Dance Technology, this episode introduces the importance of good flooring and how they differ accordingly. Those dance floors surely don't make themselves, so let's raise the floor together with Harlequin! 

• Harlequin Floors
• Guy Dagger
• Case Study

Soundtrack: Birds - Tyler Twombly

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How do you brand a ballet? Every Artistic Director needs a business brain as support in marketing a company forward. Heidi Lee is the incumbent Executive Director of the Hong Kong Ballet, one of the three flagship dance companies in the city and among the leading ballet institutions in Asia.  

Concluding the month of Dance Entrepreneurship, this episode introduces the job scope of an Executive Director, as well as key branding and leadership strategies to energize a dance company's commercial image within the community. 

• Heidi Lee
• HK Ballet
• Romeo & Juliet 

Soundtrack: Birds - Tyler Twombly

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What do ballerinas and entrepreneurs have in common? Yes, there is always failure before success, a fall before the RISE. Susanne Puerschel was a former member of the Berlin State Opera and founder of Pointe To Rise, an empowerment society and online business platform for ballerinas and dancers alike. 

Continuing in the month of Dance Entrepreneurship, this episode delves deep into the psyche of life as a former ballerina and how to gain empowerment for a future in entrepreneurship. Ready to run your own online dance business? Come, let's put on our shoes and pointe to rise!

• Susanne Puerschel
• Pointe To Rise
• Pointe To Rise Podcast

Soundtrack: Birds - Tyler Twombly

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Do dance and business ever go hand in hand? How could dance artists maximize financial opportunity by gaining financial literacy? Erin Pride is an educator, performer and founder of The DancePreneur Academy, an online business coaching programme dedicated to helping dancers thrive as self-made entrepreneurs. 

Kicking off the month of Dance Entrepreneurship, this episode introduces the do's and don'ts of owning an online dance business, and how to fulfill one's purpose as a dance entrepreneur. "It's time to say no to starving artists,  but more thriving artists!"

• Erin Pride
• Dance Boss Podcast
• @erinpride

Soundtrack: Birds - Tyler Twombly

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