Why Dance Matters

At just 19, Hannah Martin has already achieved remarkable things. In September 2021, the young ballet dancer won a medal in the RAD's flagship event, The Margot Fonteyn International Ballet Competition. And before that, she was a top flight gymnast, the youngest official member of the England team at the 2018 Commonwealth Games when she was only 15. It is rare to shine in two disciplines at an elite level, competing with some of the very best international dancers and gymnasts. Now an apprentice with Birmingham Royal Ballet, Hannah discusses the similarities and differences between the different disciplines.

Hannah Martin is an apprentice at Birmingham Royal Ballet, after graduating from Elmhurst Ballet School earlier in 2021. She was also a bronze medallist at The Margot Fonteyn International Ballet Competition 2021, and won the London Ballet Circle Sir Peter Wright Performance Prize. She previously competed in rhythmic gymnastics for Team England in the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia (as the youngest official member of the team), and reached the semi-finals of the BBC's The Greatest Dancer in 2020.

Find out more about the RAD's Fonteyn Competition: https://bit.ly/2RV9Qb7

Watch Hannah Martin's journey to The Fonteyn vlog: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyXArRmOieE

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RAD is an independent educational charity and does not receive regular government funding. Every penny we make goes back into the work we do. You can support us by either naming a seat as part of our Name A Seat Campaign: https://bit.ly/3fnxEwm or make a donation: https://bit.ly/3bxA6z5

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Australian ballerina Leanne Benjamin is a self-declared perfectionist - difficult in ballet, where the perfect performance is a tantalising impossibility. Her career took her from rural Queensland to the heights of The Royal Ballet in London. She conquered the great 19th-century ballets, created challenging new work, and revelled in the complex stories of Kenneth MacMillan. Leanne revisits her career in a new memoir, Built for Ballet (written with Sarah Crompton) and discusses her love of coaching, including of young dancers in the RAD's Margot Fonteyn International Ballet Competition.

Leanne Benjamin was born in Rockhampton in Queensland, Australia, and began dancing at the age of three. At 16, she followed her older sister to the Royal Ballet School, then won the RAD's Genée Gold Medal and the Prix de Lausanne. She graduated into Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet (later Birmingham Royal Ballet) in 1983, then danced with London Festival and Deutsche Oper Ballets. She joined The Royal Ballet in 1992, retiring in 2013 after 20 years as a Principal. She was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia and received an OBE for services to dance.

Find out more about the RAD's Fonteyn Competition: https://bit.ly/2RV9Qb7

Follow the RAD on social media, and join the conversation with David Jays.

Instagram @royalacademyofdance

Facebook @RoyalAcademyofDance

Twitter @RADheadquarters

YouTube / royalacademydance

David Jays @mrdavidjays

Sign up to our mailing list: https://bit.ly/3frWPh9

RAD is an independent educational charity and does not receive regular government funding. Every penny we make goes back into the work we do. You can support us by either naming a seat as part of our Name A Seat Campaign: https://bit.ly/3fnxEwm or make a donation: https://bit.ly/3bxA6z5

Leanne Benjamin: Built for Ballet by Leanne Benjamin and Sarah Crompton is published by Melbourne Books. https://bit.ly/3vRhpiM

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Libby Clegg loved dance and ballet when she was little, but became a multi-medal-winning Paralympic athlete. She won five medals games, capping her amazing career in Tokyo with a silver medal for Team GB in the 100m relay - then announced her retirement from the track. Last year she returned to dance in the tv competition Dancing on Ice, reaching the final. Libby, who has Stargardt macular dystrophy, is also candid about struggles with her mental health, even at what should have been her greatest moment of triumph - winning two gold medals at the Rio games.

Content warning: our conversation will discuss mental health and some of the darker moments of Libby's journey.

Libby Clegg MBE was a keen ballet dancer as a child before taking up athletics, specialising in sprinting. In 2008 she made her Paralympic debut in Beijing winning a silver medal in the T12 100m and won another silver medal in London 2012. She struck gold at Rio in 2016, winning both the T11 100m and T11 200m finals. She announced her retirement at the Tokyo Paralympics where she won a relay silver. She appeared in Dancing on Ice in 2020 and wrote My Life with Hatti, a book about her guide dog.

Discover more about the work of the RAD at www.royalacademyofdance.org

Follow the RAD on social media, and join the conversation with host David Jays

Instagram @royalacademyofdance

Facebook @RoyalAcademyofDance

Twitter @RADheadquarters

YouTube / royalacademydance

David Jays @mrdavidjays

Sign up to our mailing list: https://bit.ly/3frWPh9

RAD is an independent educational charity and does not receive regular government funding. Every penny we make goes back into the work we do. You can support us by either naming a seat as part of our Name A Seat Campaign: https://bit.ly/3fnxEwm or make a donation: https://bit.ly/3bxA6z5

Libby's book, My Life with Hatti, available now: https://www.quercusbooks.co.uk/titles/libby-clegg/my-life-with-hatti/9781529416701/

The RNIB's See Sport Differently campaign: https://www.rnib.org.uk/about-us/see-sport-differently

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Gerard Charles arrived at the Royal Academy of Dance as its new Artistic Director in 2018, having been in leadership positions at some of America's liveliest ballet companies. As the RAD prepares to move to a new purpose-built headquarters in London's Battersea, we ask Gerard how a new home will help it grow, and reach into the community. As a seasoned director, how did he reconfigure the RAD's flagship event, The Margot Fonteyn International Ballet Competition, as an online experience? And in these uncertain times, we ask how he sees the future of dance and dance teaching.

Born in Folkestone, England, Gerard trained at the Royal Ballet School, then spent most of his professional career in America. He danced at Ballet International, Milwaukee Ballet and BalletMet in roles ranging from corps de ballet to Principal. He then served as Education Director for Ballet Met Columbus; Ballet Master for BalletMet and Les Grands Ballets Canadiens; Artistic Director for BalletMet and most recently Director of Artistic Operations at Joffrey Ballet. Gerard has choreographed and staged works internationally and received an NEA Choreographic Fellowship. He was appointed as Artistic Director of the RAD in 2018.

Find out more about World Ballet Day and how you can tune into the RAD's section: https://bit.ly/2YFqbog

Find out more about RAD’s new home for dance: https://bit.ly/3wfVnoN

Discover more about the work of the RAD at www.royalacademyofdance.org

Follow the RAD on social media, and join the conversation with host David Jays

Instagram @royalacademyofdance

Facebook @RoyalAcademyofDance

Twitter @RADheadquarters

YouTube / royalacademydance

David Jays @mrdavidjays

Sign up to our mailing list: https://bit.ly/3frWPh9

RAD is an independent educational charity and does not receive regular government funding. Every penny we make goes back into the work we do. You can support us by either naming a seat as part of our Name A Seat Campaign: https://bit.ly/3fnxEwm or make a donation: https://bit.ly/3bxA6z5

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The hip-hop choreographer, dancer and teacher Yami Löfvenberg is also known as 'Rowdy'. As that name suggests, hers is a wonderfully confident, engaged presence - but growing up in Sweden, she was racially bullied and called stupid, because she struggled with maths. Only later did she realise she had dyscalculia: a deep-seated difficulty in understanding numbers. Discovering a talent for dance transformed her life. As well as creating choreography, she's worked in schools with the RAD's Step into Dance programme, and has a gift for reaching young people who might be struggling as she once did.

Yami 'Rowdy' Löfvenberg is a multidisciplinary artist working between movement and theatre as a creative movement director, director, hip-hop theatre maker, performer and lecturer. Alongside making her own work, she also mentors, creates and delivers workshops across the UK and internationally. A One Dance UK DAD Trailblazer Fellow and Marion North Recipient, she was on the creative choreographic team for the 2012 Olympics opening ceremony and is a member of performance collective Hot Brown Honey. A fierce advocate for intersectional feminism and hip-hop dance culture, she is a highly respected role model and teacher within the art sector.

Step into Dance is a Royal Academy of Dance programme in partnership with the Jack Petchey Foundation. The largest inclusive dance programme in the UK, it reaches over six thousand secondary school students annually across London and Essex by offering regular dance classes. Find out more: https://bit.ly/3ozsjs3

Follow the RAD on social media, and join the conversation with host David Jays

Instagram @royalacademyofdance

Facebook @RoyalAcademyofDance

Twitter @RADheadquarters

YouTube / royalacademydance

David Jays @mrdavidjays

Sign up to our mailing list: https://bit.ly/3frWPh9

RAD is an independent educational charity and does not receive regular government funding. Every penny we make goes back into the work we do. You can support us by either naming a seat as part of our Name A Seat Campaign: https://bit.ly/3fnxEwm or make a donation: https://bit.ly/3bxA6z5

Yami Löfvenberg’s website: https://yamilofvenberg.wixsite.com/yamilofvenberg

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James Whiteside is not only a principal at American Ballet Theatre, dancing all iconic classical princes as well as ambitious contemporary work, but also has two alter egos: musician JB Dubs and the drag queen Uhu Betch. He has always worked to break down the mystique that surrounds classical ballet: he has a strong social media presence and frequently collaborates on digital work. Center Center, his eye-wateringly candid new memoir, is a rollercoaster through his professional and emotional life, since his early ballet lessons with two RAD dance teachers in Connecticut. He speaks to us frankly about his multiple performing lives.

Content warning: this episode contains some explicit language.

James Whiteside is a principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre, a pop star (as JbDubs), and a member of the NYC-based drag posse, the Dairy Queens (as Uhu Betch). Born in Fairfield, Connecticut, he began his training at the D'Valda & Sirico Dance and Music Centre. After dancing with Boston Ballet, he joined ABT in 2012 and was named a principal in 2013. He has choreographed for music videos, commercials, film and ballet, and starred in Arthur Pita's The Tenant (Joyce Theater). He also hosts his own popular podcast, The Stage Rightside with James Whiteside. Center Center, his 'almost-memoir' is published by Penguin Random House.

Find out more about RAD’s new home for dance: https://bit.ly/3wfVnoN

The RAD has a network of teachers across the world located in 85 countries across the world - many qualified in a range of styles. By choosing an RAD registered Teacher you are choosing quality, safety and professionalism. Find your nearest teacher: https://bit.ly/3EW4L6x

Follow the RAD on social media, and join the conversation with host David Jays

Instagram @royalacademyofdance

Facebook @RoyalAcademyofDance

Twitter @RADheadquarters

YouTube / royalacademydance

David Jays @mrdavidjays

Sign up to our mailing list: https://bit.ly/3frWPh9

RAD is an independent educational charity and does not receive regular government funding. Every penny we make goes back into the work we do. You can support us by either naming a seat as part of our Name A Seat Campaign: https://bit.ly/3fnxEwm or make a donation: https://bit.ly/3bxA6z5

James Whiteside's website: http://jamesbwhiteside.com/home

James Whiteside's new book Center Center: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/670038/center-center-by-james-whiteside/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This one-off special episode of Why Dance Matters marks the final of The Margot Fonteyn International Ballet Competition, the RAD’s flagship event. Talented young dancers from across the world test themselves in challenging solos, including work by a leading choreographer. This year, the Commissioned Choreographer is Ashley Page – formerly a dancer and dance maker with The Royal Ballet, then Artistic Director of Scottish Ballet and now creating work for leading international companies. His work is bold, spiky and lush. As well as roaming across his multifarious career, and learning what dance means to him, we hear about creating The Fonteyn solos remotely.

Ashley Page trained at the Royal Ballet School and entered the Royal Ballet company in 1975, becoming a Principal Dancer. As a choreographer, he has created many works for The Royal Ballet and elsewhere. Fearful Symmetries (1994) won both an Olivier Award and Time Out Dance Award. After 27 years at Covent Garden, he became Artistic Director of Scottish Ballet from 2002–2012, developing them into an award-winning, internationally renowned modern ballet company. Since 2012 he has been freelancing as a choreographer and opera director, working with ballet, contemporary dance and opera companies in the UK and internationally. He was awarded an OBE in 2006.

Find out more about The Fonteyn and book your tickets to the online final: https://bit.ly/2RV9Qb7

Follow the RAD on social media, and join the conversation with host David Jays.

Instagram @royalacademyofdance

Facebook @RoyalAcademyofDance

Twitter @RADheadquarters

YouTube / royalacademydance

David Jays @mrdavidjays

Sign up to our mailing list: https://bit.ly/3frWPh9

RAD is an independent educational charity and does not receive regular government funding. Every penny we make goes back into the work we do. You can support us by either naming a seat as part of our Name A Seat Campaign: https://bit.ly/3fnxEwm or make a donation: https://bit.ly/3bxA6z5

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Even for non-dancers, dance gets to the heart of things which matter to them the most.

This week, for the final instalment of series 1 of Why Dance Matters, we go into the RAD itself and meet Chief Executive, Luke Rittner. Luke has led the RAD since 1999 and overseen substantial change at the RAD, culminating in a move to a new purpose built global headquarters for the RAD in London’s Battersea later this year. Whilst Luke has weathered many storms at the helm of a number of arts organisations, he, along with other arts leaders, could not have predicted how a pandemic and its fallout would hit the industry. How has this time made Luke reflect upon dance, dance teaching and its place in all our lives? And how does Luke see the RAD’s new home for dance as a catalyst for change for the organisation at large and an opportunity to strengthen ties with its local communities? We find out in this episode.

Luke Rittner has been Chief Executive of the RAD since 1999. Previously he was Secretary General of the Arts Council of Great Britain, Communications Director for Sotheby’s Europe, and ran the Bath Festival. He was also Founder-Director of the Association for Business Sponsorship of the Arts (now Arts & Business). Luke has served on many arts boards, including the Victoria & Albert Museum and the British Council, and was Chairman of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA). He holds honorary doctorates from the Universities of Bath and Durham, and in 2017 was awarded a CBE for services to the arts, particularly dance.

Find out more about RAD’s new home for dance: https://bit.ly/3wfVnoN

Follow the RAD on social media, and join the conversation with host David Jays

Instagram @royalacademyofdance

Facebook @RoyalAcademyofDance

Twitter @RADheadquarters

YouTube / royalacademydance

David Jays @mrdavidjays

Sign up to our mailing list: https://bit.ly/3frWPh9

RAD is an independent educational charity and does not receive regular government funding. Every penny we make goes back into the work we do. You can support us by either naming a seat as part of our Name A Seat Campaign: https://bit.ly/3fnxEwm or make a donation: https://bit.ly/3bxA6z5

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Céline Gittens first made her name as a teenager, winning both a gold medal and the Audience Choice Award at Sadler’s Wells in London, in the RAD’s Genée International Ballet Competition (now named The Fonteyn). Her serenity and clarity marked her out as something special. Born in Trinidad and later moving to Canada, she is now a Principal at Birmingham Royal Ballet, where in 2012 she became the first woman of colour in the UK to dance the leading role in Swan Lake. On Why Dance Matters, Céline discusses this landmark, and also learning ballet with her mother, an RAD teacher; dancing during lockdown; and sharing her passion for dance through her own coaching, including for this year’s inaugural Fonteyn competition.

Céline Gittens was born in Trinidad and grew up in Vancouver, Canada. She trained with her mother, Janet Gittens, and at Vancouver’s Goh Ballet Academy. In 2005 Céline was awarded a gold medal and Audience Award at the RAD’s Genée International Ballet Competition. Joining Birmingham Royal Ballet in 2006, she was promoted to Principal in 2016. Notable roles include Juliet, Odette/Odile, Aurora and Giselle. She gained a Master of Philosophy from the University of Birmingham. Céline has taught and coached with Elmhurst Summer School and BRB. For the RAD, she was an Artistic Examiner for the Solo Seal 2019, and coached dancers for The Fonteyn 2021.

Find out more about the RAD’s Margot Fonteyn International Ballet Competition: https://bit.ly/3joH3HJ

The RAD has a network of teachers located around the world. Find your local RAD teacher: https://bit.ly/3hgHPnx

Follow the RAD on social media, and join the conversation with host David Jays

Instagram @royalacademyofdance

Facebook @RoyalAcademyofDance

Twitter @RADheadquarters

YouTube / royalacademydance

David Jays @mrdavidjays

Sign up to our mailing list: https://bit.ly/3frWPh9

RAD is an independent educational charity and does not receive regular government funding. Every penny we make goes back into the work we do. You can support us by either naming a seat as part of our Name A Seat Campaign: https://bit.ly/3fnxEwm or make a donation: https://bit.ly/3bxA6z5

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dance touches lives beyond performers, so the guests on Why Dance Matters aren’t only professional dancers. Guddi Singh is a paediatrician and BBC broadcaster, and eloquent on the important part the arts can play in healthcare. In a warmly reflective conversation, she explains how, earlier in her career, a Bollywood dance class helped restore joy and purpose to the extreme pressures of a hospital career. She went on to introduce a pioneering dance programme on the children’s ward where she was working, and describes the remarkable effect it had on patients, staff, and on Guddi herself.

Guddi is a paediatric doctor, health campaigner and TV broadcaster based in London. Passionate about social justice and health equity, Guddi has worked around the world, including with the World Health Organization and Health Education England and in resource-poor settings. She is the Secretary for the Paediatrics and Child Health Section of the Royal Society of Medicine and Advocacy Lead for the British Association for Child and Adolescent Health. She is keen to humanise healthcare and experiment with the arts and humanities – including dance – to make this happen. As a broadcaster, Guddi has appeared on BBC2, Channel 4, ITV, Al-Jazeera and Sky News.

Find out more about RAD’s programmes and upcoming activities which aim to widen access to dance for all, and promote health and wellbeing:

Silver Swans for over 55s: https://bit.ly/3j3AWbK

Silver Swans workshop: https://bit.ly/3d3bZJy

RADiate, inclusive dance classes for primary school children with additional learning needs: https://bit.ly/3xIAP9r

RADiate inclusive dance workshop: https://bit.ly/2UsxbCl

Step into Dance, inclusive secondary school dance programme: https://bit.ly/3xzL9R8

Dance for Lifelong Wellbeing: https://bit.ly/3j3CaDS

Follow the RAD on social media, and join the conversation with host David Jays

Instagram @royalacademyofdance

Facebook @RoyalAcademyofDance

Twitter @RADheadquarters

YouTube / royalacademydance

David Jays @mrdavidjays

Sign up to our mailing list: https://bit.ly/3frWPh9

RAD is an independent educational charity and does not receive regular government funding. Every penny we make goes back into the work we do. You can support us by either naming a seat as part of our Name A Seat Campaign: https://bit.ly/3fnxEwm or make a donation: https://bit.ly/3bxA6z5

Content warning: discussion of mental illness.

Please call the Samaritans on 116 123 or contact [email protected] if you are in distress or need help with any of the issues discussed.

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