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Episode 6 | ChoreograpHER: Andrea Yorita
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In this episode of At the Barre, we are joined by Andrea Yorita, stager for Caili Quan’s work Dignity in Restraint, featured in Madison Ballet’s upcoming ChoreographHER program.
Andrea offers a behind-the-scenes look at what it means to restage a contemporary ballet work and how she balances the original choreographer’s vision with the individuality of new dancers
We dive into Caili Quan’s creative approach, exploring how her collaborative, dancer-centered process fosters both freedom and authenticity in the studio. Andrea discusses how Dignity in Restraint, originally created for film, translates to the stage, and how its human, relational qualities allow audiences to connect deeply, even without a traditional narrative.
About Andrea Yorita
Andrea Yorita is from Irvine California, where she received her classical ballet training at Academy of Dance and graduated as a Gillespie Scholar with a BFA in Dance Performance from the University of California. Originally trained under the Royal Academy of Dance (R.A.D.) syllabus, Andrea has completed all Vocational R.A.D. exams with Distinction, as well as received the Solo Seal Award. In 2008, Andrea competed as a finalist in the Genee International Ballet Competition in Toronto, Canada. She has participated in the National Choreographers Initiative, as an apprentice, and the Traverse City Dance Project. Andrea was a 2016 Dance Finalist for the Clive Barnes Award. She joined BalletX in 2012 and spent 11 seasons with the company, touring nationally and internationally while working with a multitude of choreographers. She is a former Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of the Arts. She is a freelance artist and co-founder of the Sonder Space in Philadelphia.
About Caili Quan
Caili Quan is a New York-based choreographer who danced with BalletX from 2013 to 2020. She has created works for Ballet West, BalletX, Vail Dance Festival, The Juilliard School, American Repertory Ballet, Sacramento Ballet, USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance, School of American Ballet, Flight Path Dance Project, and Ballet Academy East.
With BalletX she performed new works by Matthew Neenan, Nicolo Fonte, Gabrielle Lamb, Penny Saunders, Trey McIntyre, and danced at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Belgrade Dance Festival, and DEMO by Damian Woetzel at the Kennedy Center. She served as an Artistic Partnership Initiative Fellow and a Toulmin Creator at The Center for Ballet and the Arts at NYU. Mahålang, a short documentary that wove familial conversations of her Chamorro Filipino upbringing on Guam with scenes from BalletX’s Love Letter, was shown at the Hawai’i International Film Festival, CAAMFest, and the Dance on Camera Festival at Lincoln Center. She recently choreographed her first musical, Guys & Dolls, for Opera Saratoga under the direction of Mary Birnbaum. Caili was a 2022 Artist-in-Residence at the Vail Dance Festival, a 2023 Artist in Residence at USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance, and an Arnhold Creative Associate at The Juilliard School.
See “Dignity in Restraint” by Caili LIVE in ChoreograpHER April 3-5, 2026
🎟️ madisonballet.org/choreographer
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Credits
COVER PHOTO: Matthew Ulrich
DANCER: Madison Ballet Company Artist Lauren Thompson
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Transcript
Introduction to 'At the Bar' Podcast
00:00:05
Speaker
I'm Chris Ferenthal, director of Madison Ballet's Special Projects, and this is At the Bar, your behind-the-scenes look at the ideas, stories, and creative processes shaping Madison Ballet's work.
Connecting Community with Ballet
00:00:18
Speaker
Each episode brings our community a little closer to the dancers, choreographers, and collaborators who are making ballet in Madison right now. Whether you're a seasoned ballet domain, current or former dancer, or simply curious about how dance gets made, we warmly invite you into the room where it happens.
00:00:41
Speaker
Welcome back to At the Bar with Madison Ballet Special Projects.
Conversation with Andy Ureta
00:00:45
Speaker
I'm Chris Farenthold, Director of Special Projects, and I am so delighted to be joined today by Andy Ureta, who is a stager for Kylie Kwan's piece in our upcoming Choreograph Her program, April 3rd through 5th. Thanks so much for joining me, Andy. I really appreciate it.
00:01:02
Speaker
Hi, thanks so much for having me. Of course. It's been wonderful interviewing a mix of choreographers and stagers for folks who, like Heinz Polar, are no longer with us. And you are the first stager I've interviewed for a program of a person whose work we're going to be seeing and who is living. So I'm really intrigued to learn more about what goes into staging a work. and how you hooked up with Kylie and what work you've been doing in
Andy's Path in Contemporary Ballet
00:01:31
Speaker
the studio with us. But before we get to that, let's learn a little bit about you. Could you tell me about your journey into dance and ballet specifically and what non-dance things were kind of competing for attention when you were growing up? Yeah, I mean, I feel like like a lot of, especially female dancers, I started quite young. i was three that's like a preschool program. I trained
00:01:56
Speaker
primarily in classical ballet through RAD syllabus. So I took exams, physical exams for the Royal Academy of Dance syllabus every year. yeah primarily did
The Art of Restaging Choreography
00:02:12
Speaker
ballet. And then I went to the University of California, Irvine to get my BFA in dance performance there. And back then, i felt like I was kind of on this edge of where if you go to school, then like you'll never dance in a professional company.
00:02:27
Speaker
ah So I thought that my career was over. But you know I got really lucky, met amazing people there, and it opened me up to this whole other world of contemporary ballet.
00:02:40
Speaker
After I graduated from there, I joined the company BalletX that's based in Philadelphia. BalletX is a classical ballet based, but they do contemporary works.
00:02:51
Speaker
I spent 11 seasons there and retired about three years ago. And since then, I've been a freelance dancer, choreographer, restager for Kylie Kwan and Matthew Neenan, who was the co-founder of BalletX.
00:03:09
Speaker
Yeah. And that's kind of just the simple rundown of my timeline. That's already such great context for what you've been doing and staging in the studio. Did you dance with Richard Walters while you were at Ballet I did. i was there when he was there. Yeah, his time there. I actually, it was so funny because i know him as Ricky.
00:03:30
Speaker
so I keep hearing Richard and I'm like, who is this? Richard. I mean, I know it's his full name, but for whatever reason, we all called him Ricky. So it's so funny whenever I hear Richard. One of our lighting designers who designed for that company also calls him Ricky. And it's the only other person I've ever heard. oh my God, that's so funny. Yeah, it's been such a really cool. It was a cool moment to come into the studio when I came to set Kylie's piece because I saw Richard, Ricky, and he's behind this desk. And I just like know him as like a colleague in the dance studio. So it was like a really cool thing for both of us to be meeting at this point in our careers post dancing.
00:04:11
Speaker
Yeah, that's exciting. So what kind of muscle does it take to restage a work? Are you a choreographer
Kylie's Collaborative Process
00:04:18
Speaker
as well? And do you use a lot of the same compositional kind of mind? Or is it the dancer who knows the piece and just giving the information? What kind of act is restaging?
00:04:31
Speaker
I wouldn't call myself a choreographer. I have choreographed, but I wouldn't call myself a choreographer. I do think it is a different mindset when you come to restage something because I'm putting myself in not what I would necessarily want. And not that it really differs more often than not, I feel the same way, but it's more that I'm thinking about it from, because I've known Kylie for so long, what would she want or what was she thinking here? So I'm kind of thinking of it and trying to remove myself a little bit more than if I were to be personally choreographing.
00:05:07
Speaker
Along with putting myself into Kylie's shoes, I'm also trying to put myself in the dancer's shoes, because what's so great about Kylie and the way she works is that she really allows everyone to be themselves.
Staging 'Dignity and Restraint'
00:05:22
Speaker
Obviously, the steps and the choreography is all there, but artistically, she allows some space to be like, you know what, that arm on this person doesn't look great on them. It looks great on the original cast, but let's change it just ever so slightly here so that it complements you because no two people are the same.
00:05:43
Speaker
And so I really enjoy actually also being able to look at the choreography through the dancer's body specifically and see, okay, this person, it doesn't relate to them as much as it did originally with the first person that did it. Let's find a way so that it feels like it's truly theirs.
00:06:05
Speaker
That's wonderful. And it seems like quite a lot of trust to put in someone for the choreographer to say, i trust you to go set this piece on dancers that they have never seen and have it, you know, go under their name on a program. How much communication do you have with Kylie during the process? Or does that trust just extend to your judgment and you go out to Madison and either pick the dancers or if given the dancers do what Kylie would do in the room to the best of your guessing or do you talk about it each night or how does that go?
00:06:38
Speaker
I mean, I'm very lucky because actually I met Kylie. We both danced at Ballet X together for years. She's basically family to me. you know, we know each other inside and out. So I think there is naturally a lot of trust there between the two of us because we are so close.
00:06:57
Speaker
And she has allowed me to feel that confidence to be like, okay, I think that this is what is right. And sometimes I'll film it and send it to her. And if I'm going in the wrong direction, she'll be like, no, but more often than not, we kind of think very similarly. and I think our tastes are very similar. So I think we have a pretty good working relationship when it comes to that. While I'm setting, I will send her videos.
00:07:26
Speaker
And you know depending on what's happening, sometimes you know she's also very busy. So depending on the timing of everything, we'll talk quite often while I'm resetting, just so that she has a good idea of what's happening and what her work is
Choreography and Music Interpretation
00:07:42
Speaker
looking like. And also so I know that I'm headed in the right direction. And I'm not leading the dancers astray. And then she sees the final product and and she says, what are they doing? So I think, yeah, it's like a equal amount of trust, but also we communicate quite often as well.
00:08:00
Speaker
Yeah, that makes sense. Before we get into Dignity and Restraint in particular, while I know you can't really answer or you know speak for Kylie on everything, could you um give us a little bit of what her point of view is when it comes to contemporary ballet and what her process is when originally choreographing on the dancers that the piece was made on?
00:08:22
Speaker
Yeah, I feel like working with Kylie, I've been in a handful of pieces that she's choreographed on Ballet X when I was still a dancer there.
00:08:33
Speaker
And her process is very fun. and I think because she allows that playfulness and she allows each person to feel individual and human.
00:08:46
Speaker
And so it kind of strips away a lot of that anxiety as a dancer that you have to try and like, oh, I need to do this right or please this person or be X, Y, and z She is super hilarious.
00:08:59
Speaker
She makes everyone laugh. The studio energy is so positive that all of that anxiety kind of gets stripped away very easily. And it's easy to just communicate with her like, this is what feels good. And then she'll kind of work with that.
00:09:15
Speaker
And then she'll say, well, what about this? And then you will realize you're doing something you didn't think you were able to
Audience Engagement Essentials
00:09:22
Speaker
do. And so it just becomes this very easy flow between her as the choreographer and the dancer. So I would say her process almost feels easy in a way. Yeah, I think because there's no layer of insane stress, time goes by so quickly.
00:09:39
Speaker
And I think that's why a lot of her works to me feel very human, because each person doesn't have to be the exact same as the person next to them. Physically, yes, if we're doing, you know, group work, we have to have the right facings and arms and all those things. But within that, you as a character within the whole piece is still just you.
00:10:00
Speaker
And I think that that's quite special. And it's something that as dancers at BalletX, I think that's naturally how we all kind of wanted to be when we performed. So I think there's a little influence from all the work we did at BalletX. And we worked with the co-founder, Matthew Neenan, a lot, who also kind of runs his studio in a similar way where you just feel seen as an individual.
00:10:22
Speaker
And I think that that's really special about her process. Yeah. Watching the rehearsal videos, you know, and to get ready for the show, it was really lovely to see the amount of joy in their runs. And I bet that that ease in the process comes out in the finished product. And I would imagine makes the time in the studio even more efficient if people are happy to be there and be themselves.
00:10:46
Speaker
Yeah, no, definitely. And she plays off of what the dancers would naturally want to do. it really does feel like a true collaboration. You know, she'll say, okay, what about this? And the dancer will do it and they'll follow through and she'll say like, oh, I like that.
00:11:01
Speaker
Actually, let's keep doing that. Or where does your body want to go here? Because she also understands that she's not the one physically doing it, right? It's hard to tell. So the dancer can kind of feel it and say like, well, this is kind of where my weight is going.
00:11:16
Speaker
And she'll say, okay, like, let's go with that. So I think it's like a nice building process that she creates
Rehearsal Dynamics and Challenges
00:11:22
Speaker
there. And I think it's quite unique to how we also worked at BalletX.
00:11:27
Speaker
If you've ever been curious about ballet, but weren't sure where to start, this is for you. Ballet 101, one of the School of Madison Ballet's most popular offerings for adults, brand new to ballet, is returning for the month of April.
00:11:41
Speaker
Over the course of four weeks, you'll learn the fundamentals of ballet in a supportive, welcoming environment, from basic technique and terminology to studio etiquette and a deeper appreciation of the art form.
00:11:53
Speaker
Geared toward dancers ages 16 and up, this program is perfect if you've always wanted to try ballet, are returning after time away, or just want to feel more confident stepping into a class.
00:12:05
Speaker
Head to the show notes to learn more and register on our website. We would love to see you in the studio. Well, in speaking about this piece, Dignity and Restraint, could you tell us something of its origin or what creative impulse might have been behind it, or at least what she told you and that you tell the dancers?
00:12:22
Speaker
I was not there for the original creation process of this, and it was made for a film on the New York Choreographic Institute in, I want to say, 2022.
00:12:32
Speaker
twenty twenty two Don't quote me on that, but I think it was 2022. When she first sent me the video of it, I thought it was really awesome that her and Ja chose this piece because it's never been done on stage before. It's only been done in a film.
00:12:50
Speaker
And sometimes that's hard to translate onto stage, but it was quite easy because it was a natural flow. The setting of it was in a studio. So it felt almost to me when I first watched it as just the joy of dancing and connecting with your peers.
00:13:10
Speaker
It just felt very human of like an everyday experience that a dancer has when they dance with each other. i Love that there is no direct story per se, but as you watch it, each person kind of has their own little individual characters that I think as an audience member, you can relate to all or one or some of them.
00:13:35
Speaker
And so... Even though there's not like a, you know, once upon a time beginning and the end, and there's still kind of this arc within it because they have these characters and personalities that she's kind of based off of general people in her life general emotions. And I think that that's what makes it interesting to watch because everyone can kind of connect to something in there.
00:13:59
Speaker
That's fascinating. And the scale of it, the five dancers over about six, seven minutes does give the audience enough time, I think, to spend with each individual and see that kind of quote unquote character pop out. What music is this set to?
00:14:17
Speaker
It is to Beethoven's String Quartet, number 12, E flat major. So how does Kylie's movement vocabulary and ballet ex-contemporary ballet, I guess, experience find expression in a Beethoven string quartet that one might associate with more of a classical flavor?
00:14:40
Speaker
Yeah, no, definitely. the one thing about Kylie is that she is very musical and it's really incredible especially if I wasn't there for the process of the creation of it. And then when I dissect it to see kind of what she hears within all of it, even though it's a visual field, it makes me hear the music differently because I start to hear all of these different layers within it that she hears.
00:15:07
Speaker
I think that sometimes there's this initial thought for a lot of people, not everyone, that you hear classical music and you think,
00:15:18
Speaker
something a little bit more structured. But because of her incredible ear and musicality, I can hear all these different layers that I love to see. It brings kind of more of a, and I keep saying this, a more human quality to something that feels so elevated. it kind of grounds it in a way.
00:15:39
Speaker
What would a audience member seeing this piece for the first time, what would you advise them to look for or take in that this piece in particular might sort of reveal?
00:15:50
Speaker
I mean, I think just with any dance too, but to see it with an open heart, to be able to connect with one or multiple of the dancers and their characters within it, that Even though there's no story per se to it, there's actually quite a lot of emotion and depth.
00:16:09
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's the best part of dance is that you don't need to necessarily know in order to feel. So I think being able to just connect with the dancers and feel whatever emotion, whether it's joy or loneliness or love and connecting with each other,
00:16:31
Speaker
I think there's a lot of emotions that you can feel from this piece specifically. So this work never having been staged before outside of a video in a studio for the New York Choreographic Institute, when it comes to lighting design, and I'm i'm asking this as we're going into tech week, what opinions do you or Kylie have and how are those transmitted? Or is it now handed off to the lighting designer to come up with something and then run a buy-all? Or how does that work? The lighting designer and Kylie had a long conversation about what Kylie would like.
00:17:05
Speaker
Because this was based off of something done in the studio, i think Kylie wants it to feel simple in a sense. So there doesn't need to necessarily be like a crazy lighting show. It's more just about the dancers and their connection.
00:17:21
Speaker
and I think that is also shown within the costume as well. She's using almost like rehearsal clothes. So it's all very just, again, human. It's more about how they connect with each other rather than creating some ethereal atmosphere or something like that.
Career Transition Post-Dance
00:17:42
Speaker
So I'm excited. They have had a conversation and I know that the lighting designer knows what she wants and I'm going to be there to just be like, maybe it's too bright here. and But I know Kylie has a lot of trust in the lighting designer to help elevate this piece.
00:17:58
Speaker
It's really fun when all the different departments begin to collaborate on stage and the piece that started in one person's head or body then becomes a multimedia work of art.
00:18:11
Speaker
Yeah. And I think that's what's so cool about especially lighting design is that you can either make the choice to be like having these crazy lights and notice it and it has a cool effect or you don't even notice how much It's helping the atmosphere without it being like, ah you know, beams of light and like lasers going everywhere. And I think that's what's so awesome is that the subtlety of lighting and how much it can help tell the story of it being a pure, empty space that's filled with a lot of different emotions and love.
00:18:48
Speaker
In watching the rehearsal video, I got to see you work a bit because you were sitting downstage as they were going through a run. And you had made them, you know, it was one of the runs where late in the process where they were flipped around, and not in front of the mirror, which I know is very, very scary for dancers to do for the first time.
00:19:07
Speaker
I know. Yeah. But you're you're very vocal during the run in feedback that is positive. It was really, really lovely. i don't hear that very often. you know Usually the choreographer you know will turn their head to the person taking notes and then the dancers afterward will learn what they did well. But there were lots of beautifuls or that's great. Is that something that you are aware of or is this news to you that you give feedback in the moment to the dancers?
00:19:38
Speaker
It is something I am aware of, especially after we filmed one of the rehearsals and I heard my awful voice just yelling and it was totally embarrassing. oh no, not at all. I think for me as a dancer, it always feels nice when there isn't kind of this large space between the front of the room and then you as the dancer.
00:20:01
Speaker
i want them to know and feel that you know, I'm rooting them on that they are doing well. And and I think there's a tendency for artists to focus on all the nitty gritty details and forget that at the end of the day, what you're doing is beautiful and hard and incredible. And sometimes in the moment, you don't really get told that. So you just don't know, you just know all the things that you need to fix.
00:20:32
Speaker
It also helps You know, maybe as a dancer, this was like me trying to put myself up in my head. But it always helps to feel that love and support around you.
00:20:43
Speaker
I feel the excitement with them. So I can't help but want to be like, root for them and be like, yes, go. i mean, people do that at sports games, right? I mean, obviously won't do this in the theater.
00:20:56
Speaker
Well, I was going to say, I think it's a it's a good sign that I think the audience will also want to root for the dancers. And it's a joyful, energetic piece that I can see bringing out the finger snaps and a chuckle of delight or a clap or, you know, something like that. Yeah, I think it's great.
00:21:12
Speaker
Yeah, you know, I watch them, I give them corrections and we work so hard on things that, especially in the moment, if it's right, I want them to know whatever it is you felt for that, that was right.
00:21:26
Speaker
So keep that, you know, it kind of just for me, in my mind, whenever a choreographer would do that, when I was a dancer, I'd be like, okay, that's right. And it felt good to me. So I can kind of validate that, and then move on, you know, you don't have to like worry about it anymore.
00:21:43
Speaker
Yeah, and it seems giving that positive feedback at the moment that they're still feeling it in their body is just efficient at getting that motion set. Do you look at restaging as sort of the next phase of your career? Or is this just something that you do because you know those two choreographers very well and have danced with them for a long time?
00:22:04
Speaker
I'm not sure. i'm fairly new at restaging. It's something that I... Never really thought for myself, but I'm super thankful to both you know Maddie and Kylie for having the confidence and belief in me to be able to do it. And I have found a lot of love for it because I get to connect with a lot of different dancers and I get to see this work come to life and it doesn't have to be how it was before. It's just its new own version.
00:22:36
Speaker
That's also great. And I would love to continue as much as I can to restage work. I'm still learning and each process is you know a completely different process.
00:22:47
Speaker
With Madison Ballet, the dancers responded really well to my excitement of how amazing they are when they do things incredibly. And other places don't necessarily, they find that a little jarring when I'm too excited. And so it has been like a really fun learning process. I felt very comfortable with the dancers at Madison. So I think that there was much more yelling and you go girl than maybe the normal.
00:23:19
Speaker
But I can see myself doing this for a while. yeah Great. Well, you're at that having recently retired from dancing stage. So with a little bit of perspective, is there any advice that you would give people who are nearing the end of their dancing career and looking at what's coming next or that you would wish you had known earlier in the process of discovering what comes next?
00:23:43
Speaker
Gosh, I still feel like I'm in the beginning process of figuring out what comes next, but I think I feel very lucky that I have so many great people like Kylie in my life that see and have seen much more in me than I've seen in myself. So I think that I've personally have lucked out in that department of kind of making this transition a little bit more smooth. I kind of went into it almost with no plan.
00:24:12
Speaker
I just knew that I felt the timing was right for me to retire from full-time company life. I would say openness, being open to any opportunity, because again, I never saw myself being in front of the room.
00:24:28
Speaker
Yeah, I'm actually quite a quiet, awkward, socially weird person. So kind of having all of these eyes on you in the front of the room was at first something terrifying and a little bit of a nightmare when I thought about it. But when the opportunity presented itself, I said, you know what, it's a little scary, but that's okay. No one's gonna die. So just go for it and be open to it.
00:24:57
Speaker
And yeah, I say like openness to try anything because you just don't know what will
Invitation to Madison Ballet Events
00:25:02
Speaker
stick. And if it doesn't, then you know for sure, like this isn't for me. i think having that open-mindedness has been really helpful for me personally. And I'm still learning, you know, We're always learning. Yeah, openness and understanding that we're all human.
00:25:20
Speaker
It's okay if you make mistakes along the way. I've made so many. i'm still probably making many as we speak and I don't even know what they are. That's wonderful advice. And it's it's something I've been hearing in these interviews is that openness to learning things while you're dancing or just going through the world is something to cultivate because you never know where you might end up. Well, thank you so much, Andy. I really appreciate it. And I look forward to everyone seeing your staging of Kylie Kwan's work at Choreograph Her this coming weekend, April 3rd through 5th. I look forward to seeing you in the theater this week.
00:25:59
Speaker
Yes, I'm so excited. i hope everyone comes out because these dancers have worked so hard. And even if you need just like a little clip of me showing how excited I get while watching them.
00:26:14
Speaker
But they're amazing. They work so hard. And I believe that there's going to be something on this whole program that someone's going to connect and love. So that's the beauty of live art.
00:26:28
Speaker
Thank you for tuning in to At The Bar with Madison Ballet Special Projects. If you enjoyed this episode, we invite you to experience Madison Ballet in person by joining us at one of our upcoming performances or community events.
00:26:43
Speaker
From accessible, innovative productions to in-depth conversations with artists, our goal is to create welcoming spaces where everyone can experience ballet in a meaningful way.
00:26:54
Speaker
You can find performance dates, event details, and ticket information on our website and social media platforms. Whether it's your first time attending or you're a long-time supporter, we'd love to see you in the audience and share the experience with you live.
00:27:09
Speaker
Thanks again for listening. We hope to see you at the ballet soon.