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Episode 5 | ChoreograpHER: Ilana Goldman
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In this episode of At the Barre, we are joined by Ilana Goldman, Professor of Dance and Director of the BFA program at Florida State University, as well as an accomplished dancer, choreographer, and educator.
Ilana shares her journey from early dance training and her time at Juilliard to a wide-ranging performance career with companies including Oakland Ballet, Sacramento Ballet, Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet and Trey McIntyre Project, before transitioning into academia and choreography.
This conversation centers on her new work for Madison Ballet’s ChoreographHER, And Everything Is Still…, set to music by Andy Scott. Originally inspired by a short piece she created at Florida State, Ilana expands the work into a larger, multi-sectional piece that explores musicality, spatial design, and the architecture of movement.
Throughout the episode, Ilana offers insight into her creative process and how she worked with the “genius in the room” to create a work that reflects the dancers’ personalities and strengths. Ultimately, her work embraces the idea that dance can mean many things at once, leaving space for audiences to bring their own interpretations to what they see on stage.
About Ilana Goldman
Ilana Goldman is a dancer, choreographer, filmmaker, and educator. She served as Choreographer in Residence of Metro D.C.’s Bowen McCauley Dance (2018–2019) and Artist-in-Residence at Glacier National Park (2022). She has choreographed works for Sacramento Ballet first and second companies, New York Theatre Ballet, ARC Dance Seattle, Tallahassee Ballet, Black Rock City Ballet, Santa Cruz Ballet Theatre, Perry-Mansfield, Shenandoah University, Missouri State University, Florida State University, and University of Washington, among others. Her work was selected for performances at Brooklyn’s Dumbo Dance Festival and the Boston Contemporary Dance Festival.
She performed professionally as a principal dancer with Oakland Ballet and Sacramento Ballet, as a member of Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet and Trey McIntyre Project, and as a guest artist with Alonzo King LINES Ballet.
See “And Everything Is Still…” by Ilana LIVE in ChoreograpHER April 3-5, 2026
🎟️ madisonballet.org/choreographer
Join the conversation!
MBSP WEBSITE: https://www.madisonballetspecialprojects.com/
INSTAGRAM: instagram.com/madisonballetspecialprojects
UPCOMING MADISON BALLET PERFORMANCES: https://www.madisonballet.org/performances
REGISTER FOR BALLET 101: https://www.madisonballet.org/school/open-division
Questions/comments? Email us at hello@madisonballetspecialprojects.com
Credits
COVER PHOTO: Matthew Ulrich
DANCER: Madison Ballet Company Artist Lauren Thompson
MUSIC: Capet String Quartet - Ravel (Col. D 15057-60) 1928
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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.
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.
Introduction to Alana Goldman
00:00:44
Speaker
I'm Chris Farenthal, Director of Special Projects, and I'm so thrilled to be joined today by Alana Goldman, who's a professor of dance and the director of the BFA program at Florida State University. She's also a distinguished dancer, choreographer, teacher, and filmmaker.
00:01:02
Speaker
So before we get into talking about the piece that you've brought us for Choreograph Her next month, April 3rd through fifth at MyArts. I'd like to talk a little bit about your journey into dance. When and how did that begin? Was it a conventional or unconventional trip? And how did you find your way into ballet?
00:01:21
Speaker
Well first, thank you so much for having me here with you today. this is a wonderful opportunity to be here with Madison Ballet and here talking with you. So I began dancing when I was three years old in a creative movement class and I did that for a few years and then I started in ballet classes when I was around seven years old, six or seven.
00:01:47
Speaker
And I fell in love with dancing in general and specifically
Alana's Early Dance Journey
00:01:52
Speaker
ballet. And I continued studying ballet all the way through till the end of high school.
00:01:57
Speaker
And then i went to the Juilliard School where I learned both modern dance and ballet. Equally, we didn't focus in one area or the other.
00:02:09
Speaker
We were training for concert dance careers. And of course there are many, many, many other forms of dance besides ballet and modern dance, which i just want to acknowledge that there really is kind of a hierarchy of forms in some dance conservatories. and in higher education that I think need to be acknowledged and investigated a little bit. So I did study modern dance and ballet and when I graduated I joined Oakland Ballet. First I actually did some freelancing in New York City before I joined Oakland Ballet under Karen Brown, who was a former dancer with Dance Theater of Harlem.
00:02:55
Speaker
And I was at Oakland Ballet and then made my way to various companies, including Sacramento Ballet, Cedar Lake Contemporary Dance, and Alonzo King Lines Ballet as a guest artist in 2005. And then my final company experience was with Trey McIntyre Project in Boise, Idaho. After that, I went to graduate school and got my master's of fine arts in dance at the University of Washington. And after that, I went to Florida State University, where I've been, i think this is my 13th year there.
Transition to Academia
00:03:33
Speaker
And how long have you been directing the BFA program there? 12 years. Oh, wow. Okay. So you, you got into academia and then into administration at a basically the same time.
00:03:44
Speaker
Yeah, the BFA program director does have a lot of administrative work, but I'm essentially a professor. I teach classes and choreograph. My main duties are the same as any other professor.
00:03:56
Speaker
So when you started ballet class at at around seven, was that decision sort of made for you by your teachers? Or how did you narrow in among all the other disciplines? And were there any other like athletic things competing with your attention then? Or was it just all ballet from then on?
00:04:13
Speaker
Yes, there were many things. I can't exactly remember why I chose ballet, except for that my parents are huge dance fans. They probably know more about dance. Well, okay, no, they don't. They don't know more about dance than I do, but they know more about dance than the general population for sure.
00:04:31
Speaker
They helped guide me into dance, but I fell in love with it. But I honestly can't remember why I picked ballet to continue, but I did do a lot of other sports. I was a competitive swimmer and I did soccer.
00:04:46
Speaker
So those were the two main areas. But once I had to choose because ballet became too time consuming that I was going to have to start going every single day and on the weekends. And I needed to make a decision whether or not to let the sports go or ballet go. And I definitely chose ballet.
00:05:08
Speaker
So how early in your dancing did you feel that you either had a choreographic talent or that you enjoyed creating dances yourself?
Choreographic Journey and Influences
00:05:17
Speaker
Much later, i did choreograph in high school at my ballet studio, the Maryland Youth Ballet, which is an incredible ballet school. They did give the students opportunities to choreograph, very informal.
00:05:29
Speaker
I remember doing that and enjoying it quite a bit. And then at Juilliard, I took a composition class, but all of us were required to in my first year with Elizabeth Keene.
00:05:40
Speaker
I really didn't think I was very good at it and I saw that the other students, there were a lot who were very, very good at it. And I was comparing myself and I thought maybe this is not for me.
00:05:52
Speaker
And you know, interesting, a lot of them have gone on to very established careers as choreographers. And so now that I'm thinking about it, I had pretty tough competition. So there's a reason why i I think I was insecure about my abilities because I was comparing myself to some of the best. But I decided to focus more on dancing and I wasn't as interested in choreography until later in my performing career. I dabbled in it here and there. I was given great opportunities through Sacramento Ballet. i had a program called Beer and Ballet and it was in studio performances with musicians
00:06:32
Speaker
dancer choreographers, so the dancers in the company choreographed and collaborated working with the dancers in the company as the dancer performers. And I think that helped me to build my skills even more in choreography doing that. I always choreograph something for that. And then it just kind of grew out of that. I got some commissions to be asked to do choreography for different companies and schools at universities and summer intensives.
00:07:02
Speaker
So different populations of dancers. And that's kind of how that evolved. Seeing your piece in the room this past week in rehearsal, it's been really fun to see the many different kinds of movement, both speed and more languid duet type pieces. Can you identify those choreographers that you feel or see their influence in your work, or at least that helped you on the way to establishing what is your own voice?
00:07:28
Speaker
Absolutely. I'm influenced by every choreographer whose work I've danced in. It's all in my body. I really want to acknowledge that, that as a dancer and a performer who has been through a choreographic process, either working on an original work or learning repertory that's already been performed by other dancers, you really take it on and it becomes part of you and it lives within you always, even unconsciously. So, so much of what's happening, almost all of it is unconscious. I think it's just what comes out of my body is what was put into it.
00:08:07
Speaker
Occasionally I'll make a conscious reference. Like there are moments that I consciously took little moments of Balanchine choreography because I adore his choreography and I love doing it. I will all of a sudden notice that, oh, this is very influenced by Balanchine. And so then I will make a literal reference to it, like an allusion to it, so that if the handful of audience members that maybe would get the reference. I want them to see that. So it's conscious when I do it, that the biggest influences just because they're the people who I worked with the most would be Trey McIntyre, Alonzo King, and Balanchine. Paul Taylor, I've only danced one of his works when I was at Juilliard, but I trained in that style with Carolyn Adams and Linda Kent. at Juilliard and that style really spoke to me physically and so I know that it's in there. I can feel it in my choreography.
00:09:10
Speaker
Mostly like as I'm doing it or right after I'm like oh I think I know where that came from. But usually I'm not I'm not even aware. I mean, that makes sense with the sheer amount of movement and different kinds of movement that you have embodied over the years. It's all, yeah, and there's somewhere I bet. Whether you're a stager or not, it seems like every dancer does kind of carry with them at least a marking ability from every you know everything they've danced. Do you find that the restaging of a piece that you've created on one company, if it's your students back at Florida State or if it's been on a commission elsewhere that you're staging at ah at a new company, Do you view that restaging as an act of creation or are you trying to recreate what was originally in your mind or in the room when the piece was first made on the original dancers?
00:09:59
Speaker
That's a great question. Thank you for
Creative Process and Improvisation
00:10:01
Speaker
asking that. I actually rarely restage anything. I do not like going back and reviewing choreography. I don't have really the brain for that. It does not come easily to me. I don't even remember the steps that I just told the dancers to do. You know, I'll show them something and then I'll have to say, so what came after this? I just drop it because for me, the creative part is not the remembering what it was part is a different part of your brain. So I actually find it not helpful at all to try to go back and forth between those two sides of the way my brain works. Yeah, i don't enjoy that process. I really enjoy creating in the moment with students or dancers. And so I really prefer to create a new work. With this particular work for Madison Ballet,
00:10:49
Speaker
I worked on a two and a half minute section with students at Florida State University for a concert in collaboration with the College of Music.
00:11:00
Speaker
I loved that music so much and it was a very quick process and I didn't get to fully realize that section because we only had a few rehearsals. It was just a very truncated experience. and I wanted to get a chance to visit that section again and then do an entire ballet, an entire choreographic work that was much longer and I wanted to do it here at Madison Ballet and so I'm working with music by that same composer that's from the same album as that one piece so I did have to go back And look at the video, because of course I remembered nothing, video of that two and a half minute section.
00:11:45
Speaker
And so I did have to reteach that to the dancers at Madison Ballet, but they're dancing on pointe and the original dancers were not in pointe shoes. The female identifying dancers with Madison Ballet are in pointe shoes. The male identifying dancers are not in pointe shoes, in technique shoes. But I decided to adapt some of the movements because I didn't think they worked well in pointe shoes. So it is already different just because of that.
00:12:14
Speaker
And then I just started changing things that I didn't think worked the last time I did it or how I wanted to improve in certain ways. So I made changes to it based on the pointe shoes and just because I knew I wanted to try to make it better.
00:12:29
Speaker
When you do come into the studio to create work, do you have in mind all of the steps for all of the people? Or do you have certain movement vocabulary you want to explore in relation to the music and then you find it in the room or is it somewhere in between?
00:12:43
Speaker
I love that question because it's different for every commission. Anytime I choreograph, it's different. But more and more, what I do is I listen to the music a lot. I move around in the studio to see what movement is coming out for myself in the studio, just kind of improvising.
00:13:05
Speaker
Yeah, I do a lot of daydreaming of images and ideas about maybe what I would like for certain sections and maybe how many dancers I'd want in those sections and the feeling of it. And then i will usually make one phrase of movement that's set specifically to the music that I teach to the dancers so that I can see them move first with that phrase. Because I don't know them. I have no idea. i've never seen them dance. I've never worked with them. I don't know how they respond to a choreographer and their movement and how they work in the studio. I need to see something before I decide what to do or who will do what.
00:13:48
Speaker
So I teach just a phrase that may or may not end up being in the dance and then it just evolves from there. i usually have no idea what I'm doing, what I'm going to do even when i when the rehearsal starts. As far as movement vocabulary or even how that section of the dance is going to progress. It just evolves. in the moment with the dancers that are in front of me, which used to shock me because Trey McIntyre would do that and talk about that process and it was amazing to me. And I didn't know how he did it.
00:14:24
Speaker
And now I kind of get it. I don't do it nearly as well as he does, but I understand how he did that. You get inspired in the moment by the dancers in front of you and who they are.
00:14:37
Speaker
and how they move. i do have to say that I did have a very, very specific idea for the beginning of this work. So I knew the formation I wanted the dancers in, and I knew I wanted these certain arm phrases, gestural phrases. So I had a very specific idea about that. So the first 15 seconds, 20 seconds of the work, I had already had an idea of that before I got to the studio. i would have changed it if it didn't work, but it did.
00:15:09
Speaker
Or I thought it did. so I kept that. I mean, the processes seem to be working very, very well in studio. It's been fun to see you're not afraid to demonstrate. And then you also kind of taking what each dancer is giving and then being open to, you know, new solutions for either lifts getting in and out of steps that that kind of hybrid approach has been really fascinating to see.
00:15:32
Speaker
Oh, thanks. Yeah, I love working with the genius in the room. one of my colleagues says that I'm not afraid to ask, this isn't working, or how do we make this working? What do you think we should do? I want everyone to contribute when needed.
00:15:47
Speaker
Well, before we get into the piece in particular
Collaboration with Madison Ballet
00:15:49
Speaker
that you've made for Madison Ballet, I'm wondering how you connected with Ja Malik and what brought you to Madison? Ja and I danced at Oakland Ballet together at the beginnings of our careers as performers.
00:16:01
Speaker
And so we knew each other musicians. dancers and then connected a little bit. He asked me if I had a video for this piece and I happened to have it so I sent it to him. So just like little social media Facebook messenger messages to each other occasionally. i think he asked to see my choreography and then I sent him some videos. And then I didn't hear back for a while.
00:16:29
Speaker
And then I did. and I was so excited to be invited. yeah and I just have to say, what he is doing for this company is incredible. They are in very good hands, and I'm just thrilled about what's happening.
00:16:44
Speaker
It's really exciting to see, and especially to see somebody that you knew as a young dancer and to see them really come into their own, like, wow, this is exactly what you should be doing. And you're doing it so well. That's really fun to see. Well, that's really exciting. I like the thought of dancers are constantly passing each other, you know, in the night or bumping up against each other or orbiting, you know, throughout an entire career, you guys kind of come up as a cohort and then go all over the country and the world, but the network is still intact and made easier with social media these days, certainly.
00:17:18
Speaker
Absolutely. It's so interesting to come to that place in my life where my colleagues, the people who I danced with are now directors of companies, choreographers and directors. You're right about that network. It's always fun when you connect with people. i overlapped here with Endalyn Taylor Outlaw, and we were staying in the hotel together all last week. And as we were riding to the studio in the morning, every day we realized we knew more and more people. I had more and more friends in common, colleagues in common. That's always fun. And same thing with the rehearsal director, Richard. We, you know, realize that we know so many of the same people. It's a very small world.
00:18:03
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.
00:18:17
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.
00:18:29
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.
00:18:41
Speaker
Head to the show notes to learn more and register on our website. We would love to see you in the studio. What is the experience of being in a university setting for the past decade as opposed to being in a ballet company or a conservatory or something like that? How is it different?
00:18:58
Speaker
Oh, it's really different. I do feel very spoiled. You know, we have gorgeous facilities, huge studios. We have our theater inside our building. That's nice. we have lighting designers and costume shop in our building. We have...
00:19:19
Speaker
beautiful pianos and accompanists playing live music for us and working with them as colleagues and we're always collaborating. It's very rich and it's ideal in so many ways. I also am very stimulated by everything that's going on in the university at large.
Challenges in University Setting
00:19:40
Speaker
all the other departments. And I wish I had more time to engage across the university. There are things that are hard about trying to fit an art form into higher education, into a university setting that are really hard.
00:19:56
Speaker
Grading a technique class is very strange. A lot of the bureaucracy is really difficult. I get frustrated when I'm spending so much of my time on administrative and committee work and things that feel far away from the studio.
00:20:14
Speaker
That can be really hard. But my chair of our department, who's very wise, he says it helps if you think about all those other things that you're doing that aren't in the studio as necessary to make all the things in the studio happen. You're doing it all for the students, even if it feels like it's pretty distant. It's important and it's needed.
00:20:37
Speaker
I'm working on figuring out how to really feel that connection sometimes. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's a hard fit sometimes. And I have to say when I come back from being in the professional world, either when I'm choreographing or staging a work, I staged a ballet by Trey McIntyre. I did it twice over the past year. And whenever I come back, my colleagues say, whoa, you look different. Like my energy is different. I think it's important to get out into the field and out of the bubble of academia sometimes. It's a fascinating mix of choreographers on the program, you know, you and Endelin in academia and then others at different stages or different parts of the dance world. It's been interesting for me to see that varied experience from each of you.
00:21:25
Speaker
So speaking of that piece, on the schedule for production staff, it's been new Ilana Goldman for a while. um If you could, please tell us what you are making on Madison Ballet and what the music you've set your movement to is and where the creative inspiration for it came from.
Creating for Madison Ballet
00:21:43
Speaker
Okay, I'll go way back. There's a concert series that the College of Music at Florida State puts out every year, and this year was the first year that they asked to collaborate for this particular concert series with the School of Dance. And we're looking specifically for faculty choreographers to collaborate with, and faculty received an email of the music that was going to be performed live by the College of Music faculty. And that alone is pretty exciting because, you know, live music is great. And then for faculty to be performing, you know, it's going to be of high quality. But honestly, i knew that my plate was already too full. So when I got the email before listening to the music, I said, wow, this is such a great opportunity. I wish I had time to do it.
00:22:32
Speaker
But I said, oh, let me listen to the music. And I listened to the music and then I got to this one piece. called Paquito by Andy Scott and I thought This is such fantastic music.
00:22:48
Speaker
I would love to choreograph to this and it's only two and a half minutes. I'm going to do it. So I choreographed as I spoke to you already about that. And I love the music so much. So I decided i wanted wanted to work with more music by Andy Scott and I wanted it to be of the same feel as that particular piece. So I wanted to work with his music that was on the same album.
00:23:11
Speaker
And so I chose three other tracks. because I thought a 15-minute work was about what was appropriate and Ja had kind of mentioned that. He was very loose with the amount of time, the length that it needed to be, but I kind of was settling around about 15 minutes and so I picked three other tracks. that I really liked and I just listened to them over and over and I decided because the final two and a half minute section that's going to be the finale was abstract in nature, it's just a fun, dancey, high energy choreographic work, I decided i wanted to do a totally abstract work that didn't really have a strong theme of social justice or any kind of narrative or emotion. i mean, of course emotion, but I often will do a piece that has a feminist slant or that's about healing from trauma through community or, you know, heavy things. Sometimes I play with humor and I'll do a comedic work, but this one, I really just wanted to play with the music.
00:24:21
Speaker
and working with space, spatial architecture, the movement of bodies through the space and shape and line. I wanted to do that because I haven't really done that very much as the impetus for my choreography. It's of course in there, but I've never really started with that or rarely. And I taught a choreography course in the spring and I focused a significant portion of that course on space and group forms.
00:24:49
Speaker
and architecture. And so I discovered a lot teaching that class. And I learned a lot from the students, of course, by watching their work. And so I thought, OK, this is what I've been investigating through my coursework. I'd like to investigate it through this process, this opportunity. That was the main goal. I was doing things to challenge myself and do things that i don't normally do. So I and don't normally work with dancers in pointe shoes.
00:25:18
Speaker
I've only created one or two other works in pointe shoes. So I decided I was going to do that. And that was actually ended up being not challenging at all since I've danced in pointe shoes for most of my life. I wanted to do this thing of working more with the music space and just having it be abstract. But what was so interesting was immediately when you're working with personalities and dancers and people in the room, it just evolved into not being abstract.
00:25:47
Speaker
completely I would say the first and the fourth sections are abstract. The second section, which is a pas de deux, to me is not abstract. It has very clear idea of what it means to me. And then the third section, which is a quartet that turns into a duet. It has some personality and playfulness and really taps into the dancers, I think, personalities. And it's not narrative, but there's a little more going on than pure abstraction. It's not just the formalist elements. But the second section, which is the pas de deux, the only thing I had in mind was it's just all going to be based on walking. It's just to be walking on the diagonal.
00:26:31
Speaker
That was what I had. Okay, this is going to be walking on the diagonal. It's just going to build from there. That became symbolic to me and then kind of transformed into something that was more narrative or at least thematic in nature. And what is the piece called now? I do not like giving titles to my work. So Joss suggested the title of the second section. The title of the music is, and everything is still dot dot dot.
00:27:05
Speaker
I really like that title. And I think it works because without the dot dot dot and everything is still as a statement, it's kind of funny because nothing in the piece, there's like nothing still in the work.
00:27:19
Speaker
Right. But with the dot, dot, dot, it could be anything. And that's the whole beauty of a dance work is that a dance work can be anything. It's anything that the audience is seeing is valid. And that's what it is. And that's what it means. And especially with the work that's more abstract, like I don't have any clear idea that I want to make sure the audience experiences or that I don't have a specific thing I'm trying to communicate.
Open-ended Titles and Gender Roles
00:27:48
Speaker
I really want the audience to take out of it whatever they're seeing. And whether it's nothing except for just delighting in the beauty of the dancers and the music and the bodies moving through the space, I'm perfectly happy if that's what they take away. And I'd also be happy if they come up with their own detailed narrative for what everything means in the piece. All of that is great. But so, and everything is still.
00:28:15
Speaker
Everything is still moving and everything is still delightful and everything is still horrifying and everything is still whatever you can put anywhere you want. to end And that's exactly what it is for me. That is a good title for um not crowding out the viewer's imagination and interpretive vision with also still, I think it is evocative of the experience of your piece. I think you gave a wonderful pressy of what folks could hope to see. And so I won't try to pin you down anymore on, you know, what things to look for. Although, are there any allusions that you've put in this one that the deep dance nerds will, you know, recognize?
00:28:53
Speaker
There are two tiny references to George Balanchine's Four Temperaments. I've never danced Fosse, but there's like kind of Fosse musical theater, very minimally and somewhat abstracted moments that have a Fosse feel. But one of the things that I was playing with that I had no idea was going to happen,
00:29:16
Speaker
was in the quartet there are two male identifying two female identifying dancers that dance together and then at one point the women are no longer on stage and it's the two men and that was just because of practicality i needed the two women for the final section that came right after it and I wanted them to have a minute to rest before they did it. That was literally the reason. I needed them to exit and so I thought, okay, so I'll have the two guys on stage do something while they rest.
00:29:48
Speaker
And I thought, okay, I got the two guys on stage so I'm gonna do something really athletic. because it's guys, right? So that's what I'm thinking. And I kind of started that way and then I stopped myself and I said, well, why does it have to be athletic if it's two guys?
00:30:02
Speaker
That's my gendered stereotype. And then I started just to think about gendered movement and how we have specific ideas about what movement is male and what movement is female. And it's very strong in ballet and in musical theater. We gender movement.
00:30:21
Speaker
and categorize it. And I thought, well, why do we have to do that? And so there's a lot of things that I put in this male duet that normally are stereotypically thought of as female movements, movements for women.
00:30:38
Speaker
And so I purposefully put that in there because I wanted to counter that tendency, that norm. Well, that's great. And especially in a piece created for Choreograph Her, where the spotlight will be necessarily on a bill of all female choreographers, people will walk in, I think, thinking about gender and ballet, which is hard not to do with some in pointe shoes and some not. But playing with those dualities and bending them and interrogating them as part of what dance can do very well. And particularly contemporary ballet where our dancers will be in sock ballets, they'll be in combat boots, they'll be in pointe shoes, you know, within a season. I think that will be very interesting and fun for the audience to see.
00:31:19
Speaker
Before we wrap up, I do have a couple of the basic questions that I think are basic for a reason or at least I'm curious about. In your dancing career, were there pieces or roles or choreographers whose work that you particularly enjoyed that represented you at your best as a dancer that you think about most?
00:31:41
Speaker
Oh, that is so hard. There's so many and I'd be embarrassed to forget ones that are it's fair so important. But I'll say like, I stage a work by Trey McIntyre called Wild Sweet Love.
00:31:54
Speaker
And I was in the original cast and I performed it at Sacramento Ballet for two years. and then got to dance the ballet for a year when I danced with Trey McIntyre project and we did it on tour so I got to do it over and over and over again and it's this incredible role where i got to do a lot of solo work and the music is popular music so I danced to Roberta Flack and the zombies and Queen And it was just so much fun and it's very emotional. It was physically fulfilling, emotionally fulfilling. The whole ensemble, there was so much fun energy.
00:32:34
Speaker
So I would say that work. Then a choreographer named Amy Seywert, who i adore, she created pas de deux for my husband and me called It's Not a Cry. The music is Jeff Buckley singing Hallelujah. That's just a powerhouse, incredible,
00:32:51
Speaker
incredible duet that's been performed by a lot of different companies over the years. It's one of the only works that I've seen, because i I've seen it performed, where it's not the last piece on the program, but the whole audience stands up and yeah like in the middle. you know well yeah Yeah, that'd be hard to follow. I would want to go yeah right after. you know And I got to see stage that once on Cincinnati Ballet. I taught it to the company. So those are two that really stand out. And then the co-directors of Sacramento Ballet when I danced there were Ron Cunningham and his wife, Corrine Binda. And he just passed away this past week. And he created a new work on me called A Woman's Journey. It was really special to be a part of that work and then I got to dance two of his works that were performed by a lot of companies called The Incident at Blackbriar and his work Itosha.
00:33:47
Speaker
I had seen Itosha at the Kennedy Center when I was young. and there's a role for a very tall woman. I'm almost six feet tall. And there was this dancer, Lorraine Graves, who is also no longer with us. It was Dance Theatre of Harlem performing, and she performed this role in the Ballet Etosha by Ron Cunningham. And I said, I want to do that someday.
00:34:12
Speaker
And then i got to someday. So that was really meaningful for me. I mean, I could go on and on and on and on. All the Balanchine ballets, you know, Serenade, Concerto Broco, Four Temperaments. Those are just...
00:34:26
Speaker
iconic and I love dancing those. All the Alonzo King work that I got to perform, especially Who Dressed You Like a Foreigner, that's another one that I saw first and just fell in love with the work and then got to dance it. That's always really special when you see something first and just are dying to get to do it and then you get to do it. It's pretty fun.
00:34:49
Speaker
When a dance is made on you, do you feel a bit possessive watching it staged elsewhere?
Advice for Dancers
00:34:55
Speaker
Possessive in a certain way, but I love sharing it with people. Oh, of course. But yeah, I would imagine there's that. But it was me. Yeah, a little bit. Yeah, for sure. for sure. Well, the other, I guess, basic question that I had was, I'm sure as ah an advisor, you have to give advice all the time to your students. What advice would you give Dancers at any point in their career who might want to do something in the dance world on the other side of their dancing career, whether it's choreography or administration or anything else like that. Is there something that you wish you had known back when you were dancing or what would you advise them to do about what comes next?
00:35:35
Speaker
Great question. I really think it's being open and being a sponge and soaking in all aspects of what is going on around you.
00:35:47
Speaker
Thinking about how is this production happening? Who made it happen? What are all the parts that need to happen to put on a production?
00:36:00
Speaker
Costuming, marketing, fundraising, scheduling, lighting design, all the design elements. It's just being observant.
00:36:12
Speaker
and taking in what's going on around you and all the pieces and not just staying in your little silo or with blinders on. I just have to do my thing. But what are all the people around me doing to make this happen? I think that's very important. And Ja Malik and I were talking about that the other day. He just was saying he studied the directors of the companies when he was dancing.
00:36:37
Speaker
He watched what they were doing. You learn by watching and observing, especially with teaching. i was watching my teachers as a young, young, young dancer. I knew I wanted to teach and I was fascinated by them and what they were doing and why they were doing it. And I was always studying them. I knew that that's what I wanted to do. So that made sense. And not everybody in a dance company knows exactly what they want to do in the way that I did, but just being open to observing what's happening around you.
00:37:11
Speaker
Wonderful advice. Thank you so much, Alana, for joining us. And I hope everyone will come see And Everything is Still dot, dot, dot together with the rest of the Choreograph Her program here in Madison at My Arts, April 3rd through 5th. Thanks again. And I will look forward to seeing you in the studio and then back for Tuck Week.
00:37:31
Speaker
Thank you so much for this opportunity to talk about my work. And this program is very exciting. So everyone should come see it.
00:37:43
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.
00:37:57
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.
00:38:08
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.
00:38:23
Speaker
Thanks again for listening. We hope to see you at the ballet soon.