PODCAST · arts
Why Dance Matters
by Royal Academy of Dance
Why Dance Matters is a series of conversations with extraordinary people from the world of dance and beyond. It traces the impact of dance on their lives and asks why dance matters to them – and why it might matter to us all. The RAD inspires the world to dance, and we hope these insightful personal conversations – hosted by David Jays, editor of Dance Gazette, the RAD magazine – will delight and even surprise you. Find out more on our website > https://www.royalacademyofdance.org/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Episodes
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Irma Becker: dance is for everyone
People often say ‘dance is for everyone’, but few people walk the walk like Irma Becker. In Miami, she leads the Inspire Theatre Project at Area Stage Conservatory. Inspire is an inclusive programme for neurodiverse ballet students – but it doesn’t water down the rigorous RAD ballet syllabus.…
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Sonia Brown: Silver Swans (plus a hen night)
Sonia Brown is an award-winning RAD teacher in Berkshire, UK. The RAD’s Silver Swans programme, aimed at people aged 55 and over, struck a chord with her. Her mother was Sonia’s first student, and the classes have grown into a warm and inclusive community of dancers: they even threw her a…
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Jack Murphy: Bridgerton’s dancing master
Jack Murphy is the acclaimed choreographer and movement director of Bridgerton. Initially an actor, he became a movement director (training in part at the RAD), helping actors find a physicality to connect them with their characters. Jack was involved in the BBC’s iconic 1995 Pride and Prejudice:...
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Christopher Wheeldon: ballet meets Broadway
Christopher Wheeldon is a very special guest for the 100th episode of Why Dance Matters. He’s a ballet great – creator of marvels like After the Rain and Tryst, and full length enchantments like Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and The Winter’s Tale. He’s big on Broadway and in the West End, with...
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Amanda Teo: ballet meets world
The RAD has an impressive global reach – in over 80 countries across the world, thousands of teachers are progressing even more thousands of students the curves and lines that make up classical ballet technique. And looking after all those teachers are a wonderful flock of RAD National Directors,...
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Alicia Graf Mack: holding history in her hand
Alicia Graf Mack is only the fourth ever director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. It’s a company with a huge significance for dance history – and especially for Black America. Alicia danced with them from 2005-14, and was mentored by Ailey’s own star dancer, Judith Jamison. Previously…
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Serena McCall: style and steam
The wonderful Scottish dancer Serena McCall is currently appearing in Matthew Bourne’s The Car Man. It’s a tale of torrid sex and violence, set in a small US town. Serena herself always looks cucumber cool. She was head girl at her school outside Stirling in Scotland, and her socials showcase her...
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Alexandra Beller: what does the body know?
The human body is a walking repository of human experience, its joys and terrors, surprises and exhilarations. Someone who knows how to tap into that embodied experience is Alexandra Beller – an American dancer, choreographer and somatic educator, whose new book explores how movement and our…
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Alexandra Beller: what the body knows
The human body is a walking repository of human experience, its joys and terrors, surprises and exhilarations. Someone who knows how to tap into that embodied experience is Alexandra Beller – an American dancer, choreographer and somatic educator, whose new book explores how movement and our…
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Lil Buck: from Memphis to the world stage
No one moves like Charles “Lil Buck” Riley. The dancer, renowned for Memphis jookin’, has a breathtakingly fluid style which has led to collaborations in ballet, music, fashion and more. His latest project is part of the opening season at Oxford’s new arts centre: he is a Schwarzman Centre…
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Isabelle Brouwers: sharing the dance
Isabelle Brouwers is an eloquent advocate for ballet and the way it can speak to young people, audiences and wider communities. She retired from English National Ballet earlier this year to become Artistic Director of Yorkshire Ballet Seminars, which offer opportunities to talented young dancers...
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Nathan James: taptastic!
As the RAD releases its new Musical Theatre syllabus, Dr Nathan James (the RAD’s Deputy Artistic Director – Education) describes what makes it distinctive. From falling under the spell of the tap-happy musical 42nd Street in childhood, to performing in the show as an adult performer, he tells us...
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Dena Kaplan: good-girl dancer to euphoric DJ
In a candid interview, the Australian-based dancer, actor and musician Dena Kaplan describes the unexpected places dance may take you. Dena was born in South Africa and moved to Australia. A talented young dancer, at 16 she was cast in The Lion King: an experience far less supportive than it…
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Sir Peter Wright: a century of dance
Sir Peter Wright is living proof that doing what you love will sustain you. The ballet producer and artistic director turns 100 in November, but has been involved in recent revivals of his cherished productions of Giselle, The Nutcracker and Swan Lake for the Royal Ballet and Birmingham Royal...
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Pawlet Brookes: the art of serendipity
Serendipity is what happens when the universe smiles on you: a happy chance, a creative coincidence. It is also the name of the remarkable Serendipity Institute for Black Arts and Heritage. Led by the unstoppable Pawlet Brookes, it shifts the lens through which we see dance, putting art and…
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Jordan James Bridge: defying the gatekeepers
Jordan James Bridge is a sharp mover and thinker and an ambitious talent. Having danced for Company Wayne McGregor, his own choreography has made a splash on screen and in the Ballet Nights series of dance gigs. It all began for Jordan at school near Wigan, in the north of England, where he first...
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Sonia Sabri: the power of dance
Our guest today is the choreographer Sonia Sabri – dance changed her life, and now she uses it to change others. Sonia grew up in Wolverhampton, UK, in a traditional Indian family. Unusually her parents supported her dancing: her dad hoped she might conquer Bollywood, but instead, she devoted...
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Dr. Mark Broomfield: changing the world, one dance at a time
Dr. Mark Broomfield is a dance scholar and artist, and the author of Black Queer Dance: Gay Men and the Politics of Passing for Almost Straight. Born in London, he has spent much of his career in New York, currently as Associate Professor of English and the Founder and Director of Performance as...
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Elizabeth Honer: what does leadership look like?
We meet Elizabeth Honer – the RAD’s first female chief executive in its 106 year history – marking her first year in post. Elizabeth’s career in public service has included leadership roles in the UK’s Treasury and Foreign Office. But ballet has long been a passion, and Elizabeth first…
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Christopher Scott: making Wicked dance
Our first guest of 2026 is the choreographer of the Wicked movies: the defying gravity force field that is Christopher Scott. In two phenomenal films, based on the hit stage musical, Christopher brings the land of Oz to stomping, whirling life – continuing his collaboration with director John M...
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Jamiel Devernay-Laurence: ballet entrepreneur
Jamiel Devernay-Laurence has a dance brain, but also a business brain. Founder, artistic director and enthusiastic compere of the ever-growing series of Ballet Nights events, he has also created the production house Fundamentally Dance. Having danced with Scottish Ballet, Jamiel then parlayed his...
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Evie Templeton: Wednesday, ballet and Lady Gaga
Here’s an unusual compliment: “Evie has amazing eyes that can emote both compassion and complete psychotic behaviour.” This is a director describing Evie Templeton, who at 16 stars in the hit Netflix series Wednesday. Evie brings her compassionate/psychotic presence to Agnes DeMille – stalker and...
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Anthony Roth Costanzo: high notes and bold choices
Few classical singers embrace movement as vividly as the star countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo. He explores all the possibilities of a performing career, from opera to cabaret. His captivating high tones specialise in both early and modern operas: famously, in the testing title role of Philip...
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Tamara Rojo: the buck stops here
To be artistic director of one of the world’s great ballet companies is a daunting task. But Tamara Rojo is accustomed to pressure: as Royal Ballet, artistic director of English National Ballet, and now of San Francisco Ballet (SFB), America’s oldest classical company. Tamara has the gift of…
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Karen Hauer: my life in Strictly
Today we enter the world of Strictly Come Dancing. The show is a phenomenon of British television, and our guest is the longest serving professional dancer on the series – the sparky Venezuelan-American dancer Karen Hauer. Karen spoke to us just before she learned her partner for the 2025 series...
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Maddie Jamieson: but I’m a cheerleader!
Maddie Jamieson is one of the UK’s leading experts in dance team. As a former competitive dancer, and now a choreographer, coach and judge, she’s the perfect guide to a discipline which sits between sport and art (the International Cheer Union was recently recognised by the IOC, possibly paving…
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Alexander Campbell: becoming RAD's Artistic Director
Alexander Campbell has been Artistic Director of the Royal Academy of Dance for just over a year. Formerly a gleaming principal with the Royal Ballet, the Australian-born dancer is no stranger to the RAD. His grandmother was an RAD examiner, so he took the RAD exams and won medals in its major...
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Lewis Walker: movement beyond the medals
Lewis Walker is a former world champion gymnast and now a dancer. We often talk about dance as a short career, one which embeds a very binary approach, and in which partnering is a question of intense trust – well, all this is even more true of gymnastics. Lewis discovered the sport at six…
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Kim Brandstrup: breaking boundaries
Kim Brandstrup is a Danish born choreographer whose latest project, Breaking Bach, unites him with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Kim often works with leading classical companies, but in Breaking Bach he directs street dancers, some with no previous stage experience. What will they…
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Shelley Yacopetti: celebrating 90 years of RAD Australia
It’s the 90th anniversary of the RAD in Australia, so we are speaking to Shelley Yacopetti, the RAD’s National Director in Australia. Not all the national directors come from a dance background – but Shelley emphatically does: as a performer, teacher, leader. She has been involved with the RAD in...
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Fabian Aloise: choreographing a London moment!
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...
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Alina Cojocaru: the art that moves us
Alina Cojocaru is one of the great ballerinas of her generation – her Giselle, Odette-Odile and Manon bring those complex, anguished characters to life. This deep dive of a conversation offers a rare chance to hear a dancer at the peak of their profession discuss the ways in which art works on…
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Robert Pranzatelli on Pilobolus: twists, tumbling, and transformative dance
We take a deep dive into a single dance company – the tumbling, twisty, transporting Pilobolus – through the eyes of Robert Pranzatelli, who has written a wonderfully involving book about the company and its work. Pilobolus began in 1971, at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. It grew out of…
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Amir Nizar Zuabi: The Herds, empathy and changing the world
Amir Nizar Zuabi is artistic director of The Herds – an astonishing work of cardboard and imagination, which is sweeping northwards from Africa. The lifesize puppets of The Herds are given dazzling life by teams of puppeteers, drawing attention to climate emergency as the animals look for home in…
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Angela Rippon: dancing through decades
When it comes to youthful spirit, Angela Rippon is unmatchable. Angela is a journalist and broadcaster, who 50 years ago this year became the BBC’s first regular female newsreader. But dance has also defined her career. She caused a sensation in 1976 as a high-kicking guest on the Morecambe and...
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Christina Ho: finding grace in governance
Christina S Ho, Professor of Law at Rutgers University, is deeply engaged in questions around access to healthcare, law and governance – but is also a lover of ballet. We relish enriching conversations with non-dancers on Why Dance Matters, and Christina who not only cherishes her time in ballet...
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Dames Arlene Phillips, Darcey Bussell & Monica Mason: special episode
This special episode was recorded live to celebrate International Women’s Day. The RAD gathered three distinguished dancing dames in front of an invited audience to discuss their lives in dance. A ballerina, an artistic director and a choreographer: Dame Darcey Bussell, Dame Monica Mason and Dame...
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Valentino Zucchetti: charisma and choreography
When Valentino Zucchetti won the gold medal at the Genée International Ballet Competition in 2006, Dance Gazette called him ‘dazzling’ and ‘above all, devastatingly charismatic.’ The Italian artist has brought those qualities as dancer with the Royal Ballet in London (especially in vivid roles…
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Takero Shimazaki: architecture meets dance
The architect Takero Shimazaki was born in Tokyo but is a longtime Londoner. He has designed many kinds of buildings – including the London home of the Royal Academy of Dance. It’s a warm, open, lovingly designed space and last year, the Royal Institute of British Architects gave it both an RIBA...
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Vicki Igbokwe-Ozoagu: dance, empowerment and Olympic magic
Vicki Igbokwe-Ozoagu is an inventive choreographer, an Olympic movement director and a very positive lifecoach. Her dance company Uchenna promises to Empower, Entertain & Educate, while she wants everyone she engages with to Think Fierce, Be Fabulous & Live Free Spirited. Sadler’s Wells in London...
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Pia Sutaria: on ballet, access and dancing against the odds
India is renowned for its rich dance traditions, but rarely for ballet. Pia Sutaria is changing that. Pia’s career has been immensely varied – from ballet to modern, from TedX talks to musical theatre. She’s also an RAD dance teacher, and in 2018 set up the Institute of Classical & Modern Dance…
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Sir Matthew Bourne: transforming the dance world
To celebrate our tenth series, we are launching this season with a brilliant episode with Sir Matthew Bourne whose Swan Lake returns this year for its 30th anniversary. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Aakash Odedra: stories in motion
Our guest today is the dancer and choreographer Aakash Odedra. Based in the UK, his work tours internationally, and he collaborates with artists from across countries and art forms. Each piece he makes seems more ambitious than the last – next is Songs of the Bulbul, which premieres at the...
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Eilis Small: Birmingham Royal Ballet dancer
The Royal Academy of Dance will soon hold the annual Margot Fonteyn International Ballet Competition, where promising dancers from across the world dance their hearts out in front of some of ballet’s big names. In 2014, the Australian ballerina Eilis Small took part in the predecessor to the...
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Mike Wamaya: changing lives through dance in Kenya
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…
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Britt Tajet-Foxell: pioneering performance psychology
Did you know the Royal Ballet had a performance psychologist? Britt Tajet-Foxell was a pioneer in the discipline, which is more familiar in the sports world. As well as dancers and musicians, Britt also works with elite athletes: at the Olympics in Paris, she’s working with teams from both the UK...
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Crazy Smooth: street dance, identity and breaking's Olympic moment
Our guest today is the Canadian hip hop dancer and choreographer professionally known as Crazy Smooth. We ask how Crazy Smooth came by his dance name? What makes Canadian street dance distinctive? In this Olympic year, where breaking makes its debut in the Paris games, should we really think of...
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Misty Copeland: an extraordinary journey in ballet
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…
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A special 50th episode!
Life changing moments with Why Dance Matters! We’ve made over 50 episodes of Why Dance Matters, and the conversations often hinge on life-changing moments. This special episode gathers some compelling chats about change. Some are personal choices which prove momentous: the unlikely decision to...
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Olivia Lume: National Director of RAD Africa
With members in over 80 countries around the world, and Royal Academy of Dance’s relationship with its members depends on its National Directors. They include Olivia Lume, who last year celebrated her 40th year with the RAD. As National Director for the Academy in Africa, she has lived through...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Why Dance Matters is a series of conversations with extraordinary people from the world of dance and beyond. It traces the impact of dance on their lives and asks why dance matters to them – and why it might matter to us all. The RAD inspires the world to dance, and we hope these insightful personal conversations – hosted by David Jays, editor of Dance Gazette, the RAD magazine – will delight and even surprise you. Find out more on our website > https://www.royalacademyofdance.org/
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
HOSTED BY
Royal Academy of Dance
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Why Dance Matters have?
Why Dance Matters currently has 105 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Why Dance Matters about?
Why Dance Matters is a series of conversations with extraordinary people from the world of dance and beyond. It traces the impact of dance on their lives and asks why dance matters to them – and why it might matter to us all. The RAD inspires the world to dance, and we hope these insightful...
How often does Why Dance Matters release new episodes?
Why Dance Matters publishes regularly with 105 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
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Why Dance Matters is created and hosted by Royal Academy of Dance.
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