Rebecca King Ferraro

This week we are joined by Tyler Angle, Principal Dancer with New York City Ballet and Artistic Director of the Nantucket Atheneum Dance Festival. In the fall of 2003, Mr. Angle became an apprentice with New York City Ballet. Mr. Angle joined New York City Ballet as a member of the corps de ballet in June 2004 and was promoted to the rank of principal dancers in October 2009. This will be Tyler’s fifth season as the Artistic Director of the Nantucket Dance Festival, which will be taking place this July 22-27 and feature world class stars from the New York City Ballet, LA Dance Project, Miami City Ballet, and Pacific Northwest Ballet.

This week we are joined by Monica Stephenson, Associate Head of School at The Washington School of Ballet SE Campus. She is a graduate of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and the Professional Training Program at the Houston Ballet Academy. Monica was previously a member of the Education Staff at American Ballet Theatre as both a Teaching Artist and the Project Coordinator for Project Plié, an initiative to increase diversity in classical ballet. Today we talk with Monica about her career, her passion for teaching, and the amazing work being done at The Washington School of Ballet.

Today’s episode was recorded live at The Kennedy Center on Saturday June 1, 2019 before the matinee performance of Miami City Ballet as a part of Ballet Across America. We were joined by Virginia Johnson, the Artistic Director of Dance Theatre of Harlem (who had been performing earlier in the week), Lourdes Lopez, Artistic Director of Miami City Ballet, and celebrated choreographer, Pam Tanowitz. Be sure to explore all the happenings at the Kennedy Center by visiting, kennedy-center.org. This episode is sponsored by The Kennedy Center (kennedy-center.org), Yumiko (yumiko.com), and Lake Tahoe Dance Festival (laketahoedancecollective.org).

This week, through the magic of Skype, Rebecca talks with Michael and friend of the pod, Zoe Zien, who are in Hong Kong setting Justin Peck ” for Hong Kong Ballet. Michael and Rebecca danced with Zoe at Miami City Ballet for the majority of her 13 years with the company. Today, Michael and Zoe talk with Rebecca about their first international experience as repetiteurs, what their process has been like, dealing with jet lag, and they break down some of their favorite experiences they have had in Hong Kong so far.