Ballet

Yes, of course.

And we're so privileged to have amazing repertoire here at the Royal Ballet.

And of course, we started at the Royal Ballet School in the introduction to Ashton's Ballets, you know, and storytelling and with character classes as well.

Because every gesture, every movement, it's got meaning behind it.

So it doesn't just happen out of nowhere.

Welcome to After Class, a podcast about all things adult ballet.

I'm Hannah, your host and fellow dancer, and I'm so glad you're here.

Each week, I share stories, strategies, and encouragement to help you stay inspired on your ballet journey because I understand what it's like to balance real life and ballet dreams.

So grab your water bottle or a cup of coffee and join me for a chat after class.

As adults, most of us walk into the studio carrying more than just our dance bag.

Stress from work, insecurity about how we look, fears and frustrations that weigh us down.

This episode is about setting all of that down and getting back to what brought us to ballet in the first place.

The beauty, the joy, and the feeling of coming home to our bodies.

It's one of the most fun weekend long events that, you know, really anywhere in Texas or really anywhere throughout the country.

So we have Sonja Kosich, who is the executive director for the Houston Ballet, as well as Michelle Jeffery, who is the market chair for Nutcracker Market.

And anyone who loves anything holiday themed, holiday related, or just loves to do some good old-fashioned shopping, this is one of the best well-run markets really in the country.

And we're gonna talk about a whole host of things today, how this benefits the Houston Ballet, how to effectively blend non-profits with commerce so everyone benefits.

This is gonna be a really fun, wide-ranging conversation, so I'm really excited for this segment.

So with that, Sonja, Michelle, welcome.

Thank you so much.

Absolutely.

It's not a traditional ballet class.

It's really...

The program is called Be Bold, so it stands for Bali Explorations.

Bali offers leadership development.

So it's bigger, again, than going in there and learning plies.

It's about developing these skills that they can take outside of the class and into other areas of their life.

So we're at Sleeping Beauty at the Region Theatre just over a week ago and nearly two weeks ago now.

And beautiful, beautiful ballet, by the way, Stuttgart Ballet Company in conjunction with the Australian Ballet.

So I'm there with my mother and my daughter.

And at the first interval, we were meeting two friends for a glass of champagne.

His wonderful friendship.

And the Queensland, the Houston Barley family become my own family.

So that was the only thing that really kept me sane and focused on my sort of art craft.

And I guess,

She said, me.

I give him your phone number.

But one thing she said to me that night was, wouldn't it be wonderful to give something back to the art form that had given us so much? Without Barley, we would never have met.

We would never have the life we had.

If you're not familiar, Patreon is a membership platform that lets listeners like you support the podcast they love directly in exchange for exclusive perks and bonus content.

joining is easy click the link in the show notes to sign up and enjoy your first month for free that's it head to the link in the show notes and join today now let's get to the episode If you have a dancer in pre-professional ballet training, you know the questions never stop.

Is this summer intensive worth the money? Is a residential program the right move? And who do you even ask? Ballet Help Desk is a podcast for ballet families hosted by Brett and Jenny, two parents who have been there.

Across more than 200 episodes, they talk with dancers, teachers, and artistic directors about the parts of ballet training nobody explains.

Ballet Help Desk is available wherever you get your podcasts.

but you can't rest on your laurels because you can keep aspiring to be better when somebody really believes in you and pushes you in that direction and i see that it's not just alexa i see that with crystal i see that with chris

i'm rebecca king ferraro

and i'm michael sean breeden and you're listening to conversations on dance We are so excited today to have back one of our favorite guests, the artistic director of the Pacific Northwest Ballet and my personal all-time favorite teacher, Peter Boal.

So I'm trying to fill in some pretty big shoes.

So was ballet the start for you? Is that how it began?

Ballet was the start.

Yeah, it was about 13 years of ballet before I did anything else.

So how did you get introduced to the other genres?

Like I was going to be a basketball player.

I mean, yeah, funny story.

My mom, she used to teach for Colorado Ballet South, which is the dance school.

And on the way out, he mentioned somebody that he thinks he was just maybe being paranoid, and there's nothing wrong with him.

It turns out that night, he went to the, uh, Moscow, uh, Ballet, and he, he was poisoned, and he died.

So Stalin went to the conference that they were having in Moscow and said, "Effective immediately, we are..." This is where in some ways your story begins.

"Effective immediately, the-- anything that's Western is gonna be outlawed in, uh, in Russian psychology, and, and it's just not acceptable." As a matter of fact, every article you write, you have to have a, a sentence or a paragraph at the end explaining how this fits into the socialist perspective.