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S2: Ep Bonus - A Day in the Life of a Dancer

April 27, 2023·30 min·2 clips

Dancer Micah Bullard describes walking into Dance Theater of Harlem for the first time: 'I've never seen this many black people doing ballet ever — it felt like Chronicles of Narnia.'

1. The Turning's bonus episode follows Dance Theater of Harlem dancers over 27 hours leading to a performance in Tallahassee, Florida in summer 2022. 2. Producer and narrator Erica Lance is the episode's guide, embedding with the company at the theater and hotel to document life on a touring schedule. 3. The episode's organizing question is how professional dancers sustain their art through physical injury, last-minute changes, separation from home, and the mundane logistics of being on the road. 4. The company has split for this tour leg, with half in Houston and half in Tallahassee, leaving multiple cast holes to fill the night before the show. 5. Artistic Director Virginia Johnson leads a late evening rehearsal where dancer Micah Bullard, 24, is assigned a double tour in the grand finale — a new role he must learn immediately. 6. Micah describes walking into DTH for the first time as feeling like the Chronicles of Narnia: 'I've never seen this many black people doing ballet ever' and 'for the first time I wasn't the black one — I was just Micah.' 7. Micah also discloses that teachers earlier in his training told him to consider contemporary dance instead of ballet, and that his confidence eroded to the point he began hiding in the back of class and avoiding difficult combinations. 8. Crystal Serrano has danced a pas de deux for six years but her regular partner is in Houston, so Cuadio Davis must learn the role by watching video and rehearsing it for the first time the night before the show. 9. Crystal describes the pas de deux from Balamouk as a 'push-pull, slingshot' tango where 'you get really close and uncomfortable' — and notes she is currently dancing on two sprains from a previous partnering injury. 10. During the first run-through, Crystal senses that Cuadio is rushing, tells the narrator he spun her so fast 'air went up my nose,' and guides him through the music by making eye contact and whispering 'slow down.' 11. Tech rehearsal runs for hours while the backstage team operates around the dancers: wardrobe supervisor Katie Freeman steams and repairs costumes, remixes skin-tone shoe paint to match dancers who got tanned at the hotel pool, and applies 'butt glue' body adhesive to keep costumes in place. 12. Dancer Delaney Washington, described as 'the baby' of the company, eats Celebrex for two herniated discs and lists her injuries: 'My toes ache, my heels are all red, my arches are cramping, my Achilles — my body needs a break. I cannot put on a pointe shoe, but I have to in a few hours.' 13. Dancer Ingrid Silva tours with her 18-month-old daughter Laura, is seen changing a diaper in full performance costume, and explains she danced with Laura strapped to her chest throughout her entire pregnancy. 14. The entire DTH company collectively watches Laura during shows, and Ingrid says her on-stage anxiety about her daughter has eased as the tour has progressed. 15. In the final moments before curtain, Virginia Johnson gives the mood note for the opening scene: 'You're on a ship in the middle of the ocean. Your future depends on your happiness. Make it happen.' The dancers then say 'merde' — French for 'shit' — as a ballet tradition for good luck. 16. During the performance's final piece, 'Return' choreographed by Robert Garland to James Brown and Aretha Franklin music, David Wright performs his first principal role and mid-solo improvises an unplanned side aerial that stuns his colleagues. 17. After his aerial, the dancers around David audibly react; Micah describes that they whispered encouragement while dancing their own choreography and that when David 'tore it up,' it felt like a shared victory. 18. The episode's tone is immersive and observational — no music-documentary score or interpretive narration; Lance uses direct description and embedded audio from rehearsals, hallways, and dressing rooms. 19. Dance fans, listeners curious about the physical and logistical reality of professional ballet touring, or anyone drawn to behind-the-scenes documentary storytelling will find this episode rewarding. 20. Those expecting interviews with principal dancers or coverage of the artistic substance of the repertoire, rather than production logistics, may find the episode more granular than expected.

As heard by us

A patient backstage look at the work that makes a performance possible.

This episode settles into the rhythm of a backstage theater day: tech rehearsal, lights and music, spacing onstage, and the steady push to get every piece in place before curtain.

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Why you'd press play

You want the unseen work behind a live performance.

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