Why Dance Matters podcast

Tiler Peck, one of the world’s great ballerinas, opens the new season of Why Dance Matters. The California-born dancer is a reigning star at New York City Ballet, where she has been a principal since 2009, and is also a director and choreographer in her own right. Feted for her innate musicality and formidable work ethic, audiences respond to her warmth and enthusiasm. She commissions her own programmes of dance, working with great choreographers like William Forsythe and Michelle Dorrance. Having lost valuable time to a career-threatening injury and to the pandemic, she is thrumming with energy. 

Tiler Peck is a principal dancer of New York City Ballet, and has danced on Broadway and on screen. She is also a director, curator, choreographer and designer, and continues to evolve as an artist and add to her extensive repertoire. She launched and starred in BalletNOW in Los Angeles and directed the inaugural artists at the New York City Center. She developed a daily ballet class, #TurnItOutWithTiler, initially aimed at helping people stay connected and moving during the pandemic.

In this episode, we meet dance royalty – Dame Darcey Bussell, who is President of the Royal Academy of Dance. Darcey has been a warm and inspiring figurehead for dance as an artform and for the RAD in particular – whether it’s through her glittering career as a principal ballerina with the Royal Ballet at Covent Garden, or as a broadcaster, or as a judge for seven years on Strictly Come Dancing. Speaking in the RAD’s purpose-built new home in London, we ask if dance feels like a home to her? And why does dance matter to Darcey? 

Dame Darcey Bussell is a former Principal with The Royal Ballet and the most famous British ballerina of her generation. Darcey trained at The Royal Ballet School and joined the Company in 1988, retiring from the Company in 2007. Her extensive broadcast work includes being a judge on Strictly Come Dancing and many BBC documentaries. She remains a Guest principal coach at The Royal Ballet and is Artist Laureate of The Royal Ballet School. In 2015, she founded the dance fitness charity DDMIX. Darcey became the President of the Royal Academy of Dance in 2012.

We often talk about how dance changes lives on Why Dance Matters. No one exemplifies that more than the remarkable RAD dance teacher Michael Wamaya. He works with Project Elimu in Kibera, Kenya. Kibera faces many challenges – extreme poverty, intense lack of resources. But Mike offers children and young people the chance to engage in artistic activity and dance, and to think too about sexual and reproductive health. It’s an immensely ambitious programme, which attracts great acclaim. But why is RAD ballet part of the mix? And why does dance matter to him?

Michael Wamaya is a dance teacher and community activist in Kenya. He teaches ballet in Kenya’s Kibera and Mathare slums for Project Elimu, combining the teaching of dance skills with social skills. The programme explores individual human potential and creativity, and works to develop confidence and self-esteem. Many children within the programme have gained scholarships, enabling them to finish their studies, and the programme has created a platform where children can engage in creative activities while developing their careers. 

In 2021, Naomi Smart qualified as a teacher from the Royal Academy of Dance. ‘Never thought dance teaching was an option for me but here I am – Deaf people can do anything.’ What are the particular challenges around ballet and dance teaching for a Deaf teacher? How did Naomi create a way of teaching that works for her and her students, and what advice would she have for teachers trying to make their classes as inclusive and welcoming as possible?

Naomi Smart is an RAD teacher based in London. She is also a writer and Deaf awareness activist, and is researching a PhD about community dance at Kings College London.

Nine years ago this month, Misty Copeland became the first ever Black American woman to be promoted to principal at American Ballet Theatre. One of ballet’s most inspirational figures, she opens this new season of Why Dance Matters. Was she prepared for the attention around her promotion? What can ballet give young people? How does George Michael’s I Want Your Sex figure in her dance career, and will she return to the stage after ‘one of the longest maternity leaves in ballet history’? Misty reflects on her extraordinary journey – and why dance matters to her. 

Misty Copeland is acclaimed as a champion of change. Born in Kansas City and raised in California, she began her ballet studies at the late age of 13. A member of American Ballet Theatre since 2001, in 2015, she was the first African American woman in the company’s history to be promoted to principal dancer, having made history as the first Black woman to perform the lead role in its Swan Lake. In 2022, Misty launched The Misty Copeland Foundation, with its signature program BEBOLD, which aims to bring greater diversity, equity and inclusion to dance, especially ballet.

We go inside a London theatre phenomenon with Fabian Aloise, the choreographer whose latest show has made headlines around the world. Every night, Rachel Zegler, playing Evita in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical, comes out onto the balcony at the London Palladium and sings Don’t Cry for Me Argentina to an excited crowd: a unique moment of London magic. Fabian works with director Jamie Lloyd on starry, groundbreaking productions: before Evita, they worked with Hayley Atwell and Tom Hiddleston on Much Ado About Nothing and Nicole Scherzinger on the award-winning Sunset Blvd. Fabian’s work is muscly, characterful, properly theatrical. How does he do it?

Fabian Aloise‘s choreography has been critically acclaimed and garnered, among others, two Olivier Award nominations for best theatre choreographer, WhatsOnStage Award for best choreography, Stage Debut Award for best creative West End debut and the Off West End “OFFIE” award. Born in Canada to proud immigrant parents, Fabian trained in classical ballet and contemporary dance at the Victorian College of the Arts in Australia. His career spans Australia, Europe, the United States, Asia and London’s West End. His choreography can currently be seen in Evita (London Palladium) for the Jamie Lloyd Company.