Justin Peck

IT’S NOT GLAMOROUS: Rina Saltzman

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In this episode, Clara sits down with Rina Saltzman, Company Manager on Broadway and former Company Manager for American Ballet Theater. We learn about what a Company Manager does, how the inner workings and funding structures of the ballet world contrast with Broadway, and how we might see more in-depth mixing of the two going forward. It was great to hear that business is booming on Broadway! Rina’s current show, Pretty Woman, will have its New York preview on July 20th and open officially on August 16th!! (more…)

GO SEE DANCE[!]: Reid Bartelme, Reprised
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Credo: Choreography by Matthew Neenan for Ballet X

We brought costume designer Reid Bartelme back to the studio, nearly a year after our first interview with him, to delve further into his design process and his vast knowledge of the dance landscape at large. In the meantime to our 2015 interview, the New York Times published an article about Reid highlighting his ability to bring together often-disparate factions of the dance world. We addressed the themes of that article, including the best strategies for learning and educating across worlds, the stigmas that sometimes get attached to one dance world by another, and how the terms “downtown” and “uptown” come into play. (Check out Danspace Project!) As usual, Reid was a lively conversationalist and a complete pleasure to engage. Here are few photos of costumes by Reid & Harriet that came up in the course of conversation, including the notorious “S&M bunny” ears for Trey McIntyre’s Ballet X.

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THESE ARE ALL YOUR PEOPLE: Reid Bartelme

Screen Shot 2015-12-20 at 10.35.28 PMIn this episode we found ourselves traversing a wide range of dance territory with the accomplished Costume Designer and Dancer, Reid Bartelme. We spent the majority of the hour exploring Reid’s process of finding his footing as a latecomer in the ballet world, where he nonetheless achieved early success dancing with some of North America’s top companies. We eventually got into costuming talk and speculated about dance in the world more broadly, questioning where responsibility lies for developing cross-genre understanding. In this episode you’ll get a lively look inside company life and a dancer’s mind!