In this episode of DanceCast, Silva interviews dance artist Devin Hill. Devin describes their experience growing up with a rare eye condition and how it affected their motor skills. Their mother put them in dance to help with balance and coordination. Devin shares their experience pursuing dance in college and learning to be an advocate for themsel…

The Value of Studying Dance DanceCast is a podcast that spotlights non-traditional dance artists. It is produced by Silva Laukkanen, an advocate for inclusive dance based in Austin, TX. In this episode of DanceCast, Silva interviews Jasmiina Sipilä, who works as a leading teacher in the dance department of Vocational College Live, where they offer …

In this episode of DanceCast, Silva interviews Rhona Coughlan, the artistic director of Inclusive Dance Cork in Cork, Ireland, along with project coordinator Dr. Kaylie Streit. Inclusive Dance Cork is a professional dance training program for people with and without disabilities who want to engage with contemporary inclusive dance. This program is …

Seeking Barrier-Free Dance Education DanceCast is a podcast that spotlights non-traditional dance artists. It is produced by Silva Laukkanen, an advocate for inclusive dance based in Austin, TX. In this episode of DanceCast, Silva Laukkanen is actually the interviewee. She is interviewed by co-worker April Sullivan and Art Spark Texas’ executive di…

Breadth of Bodies: Discussing Disability in Dance seeks to investigate stereotypes often used to describe professional dancers with disabilities. Spearheaded by Emmaly Wiederholt and Silva Laukkanen with illustrations by visual artist Liz Brent-Maldonado, the team interviewed 35 professional dance artists with disabilities around the country and wo…

Breadth of Bodies: Discussing Disability in Dance seeks to investigate stereotypes often used to describe professional dancers with disabilities. Spearheaded by Emmaly Wiederholt and Silva Laukkanen with illustrations by visual artist Liz Brent-Maldonado, the team interviewed 35 professional dance artists with disabilities around the country and wo…

Breadth of Bodies: Discussing Disability in Dance seeks to investigate stereotypes often used to describe professional dancers with disabilities. Spearheaded by Emmaly Wiederholt and Silva Laukkanen with illustrations by visual artist Liz Brent-Maldonado, the team interviewed 35 professional dance artists with disabilities around the country and wo…

Breadth of Bodies: Discussing Disability in Dance seeks to investigate stereotypes often used to describe professional dancers with disabilities. Spearheaded by Emmaly Wiederholt and Silva Laukkanen with illustrations by visual artist Liz Brent-Maldonado, the team interviewed 35 professional dance artists with disabilities around the country and wo…

Breadth of Bodies: Discussing Disability in Dance seeks to investigate stereotypes often used to describe professional dancers with disabilities. Spearheaded by Emmaly Wiederholt and Silva Laukkanen with illustrations by visual artist Liz Brent-Maldonado, the team interviewed 35 professional dance artists with disabilities around the country and wo…

Breadth of Bodies: Discussing Disability in Dance seeks to investigate stereotypes often used to describe professional dancers with disabilities. Spearheaded by Emmaly Wiederholt and Silva Laukkanen with illustrations by visual artist Liz Brent-Maldonado, the team interviewed 35 professional dance artists with disabilities around the country and wo…

Breadth of Bodies: Discussing Disability in Dance seeks to investigate stereotypes often used to describe professional dancers with disabilities. Spearheaded by Emmaly Wiederholt and Silva Laukkanen with illustrations by visual artist Liz Brent-Maldonado, the team interviewed 35 professional dance artists with disabilities around the country and wo…

Breadth of Bodies: Discussing Disability in Dance seeks to investigate stereotypes often used to describe professional dancers with disabilities. Spearheaded by Emmaly Wiederholt and Silva Laukkanen with illustrations by visual artist Liz Brent-Maldonado, the team interviewed 35 professional dance artists with disabilities around the country and wo…

Breadth of Bodies: Discussing Disability in Dance seeks to investigate stereotypes often used to describe professional dancers with disabilities. Spearheaded by Emmaly Wiederholt and Silva Laukkanen with illustrations by visual artist Liz Brent-Maldonado, the team interviewed 35 professional dance artists with disabilities around the country and wo…

Breadth of Bodies: Discussing Disability in Dance seeks to investigate stereotypes often used to describe professional dancers with disabilities. Spearheaded by Emmaly Wiederholt and Silva Laukkanen with illustrations by visual artist Liz Brent-Maldonado, the team interviewed 35 professional dance artists with disabilities around the country and wo…

“I Have Terrible Anxiety but I Love Being Onstage” In this episode of DanceCast, Silva interviews her intern Emily Heath, a dance student at Bennington College. As a young person, Emily reflects on the economic uncertainty of pursuing dance and their desire to learn more entrepreneurial and marketable skills in addition to somatic-based curriculum.…

Exploring How Performance is Experienced In this episode of DanceCast, Silva interviews Jess Curtis, an award-winning choreographer, performer, and scholar based in San Francisco and Berlin. Jess reflects on his entrance to dance through skiing and how he was immediately hooked to being onstage. He shares how his career took a turn when he accepted…

How Dance is Taught / Daniel Levi-Sanchez. In this episode of DanceCast, Silva interviews the dance educator Daniel Levi-Sanchez. Daniel reflects on his formative years teaching himself street forms as well as eventually receiving more traditional training from the Inner-City Ensemble Theatre and Dance Co., from Juilliard, and from Twyla Tharp hers…

In this episode of DanceCast, Silva interviews Tebandeke Joseph, an African contemporary dance artist based in Uganda. He shares how athletics led him to contemporary dance, and how he sees dance as an engine for change. Tebandeke aims to change the community perspective on disability through street performances and through the schools. He dreams o…

In this episode of DanceCast, Silva interviews Magda Kaczmarska, a dancer, researcher, and creative aging teaching artist based in New York City. Magda describes how her path as an immigrant with a background in dance and the sciences shaped her interest in and commitment to community based dance in the field of creative aging. She revisits how exp…

Rachel describes how she had always wanted to teach special education, but her path led her on a professional dance track first. She eventually switched careers to public education through the New York City Teaching Fellows Program. To her surprise, her principal (no “s”) requested she teach movement and dance across multiple school sites instead o…

Advocating for Inclusive Dance in the Public Schools In this episode of DanceCast, Silva interviews New York-based dance educator and advocate Sandi Stratton-Gonzalez. Sandi shares her dance beginnings and describes how she always identified as a teacher, even as she pursued performance opportunities, which directly led to her career as a dance edu…

In this episode he describes how he reluctantly came to dance after learning about it from another wheelchair user, and how he found integrated dance to be radically different than the dances of his culture. Kadar reflects on the therapeutic and social benefits of dance, and how performing boosted his confidence as both a person with a disability a…

You can see Perch on Tuesday the 8th of June 2021. This performance is donation based and you can register here. Perch is part of the X Dance Festival 2021. You can find out more about Amy Voris and Katye Coe and about their impressive work in the field of dance and Somatics.Af Silva

In this episode of DanceCast, Silva interviews Tali Wertheim and Hai Cohen, artistic directors of Vertigo Power of Balance, an Israeli based inclusive dance company. Hai describes how he came to dance almost by accident, meeting Tali in a workshop led by Adam Benjamin that culminated in a performance. Tali shares how she and Hai felt that contact i…

In this episode of DanceCast, Silva interviews Georgie Goater, a dance artist and pedagogue based in Helsinki, Finland where she moved from Aotearoa (New Zealand). Georgie describes her early attraction to dance as a place of nonverbal communication where she discovered through improvisation that there is no right or wrong. She reflects on her intr…

Today my episode is with a dance student Ida Mokki who talks about her journey to the dance world and her dreams after graduating in December from Live Vocational College. Ida is teaching with her fellow student two of the Daily Dances that are happening for the first seven mornings (6-12.6.) during the X Dance Festival at 11-11.30am EEST. Check ou…

In this episode I spoke with Kati Raatikainen, choreographer, performance artist, dance and yoga teacher, and a thinker that likes to write. We spoke about Kati's interests and her latest work Kvartetto that will be performed at the X Dance Festival on the Wednesday the 9th and Thursday the 10th of June, Thursdays performance is also being live str…

In this episode of DanceCast, Silva interviews Kat Rampackova, a choreographer, performer, and dance activist based in Barcelona, Spain. Kat shares her journey finding herself as a freelance dance artist after studying theater, contemporary dance, and improvisation across Europe. She is the co-founder of Priestor Súčasného Tanca (PST), a place for …

In this episode of DanceCast, Silva interviews Finnish artist/theater director Teemu Mäki and Finnish dance artist Maija Nurmio about their collaborative work Éliane, which is based on the French composer Éliane Radigue's composition L'Île Re-Sonante. Teemu describes why he was drawn to Radique’s experimental music and how a collaboration sprung up…

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Interview with Roman Baca; Dancing the Veteran Experience In this episode of DanceCast, Silva interviews Roman Baca, who is an Iraq War veteran, the director of EXIT12 Dance Company, and an MFA candidate in Choreography at Trinity Laban Conservatoire in London. He describes his upcoming MFA final performance, which seeks to choreographically share …

There’s No Such Thing As “We Can’t Do Something” In this episode of DanceCast, Silva interviews Karenne Koo, a dance artist in Tucson, AZ, committed to developing and practicing multidisciplinary approaches to encourage and stimulate the art of inclusive dance as an instrument for building community. Here, she discusses her involvement with the Met…

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Af Silva Laukkanen

“It Comes Down to Loving Movement” Text by Emmaly Wiederholt In this episode of DanceCast, Silva interviews Ginger Lane, a Chicago based dancer, teacher and choreographer. Ginger shares how the themes of dance and disability activism have come together in her career, specifically through her involvement with Access Living and MOMENTA Dance Company.…

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Access is Good for Everybody Text by Emmaly Wiederholt In this episode of DanceCast, Silva interviews Aaron Wheeler-Kay, creative director of Echo Theater Company in Portland, Oregon. Aaron, a master DanceAbility teacher, shares how he applied DanceAbility to create an accessible circus arts space, as well as leverage his privilege to feature and s…

Dance Applied to Real Life In this episode of DanceCast, Silva interviews Margot Greenlee, a choreographer, theater director and artist educator based in Washington DC. Here, Margot discusses her involvement with Jacob’s Pillow’s Curriculum in Motion® and her own project, BodyWise Dance, which provide dance classes and workshops for individuals and…

Experiencing the Democracy of Dance In this episode of DanceCast, Silva interviews Connie Vandarakis, a master DanceAbility teacher in Philadelphia. Connie shares her unusual entrance to dance, her experience in academia, how chronic hip pain and a hip replacement led her to DanceAbility, and why she deeply believes in the curriculum of DanceAbilit…

Interview with Jana Meszaros; Promoting Freedom and Equality In this episode of DanceCast, Silva interviews Jana Meszaros, a DanceAbility instructor in Eugene, OR. Jana describes her small-town upbringing, how she discovered DanceAbility through contact improvisation, and her road to becoming a Master Teacher. She shares her belief in DanceAbility …

Exploring Her Own Access and Excellence PODCAST BY SILVA LAUKKANEN TEXT BY EMMALY WIEDERHOLT In this episode of DanceCast, Silva interviews India Harville, a dance artist and teacher in the Bay Area. India shares her journey to inclusive dance through yoga, body work, and her ongoing experience with temporary paralysis. She also describes her recen…

Maylis was visiting me here in the US after dancing and studying with Axis Dance Co in their annual summer intensive. While we were finishing our lunch we chatted about her work and future plans. Maylis shared her visions for her next choreographies and where she is currently with her own work. Thank you Maylis for being so open and willing to shar…

Choreography for An Arm and A Half PODCAST BY SILVA LAUKKANEN; PHOTOGRAPHY BY TIM ISOM AND TEXT BY EMMALY WIEDERHOLT In this episode of DanceCast, Silva interviews Julie Crothers, a freelance dancer and emerging choreographer in the Bay Area. After dancing with AXIS Dance Company for three years, Julie began exploring her own choreographic voice. S…

In this episode of DanceCast, Silva interviews Gretchen Pick, executive director of Young Dance in Minnesota’s Twin Cities region. Young Dance offers youth classes and performance opportunities, and started to include dance classes for children and adults with disabilities in 2010 after realizing nothing else was being offered locally. Gretchen sha…

Rethinking Assistive Technologies PODCAST BY SILVA LAUKKANEN In this episode of DanceCast, Silva interviews Merry Lynn Morris, assistant director of dance at the University of South Florida. One aspect of Merry Lynn’s work has involved inventing new assistive technologies for disability dance, including a rolling dance chair with remote control, he…

In this episode of DanceCast, Silva interviews Dwayne Scheuneman of REVolutions Dance in Tampa, Florida, whose background in wheelchair sports led him to co-founding Tampa’s first integrated dance company. Dwayne discusses his passion for education and the difficulty starting classes for children with disabilities from scratch, his relationship dan…

In Between Dance and Musical Theater PODCAST BY SILVA LAUKKANEN In this episode of DanceCast, Silva interviews Meredith Aleigha Wells, a dancer with Dancing Wheels Company in Cleveland, OH. The Massachusetts native has a background in musical theater, and started using a wheelchair while in college. She discusses the support she received in college…

Experimentation and Inclusivity In this episode of DanceCast, Silva interviews Eric Kupers, a director, choreographer and performer in the Bay Area. He is the co-director of Dandelion Dancetheater and director of Bandelion (the interdisciplinary ensemble within the company). Eric discusses his experimental approach to dance-making, the creative sig…