Sep 6, 2026 · 49 min · 12 segments
Send us Fan Mail GNiYQGXxQongx5BIPosv "This is what it feels like to be alive. Does anybody recognise it?" Dancer and choreographer Alexandra Beller believes that's the question at the heart of all…
Alexandra BellerGuest
Abhra PalHost
I think those might be two separate things, but I'll start with what I feel like I'm communicating when I'm creating art.
And I think if I had to say the most specific thing that feels like it houses that big question, I think what I'm communicating is what it feels like for me to be alive.
And the reason that I'm communicating that is that At an existential level, I think we have a sense of aloneness and a really big question about why we're here.
And some people try to solve that through their relationship to religion or nature.
Things may give us relief or community, ritual, and those I think can all help that kind of existential aloneness.
But nothing really answers it because nothing can answer it because I don't think we really know why we're here or what our purpose is with any kind of definity.
And I think that art offers us a way to say, this is what it feels like to be alive.
Does anybody recognize it? And I think it gives an opportunity for the audience to feel seen in your art.
I think that's the magical potential that art offers is that you describe something to the audience, whether it's a reader or a listener or a viewer, and And suddenly their body recognizes your experience that you're expressing.
And so the way that feeds into the second question, which is what am I teaching other bodies who come to study with me, is how to be themselves as authentically, purely, unapologetically, but also kindly as possible.
How do they move the most authentically? How do they find their true voice? How do they release trauma to be able to express without fear or regret? And so those things all feed into each other, but essentially, how can you be the most you possible? And then if we're working on art, how can you craft that into something that really communicates it with the audience in the most effective, efficient, legible way possible?
If you look back, would you like to share a moment on or would you like to share a journey of how you got started, how you found your calling?
Honestly, I was a kid and it sounds, it sounds like a, I don't know, an afternoon movie or something, but I really just, I stepped into my first dance class and was just, that's it.
I think those might be two separate things, but I'll start with what I feel like I'm communicating when I'm creating art.
And I think if I had to say the most specific thing that feels like it houses that big question, I think what I'm communicating is what it feels like for me to be alive.
And the reason that I'm communicating that is that At an existential level, I think we have a sense of aloneness and a really big question about why we're here.
And some people try to solve that through their relationship to religion or nature.
Things may give us relief or community, ritual, and those I think can all help that kind of existential aloneness.
But nothing really answers it because nothing can answer it because I don't think we really know why we're here or what our purpose is with any kind of definity.
And I think that art offers us a way to say, this is what it feels like to be alive.
Does anybody recognize it? And I think it gives an opportunity for the audience to feel seen in your art.
I think that's the magical potential that art offers is that you describe something to the audience, whether it's a reader or a listener or a viewer, and And suddenly their body recognizes your experience that you're expressing.
And so the way that feeds into the second question, which is what am I teaching other bodies who come to study with me, is how to be themselves as authentically, purely, unapologetically, but also kindly as possible.
How do they move the most authentically? How do they find their true voice? How do they release trauma to be able to express without fear or regret? And so those things all feed into each other, but essentially, how can you be the most you possible? And then if we're working on art, how can you craft that into something that really communicates it with the audience in the most effective, efficient, legible way possible?
If you look back, would you like to share a moment on or would you like to share a journey of how you got started, how you found your calling?
Honestly, I was a kid and it sounds, it sounds like a, I don't know, an afternoon movie or something, but I really just, I stepped into my first dance class and was just, that's it.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.
