City Ballet The Podcast

The Rosin Box heats up this week with a lively conversation shared by hosts Claire Kretzschmar and Soloist Aarón Sanz and their guests, Principal Dancers Gilbert Bolden III and Sara Mearns. They talk about acting and emotions onstage, including their favorite roles, techniques and practices, and hilarious memories. Whether conveying the characters in a narrative ballet or achieving the appropriate expressiveness in an abstract work, the dancers describe the need for extensive preparation—and life experience—to achieve an instinctual, organic performance. As Sara relates, the "half a second" when she crosses the barrier from backstage and into the lights is the moment when the character or emotion manifests. (54:08) Edited by Emilie Silvestri

Music: "Je ne t'aime plus" by Pink Martini Courtesy of Pink Martini & Heinz Records

Listen in on another intimate conversation around The Rosin Box with host Claire Kretzschmar, joined this week by Principal Dancer Taylor Stanley. The topic is all things props, which provide essential context and character development for many of the company's story ballets and "teach you how to remain calm in the moment," as Taylor shares. From training with a professional swordsman in preparation for Romeo and Juliet, to maneuvering the candle in La Sonnambula's haunted pas de deux, Taylor describes many of the playful, challenging, and transformative props used by dancers every season. (50:37) Edited by Emilie Silvestri

Music: "Je ne t'aime plus" by Pink Martini Courtesy of Pink Martini & Heinz Records

Hosts Claire Kretzschmar and Soloist Aarón Sanz are back for another cozy conversation around The Rosin Box. This week, they're joined by Soloist Alexa Maxwell and Principal Dancer Gilbert Bolden III, who have plenty to share about inspiration and motivation, whether for their daily practice, during repetitive performance periods, amidst injuries and other challenges, and beyond. Alexa shares that it's all about the music—she's a "classical music girly"—and that she likes to bunhead out as she's learning a new role; for Gilbert, new audience members, quiet instances of beauty in his everyday life, and cherished passages in well-known ballets can help sustain his art. As all four dancers agree, "If you're open to it, you can be inspired all the time." (54:13)

Edited by Emilie Silvestri

Music: "Je ne t'aime plus" by Pink Martini Courtesy of Pink Martini & Heinz Records

Associate Artistic Director and host Wendy Whelan is back for another enlightening New Combinations conversation. This week, she's joined by choreographer Jamar Roberts, whose newest work for the company will premiere during the Fall Fashion Gala on October 8, timing he describes as "full-circle," considering his own forays into fashion design. His collaboration with designer Iris van Herpen has been uniquely fruitful, as well as his selection of music by Arca, with both informing this ballet that speaks to the times—"but dance," he adds, referring to the joy and beauty the work also inspires. (33:43)

Edited by Emilie Silvestri

Music: "Sisyphus" by Andrew Wegman Bird Wixen Music Publishing, Inc. as agent for Muffet Music Co

In the second part of this deep dive Hear the Dance discussion of Jerome Robbins' The Goldberg Variations, host Silas Farley is joined by former NYCB Dancers and current Repertory Directors Christine Redpath and Jean-Pierre Frohlich. Redpath, an original cast member of Goldberg, digs into Robbins' approach to the creation of this remarkably multi-faceted ballet, while Frohlich remembers the adjustments the choreographer made through the ensuing performances. Both talk about coaching Goldberg on today's company members and the ways in which the work has influenced the dancemakers of today. (42:29)

Written by Silas Farley Edited by Emilie Silvestri

MUSIC: Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D major (1931) by Igor Stravinsky Aria with Variations in G, BWV 988 (1742), "The Goldberg Variations" by Johann Sebastian Bach All music performed by New York City Ballet Solo Pianist Susan Walters

Quotations from the writings of Lincoln Kirstein are © 2019 by the New York Public Library (Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations) Reading List: Somewhere: The Life of Jerome Robbins by Amanda Vaill Jerome Robbins, by Himself: Selections from His Letters, Journals, Drawings, Photographs, and an Unfinished Memoir Edited and with Commentary by Amanda Vaill Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven by John Eliot Gardiner Bach's Musical Universe: The Composer and His Work by Christoph Wolff Thirty Years: Lincoln Kirstein's The New York City Ballet by Lincoln Kirstein Repertory in Review: 40 Years of the New York City Ballet by Nancy Reynolds, with an Introduction by Lincoln Kirstein