Offstage + Unbound™ Podcast

In the 15th installment of "Offstage and Unbound," The Music Center's President and CEO Rachel Moore chats with Robert Battle, artistic director of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

In the 14th installment of "Offstage and Unbound," The Music Center's President and CEO Rachel Moore chats with Kevin McKenzie, artistic director of American Ballet Theatre (ABT).

Teaser of Episode #13 of Offstage + Unbound - The Music Center Podcast. Kevin McKenzie, Artistic Director of American Ballet Theatre Rachel Moore, President & C.E.O. of The Music Center

In the 13th installment of "Offstage and Unbound," The Music Center's President and CEO Rachel Moore chats with Dwight Rhoden, founding artistic director and resident choreographer of Complexions Contemporary Ballet. Rhoden has established a remarkably wide-ranging career, earning distinction from The New York Times as “one of the most sought out choreographers of the day.” A native of Dayton, Ohio who began dancing at age 17, Rhoden has performed with Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, Les Ballet Jazz De Montreal and as a principal dancer with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. In 1994, Rhoden and legendary dancer Desmond Richardson founded Complexions Contemporary Ballet. Together they have brought their unique brand of contemporary dance to the world for nearly two decades. Complexions Contemporary Ballet returns to The Music Center on April 20, 21 and 22, 2018 with StarDust, a dance tribute to David Bowie. Tickets on sale now.

In the 12th installment of "Offstage and Unbound," The Music Center's President and CEO Rachel Moore chats with Ashley Wheater, artistic director of The Joffrey Ballet. Wheater recently celebrated 10 years at the helm of The Joffrey Ballet, one of the world's better-known ballet companies, now based in Chicago. Many Angelenos may recall that the Joffrey was a resident company at The Music Center from 1983 to 1991. According to Sasha Anawalt's history, The Joffrey Ballet, Nancy Reagan prompted the residency when her husband was in the White House, and her son was in the company. In fact, Wheater was a regular Joffrey dancer on The Music Center's Dorothy Chandler stage almost 30 years ago. The Joffrey Ballet returns to The Music Center on March 9, 11 and 17, after a 5-year absence with Romeo & Juliet. Tickets on sale now.

In the eleventh installment of "Offstage and Unbound," The Music Center's President and CEO Rachel Moore chats with Lourdes Lopez, artistic director of Miami City Ballet. Over the course of a year, Lopez worked closely with designers Isabel and Ruben Toledo to create a newly redesigned George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker®. Lopez became artistic director of Miami City Ballet in September 2012, bringing with her a nearly 40-year career in dance, television, teaching and arts management. As a Soloist and Principal Dancer with New York City Ballet, she danced for two legends of the art form, George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins.

In this special tenth installment of "Offstage and Unbound," The Music Center's President and CEO Rachel Moore chats with celebrated Cuban-American artist/designer couple Isabel and Ruben Toledo, the geniuses behind the unique style of the new George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker® by Miami City Ballet. Over the course of a year, the Toledos were responsible for designing dozens of sets and 150 costumes that will belong to this new Nutcracker (with a world premiere at The Music Center on December 7, 2017.) Strongly anchored in Cuban culture yet highly individualistic, the Toledos were inspired by the original New York City Ballet designs, Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky’s timeless score and Balanchine’s iconic choreography.

In the ninth installment of "Offstage and Unbound," The Music Center's President and CEO Rachel Moore chats with Osnel Delgado, resident choreographer, founder and artistic director of Cuba’s Malpaso Dance Company. Delgado danced with Danza Contemporanea de Cuba from 2003 to 2011, before founding Malpaso. He has worked to develop original commissions with a number of prominent North American choreographers including Aszure Barton and Sonya Tayeh. Malpaso will present their works, as well as one of Delgado’s, as part of The Music Center’s Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA programming, Cuba: Antes/Ahora, Then/Now, a three-day celebration of Cuban and Cuban-American artists with dancers, musicians and visual artists.

In the eighth installation of "Offstage and Unbound," The Music Center's President and CEO Rachel Moore chats with Akram Khan, founder, artistic director, choreographer and dancer of the Akram Khan Company. Akram Khan is one of the most celebrated and respected dance artists today. Khan has been the recipient of numerous awards throughout his career including the Laurence Olivier Award, the Bessie Award (New York Dance and Performance Award), the prestigious ISPA (International Society for the Performing Arts) Distinguished Artist Award, the Fred and Adele Astaire Award, the Herald Archangel Award at the Edinburgh International Festival, the South Bank Sky Arts Award and six Critics’ Circle National Dance Awards. The Music Center On Location is proud to present Akram Khan's 'Until the Lions' as part of the Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at The Music Center 15th season.

In the seventh installation of "Offstage and Unbound," The Music Center's President and CEO Rachel Moore chats with Jacob Jonas, choreographer and founder of Los Angeles-based Jacob Jonas The Company, and Aszure Barton, acclaimed choreographer and founder of Aszure Barton & Artists. Both artists will be performing original pieces at Ford Theatres in Hollywood as part of The Music Center On Location™ initiative, which takes The Music Center's creative vision beyond the places and spaces of its Downtown Los Angeles home and into the diverse venues and locales of greater Los Angeles.

In the sixth installation of "Offstage and Unbound," The Music Center's President and CEO Rachel Moore chats with Tiler Peck, principal dancer of New York City Ballet and guest curator of The Music Center's BalletNow™ 2017. An international ballerina, Tiler Peck originally hails from Bakersfield, California. She has been named one of FORBES 30 under 30 in Hollywood Entertainment and won the Princess Grace Statue Award. This December, she received the 2016 DANCE MAGAZINE Award.

In the fifth installation of "Offstage and Unbound," The Music Center's President and CEO Rachel Moore chats with the founder of Eifman Ballet of St. Petersburg and choreographer Boris Eifman. As artistic director for Eifman Ballet of St. Petersburg, Boris combines cutting-edge techniques in the world of ballet with his formal education in classical Russian choreography. Noted by The New York Times as today’s “most successful Russian choreographer,” Boris creates ballets that use self-expression to tell the story, using movement to convey emotions and ideas.

In our fourth installation of "Offstage and Unbound," The Music Center's President and CEO Rachel Moore chats with theatrical and film director, Nancy Meckler, who directed Scottish Ballet’s performance of A Streetcar Named Desire in collaboration with international choreographer, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa. Meckler has directed numerous plays along with feature films. Currently, she is the artistic director for Shared Experience Theatre where she directed such productions as Anna Karenina, Heartbreak House and True West and, with co-director Polly Teale, Mill on the Floss and War and Peace. More recently, for the Royal Shakespeare Company, Nancy directed Comedy of Errors, House of Desires and Romeo and Juliet, along with Onassis in the West End with Robert Lindsay.

In our third installation of "Offstage and Unbound," The Music Center's President and CEO Rachel Moore chats with Hope Boykin of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. She joined the company in 2000 and has choreographed three stunning works for the company. They include Acceptance In Surrender in 2005, in collaboration with fellow Ailey company members Abdur-Rahim Jackson and Matthew Rushing; Go in Grace in 2008 with music by the award-winning singing group Sweet Honey in the Rock; and her most recent piece, r-Evolution, Dream, which was inspired by the speeches and sermons of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., with original music by Ali Jackson. Hope is a three-time recipient of the American Dance Festival’s Young Tuition Scholarship and received a New York Dance and Performance (Bessie) Award.

In our second installation of "Offstage and Unbound," The Music Center's President and CEO Rachel Moore chats with Jessica Lang, choreographer and artistic director of Jessica Lang Dance. She is a graduate of the Juilliard School and a former dancer with Twyla Tharp’s company THARP! She began her prolific choreographic career in 1999, creating more than 90 works on companies worldwide. Her work has been performed by American Ballet Theatre, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, the National Ballet of Japan and Joffrey Ballet, among many others. In 2011, she formed Jessica Lang Dance, a New York City-based dance company dedicated to the immersive music and movement of her work. Since the company’s debut, Jessica has received international acclaim for her articulate blend of ballet and modern dance, punctuated by visually stunning design elements. She is a recipient of a prestigious Bessie Award in 2014 and is a 2017 Arison Award honoree. The Music Center features Jessica Lang Dance as part of the 2016/2017 dance season of Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at The Music Center. The company, which is making its Music Center debut, is on stage at The Music Center’s Ahmanson Theatre from February 17 through 19.

Hear from some of the world’s most innovative artists in Offstage + Unbound, The Music Center’s podcast series hosted by Rachel Moore, President and CEO of The Music Center. As L.A.’s premier performing arts destination, The Music Center provides the platform for local, national and international artists in a broad range of genres, including music, dance, theatre and more. The first episode features William Forsythe, the American choreographer who changed ballet forever. Forsythe has been active in the field of choreography for more than 45 years. His work is acknowledged for reorienting the practice of ballet from its identification with classical repertoire to a dynamic 21st century art form. His interest in the principles of organization led him to produce a wide range of projects, including installations, films and web-based knowledge creation. Forsythe has had an illustrious career, first as a dancer with the Joffrey Ballet and later the Stuttgart Ballet, where he was resident choreographer. He became director of Ballet Frankfurt, where he created many works during a 20-year tenure. He established his own dance ensemble, The Forsythe Company, which he directed for more than 10 years. In 2015, he was appointed associate choreographer of the Paris Opera Ballet and, most recently, became professor of dance and artistic advisor to the Choreographic Institute at the Glorya Kaufman School of Dance at the University of Southern California. The Music Center launched its 2016/2017 dance season of Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at The Music Center with Celebrate Forsythe, a distinctive program devoted entirely to Forsythe's choreography. In an unprecedented engagement, three of the nation’s major ballet companies – Houston Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet and San Francisco Ballet – were personally selected by Forsythe to perform his works. http://www.musiccenter.org/podcast/