Ballet & Dance Podcasts

In one rehearsal for a Twyla Tharp tour, a dancer kept performing a passage the same way every time, and the others thought he looked wonderful. In (440) Twyla 60th Anniversary Tour with Renan Cerdeiro and Alex Peters, on Conversations on Dance, a dancer recalls Tharp's verdict: "terrible. Do something different. I'm bored." The best dance podcasts work like that. They take an art made of bodies and silence and let you hear the decisions inside it.

Company-made shows offer a different kind of access. Ballet Talk with Pacific Northwest Ballet and Inside the Ballet from Nashville Ballet introduce works. On Ballet Talk with Pacific Northwest Ballet, Doug Fullington admits he is coming to one digital program "almost as fresh as you are." Kinetic Conversations with the Fort Wayne Ballet devotes an episode to the plot and characters of Swan Lake, which makes it a friendly entry for newcomers. Treat them as program notes you can hear.

The Turning: Room of Mirrors builds reported narrative around the people ballet shaped. In The Swans of Harlem | Part One, Lydia remembers being asked to dance at a fundraising party and feeling "like a little organ grinder monkey." In Part Two, Sheila Rohan, at 82, talks about her body and growing older. The bonus S2: Ep Bonus - A Day in the Life of a Dancer takes the microphone backstage. During a pas de deux, the reporter feels the floor bounce and is nearly struck by Crystal's leg. Elsewhere in the episode, a backstage worker mixes shoe paint to match each dancer's skin tone. Expect network advertising around the stories. For another lineage, Voices of British Ballet has Patricia Linton recalling her schoolmate David Wall.

Ballet Help Desk, built for parents, is where the stakes turn financial and personal. In #NoThirds: Full-Time Ballet Training -- The Trade-Offs, a 94-minute episode, one speaker remembers a company of 40 dancers sharing 36 fifteen-minute physical-therapy slots a week. In What Happens When You Choose Harvard Over the Company Contract, one of the Harvard Ballet Company's co-directors says it "did hurt a lot" when her teachers shifted their attention to younger dancers. These are long conversations, built for listeners who are actually facing such a decision.

Making The Impact - A Dance Competition Podcast does the same for the competition circuit. It is hosted by judges Courtney Ortiz and Lesley Mealor, and in Throwback! - S3 EP 77 - The Open Category - Expectations from Your Judges the panel argues over where fusion styles belong.

Several shows serve people who came to ballet late or came back to it. On The Balanced Ballerinas Podcast, Georgia Dostal's guest in 166. Making Artistry Teachable - with Chelsea Weidmann (Geeky Ballerina) breaks artistry into nine teachable elements. The episode also tells of a student who finally performed in an exam by picturing the examiners as cat emojis. On Broche Banter | Adult ballet training, philosophy, & inspiration, host Julie talks with Gabrielle, who returned to the stage at 50 and danced the Swan Queen. In Ep. 50 of After Class: The Adult Ballet Podcast, Allie Christensen warns adults against going "too hard, too fast."

A Dancer's Mindset includes A Dancer's Mindset Ep.70 Nutrition for Dancers. Eating disorders, Eating when injured. Chats with Rachel Fine!, which addresses disordered eating directly; some listeners will want to know that before pressing play. Some of these episodes also promote the hosts' own courses and programs.

The Capsule covers street dance. Its episode with Michelle Dorrance and Ephrat Asherie dwells on tap's "sonic responsibility" for every sound. Line Dance Podcast hosts Megan Barsalia and Christopher Gonzalez read event playlists aloud and puzzle over why a floor was dancing Going Ham when someone requested "Crank It Up." The Dance Lens Podcast asks a Kathak dancer what being a "radical traditionalist" demands. For the stage arts around dance, see the Performing Arts guide and the Arts category guide, or the Theater & Stage, Opera and Musical Theater & Broadway pages.