We conclude our 6 part series, The Next Step, with SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER (1977)! The surprisingly harsh film that launched a #1 bestselling soundtrack by the Bee Gees and John Travolta to super stardom. You'll easily be able to summon the sight of Travolta strutting down the street in the opening scene and hear that thumping beat of Stayin' Alive, but did you remember that he's actually a 19 year old kid on an errand to buy paint? In this tale set in the end days of disco, Travolta's Ton...

We’re making our entrance for this one running in with arms in bras bas! Was SAVE THE LAST DANCE (2001) the beginning of the dance movie craze of the noughts? With a bonus film that definitely hits right in the middle of that fad: STEP UP (2006) It’s interesting revisiting STLD on the other side of the reckonings that happened around BLM. It earnestly explores some serious topics with Julia Stiles’s white ballerina becoming a fish out of water when she moves to a majority black neighbourhood ...

5 years after first recorded, we're rereleasing this episode of our first dance flavoured mini series - Ballet for the 21st Century. We've chosen to revisit the last ep in that series, Boys Dance Too, because having just discussed the film Billy Elliot we thought it was worth digging into some themes that came up in more depth. This episode has been shortened from its original length... -------------------- Why is the bullying of boys who want to take ballet so persistent? Emma Lister seeks t...

We couldn't make The Next Step mini series without including BILLY ELLIOT. Is this the seminal dance coming of age film? How does it hold up a quarter of a century after it was released and became a cultural phenomenon? Bonus film: THE FITS (2015) starts eerily the same as Billy Elliot, but steers firmly away from the predictable halfway through... I'm joined this episode by host of Drinks at the Bar podcast, Paul James Rooney...who apart from being a podcast host and experienced dancer has a...

FAME (1980) fed the world a version of performing arts schools where everyone is constantly jumping around dancing and singing. But how much truth is there in that? Our bonus film, GIRL (2018), has a very different take on the experience of dance training. We talk about the enduring genius of Gene Anthony Ray, finding your tribe in school, why the cast demanded danger pay for one scene and...did we mention Gene?! What happens in Rocky Horror stays in Rocky Horror! Guest: Cordelia Braithwaite ...

Up next in our new mini-series, The Next Step, is DIRTY DANCING (1987)! With bonus film--FLASHDANCE (1983). Long a stalwart of slumber parties, Dirty Dancing can actually be a tougher watch than you remember, with a plot that revolves around an illegal abortion. We all know the famous line at the end of the film, but do you know who Baby's father was in real life? Or how to do that lift properly? And why Patrick Swayze isn't even the best dancer in this movie? Perhaps the ultimate 80s f...

Our first episode of the new mini series, The Next Step, is CENTER STAGE (2000)! Can you believe this dancer classic is celebrating 25 years since its release? With bonus film--DANCERS (1987). We use Center Stage to discuss the delicate balance between dancer and sponsor, camisole tops, unequal power dynamics, the girl behind Degas's 'Little Dancer' sculpture and Ethan Steifel's dancing assets. Chock full of professional NYC dancers (not to mention future Oscar Winner Zoe Saldaña) Cente...

Our ballet horror movie mash up podcast, continues with BLACK SWAN (2010) and US (2019). In this final instalment of Ballet Macabre we're looking at Duality. To start off, host Emma Lister and guests Amber Hunt and Rose Martin give their insights as professional dancers on what is likely the best known film in this mini genre, Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan. Though the film won its star Natalie Portman an acting Oscar for her role as the dancer trying to master the dual roles of the white...

This one is hot off the presses! Just as I was about to release the final episode in our mini series, Lucile Hadžihalilović 's award winning INNOCENCE (2004) was made available to stream. I had trouble tracking it down in my early research, and when I finally watched it I knew I had to include it. Its oblique plot follows a year at a mysterious all girls school where ballet is one of the few subjects taught. Though not an outright horror movie, it deals with so many themes from our mini serie...

BALLET MACABRE continues with SUSPIRIA (1977) and AUDITION (1999) as Emma Lister, long time film lover, podcast host and ballet dancer guides us down the dark hallway that is the use of ballet in horror movies. In this, the second episode in our mini series, we have the theme of pain linking our film pairing: Guests Richard Bermange and Nandita Shankardass join to give their insights on the original Suspiria directed by Dario Argento, which for all its baroque beauty, rocking Goblin score an...

We start our mini series with THE RED SHOES (1948) and SUSPIRIA (2018) as Emma Lister, long time film lover, podcast host and ballet dancer guides us down the dark hallway that is the use of ballet in horror movies. Guests Zoe Ashe-Browne and Diarmaid O'Meara join to give their insights as professional dancers and amateur cineasts on perhaps the foundational ballet horror film: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's The Red Shoes. They marvel at Moira Shearer's technique, discuss the feasib...

Hailed as a “stirring voice” by the New York Times, Roopa Mahadevan is a leading second-generation Indian classical and crossover vocalist in the American diaspora known for her collaborative spirit. She leads the crossover ensemble Roopa in Flux, where she works with musicians in jazz, soul/R&B, and various global traditions, directs the innovative choir Navatman Music Collective, and sings for leading Bharathanatyam and modern dancers around the world. She has performed at Carnegie Hall...

Gavin Sutherland is a conductor, composer and orchestrator who specials in dance—he’s conducted for Northern Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Royal New Zealand Ballet, Norwegian and Finnish National Ballet as well as English National Ballet where he is principal guest conductor. He and Emma discuss his career as a conductor that starting aged 18, his favourite joke to tell an orchestra and why certain music has the power to pull on our heartstrings. Holst's Jupiter conducted by Susanna...

Charlotte Maclet is an award winning violinist who first performed a Mendelssohn concerto at age nine! She has performed as a soloist in her native France and abroad. She led the acclaimed quartet Camerata Alma Viva and is now first violinist for Zaïde Quartet. She and Emma discuss her recent recording with Zaïde, Invisible, which places the music of Fanny Mendelssohn and Clara Schumann alongside the more famous men who share a surname, how to lead a quartet as democratically as possible and ...

Andrew Mellor is a journalist and critic. He has written about music, architecture, design, and cultural politics for publications around the world and is a critic for Gramophone and the Financial Times. He and Emma chat about his new book The Northern Silence, why it might be too late for meaningful access to classical music in Britain--especially in education and why Helsinki airport is so quiet?! Andrew's blog Buy The Northern Silence The 3 Questions: What piece of art changed eve...

In this, the last episode of our miniseries, Emma Lister and Amy Drew are joined by choreographer Morgann Runacre-Temple and dancer/teacher Senri Kou to discuss how being pregnant and having a child fits (or doesn’t fit) into the dance sector. We talk morning sickness during a show of Sleeping Beauty, the physical and hormonal changes of pregnancy, the decision to go back to performing vs the decision to stop, how you're perceived in the dance world as a parent and the trials of finding...

This week hosts Emma Lister, Amy Drew and Matthew Paluch continue their discussion of the phenomenon of “cancel culture” in the ballet and dance world. Please do listen to Part I first if you haven't! Where does the term 'cancel culture' come from, what are the mechanisms at work? How does it apply to ballet? What about calls to reclaim it as 'accountability culture'? We are talking about the Rosie Kay debacle, Liam Scarlett and the recent pressure to ostracise Russian dancers who don't...

This week, in part I, host Emma Lister and Matthew Paluch discuss the phenomenon of 'cancel culture' in the ballet and dance world. Where does this term come from and what are the mechanisms at work? How does it apply to ballet? What about calls to reclaim it as 'accountability culture'? We will be discussing the recent instances of 'cancelling' The Nutcracker and the removal of ballet from auditions at a UK dance institute. Wish us luck… This episode is in two, more digestible parts, both ar...

Welcome to our new mini series! We’re talking about things that historically have been taboo to discuss in ballet. In episode one, host Emma Lister is joined by series co-host Amy Drew, they dissect what’s taboo about menstrual cycles in the context of ballet and get great advice and information from Dr Nicky Keay, Dr Stephanie Potreck and Julianne Rice-Oxley. We're talking heavy periods, missing periods, nutrition, cycle tracking, perimenopause and hormonal birth contr...

Lighting designer Jessica Hung Han Yun won a Knight of Illumination Award for Equus at Stratford East when she was just 24. She’s since worked at the National Theatre, Donmar Warehouse, Rambert2, The Royal Court, and she has also designed lights for the revered theatre company Complicité and director Nicholas Hytner. Her upcoming work on RSC's My Neighbour Totoro can be seen at the Barbican from Oct 2022. She and host Emma Lister talk about creativity under pressure, how lighting is li...