Leigh Witchel Provides Background For His Episodes on ‘Conversations on Dance’

We hope you are all tuning into TENDUS’ newest venture, “Conversations on Dance,” a podcast which delves behind-the-scenes into the world of professional ballet.

For the past two episodes, my co-host Michael Sean Breeden and I have been accompanied by esteemed dance critic, Leigh Witchel, for a wonderful chat on all things dance.  We discuss his career as a dancer and choreographer, how he crafts reviews, why he feels that today’s most sought after choreographers are creating their best work on Miami City Ballet, and what makes classics like Giselle so spectacular.

Through his Facebook and Twitter, he has been offering background that offers wonderful context for our conversations.  He has provided three for each episode:

(6) A Conversation with Esteemed Dance Critic, Leigh Witchel

• Review of the same performance that sparked “Sugarplum Gate.” A 2010 New York Times review of “The Nutcracker” which included a comment that the Sugarplum Fairy, New York City Ballet Principal Jennifer Ringer “looked as if she had eaten one sugarplum too many.” This comment sparked outrage in the dance community and is now known as, “Sugarplum gate.”
• Review of Miami City Ballet’s Program 3 in February 2016, which demonstrates his use of “details and analysis.”
• Context for “anyone with a blog can post a review.”

(7) Part 2 of Our Conversation with Dance Critic, Leigh Witchel

• Review of Justin Peck’s ‘Heatscape’ at Miami City Ballet in March 2015.
• Review of Justin Peck’s ‘Most Incredible Thing’ at New York City Ballet.
• Review of Rachel Foster and Seth Orza in ‘Giselle’ at Pacific Northwest Ballet.

We hope this gives you some extra content after listening to the podcast episodes.  Listen to our future episodes by subscribing to Conversations on Dance via iTunes or Google Play.

Conversations on Dance is brought to you by Ballet in the City.