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Signing and Dancing with Emma Memma

Welcome back to Talking Pointes. This season we're back with another 10 beautiful conversations with some of the world's most extraordinary dancers, choreographers, and artistic directors. I'm your host Claudia Lawson. For our summer season bonus episode, we're catching up with the divine Emma Watkins. In season one, Emma and I spoke about her life growing up in Sydney. We spoke about her early dance years, about injuries and auditions, and then being selected to be the first ever female Wiggle. We spoke about Emma's passion for Auslan, her PhD, and we also spoke about love, surviving endometriosis, and fertility....

TALKING POINTES | Claudia Lawson

Talking Pointes: Summer Season

Congratulations to Talking Pointes, bronze medal winner of Best Arts & Culture podcast for the Australian Podcast Awards. To celebrate, we are revisiting conversations with our guests from Season One, including David Hallberg, Emma “Wiggle” Watkins, Frances Rings, and many more.

TALKING POINTES | Claudia Lawson

Talking Pointes: Bronze Medal for Best Arts & Culture Podcast

We are thrilled that Talking Pointes Season One was awarded the bronze medal for Best Arts & Culture podcast at the Australian Podcast Awards on November 21, 2022. We would like to thank our whole team, including host Claudia Lawson, Output Media, Sawtooth Studios and all our wonderfully generous guests for helping to create this special podcast.

TALKING POINTES | Claudia Lawson

David Hallberg, One Year On

For our bonus episode this season, we’re catching up with the Australian Ballet’s Artistic Director David Hallberg. Last season, David and I spoke about his life growing up in South Dakota, being bullied, training at the Paris Opera, becoming principal at American Ballet Theatre, and being the first American to be invited to dance with the Bolshoi Ballet in Russia. We talked about climbing back from his epic injury, his head space at that time, before taking over the Artistic Directorship of the Australian Ballet right in the middle of Covid. A year later we talk about what it's been like to...

TALKING POINTES | Claudia Lawson

Paul Mercurio: A life lived in fear is a life half-lived

30 years ago this year, a small independent film, by a first time director, and an unknown cast, hit our screens. That film was Strictly Ballroom. And so, for our final episode of Season 2 of Talking Pointes, I’m speaking with the legendary Paul Mercurio. Paul was born in Swan Hill in regional Victoria and started dancing after he saw his elder sister in a local dance class. With dad off the scene early, the family moved to Perth where Paul continued to train at the John Curtin Senior High School as it was known then, before, at 18, being accepted in the Australian Ballet School in...

TALKING POINTES | Claudia Lawson

Jenna Caley, Born to Dance

Today I’m speaking with the divine Jenna Roberts. Jenna grew up in Newcastle and started dancing only because a local ballet studio set up shop on the same street as her family home. But as fortune would have it, that local studio happened to be the Marie Walton Mahon Dance Academy, as it was known back then. And so Jenna, and little sister Callie, started dancing. For any outsider, it was clear the Robert’s sisters were born to dance—with high arches and long, lean legs, genetics almost pre-determined their careers. By the time Jenna was a teen, she was winning...

TALKING POINTES | Claudia Lawson

Beau Dean Riley Smith, Stories to Tell

Today I’m speaking with Beau Dean Riley Smith. Beau was born on Wiradjuri Country in Dubbo, Western NSW. But as a little kid the family moved to Culburra on the NSW South Coast where Beau spent his childhood surrounded by siblings, love and chaos while growing up at the beach. Beau didn’t learn to dance as a kid, instead he studied drama in high school, before being accepted into the performance program at WAPPA—the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts in Perth.

TALKING POINTES | Claudia Lawson

Mary's Last Dance

Today I’m speaking with Mary Li, ballet mistress and principal répétiteur at the Queensland Ballet. Mary's story to the stage is an unlikely one—one of eight children, Mary grew up in a small town in Central Queensland called Rockhampton. She was the first person in her family to try ballet, but by the age of 16—the day after completing her Solo Seal exam—she flew to London after being accepted into Royal Ballet School. Her star continued to rise, on graduation Mary was accepted into London Festival Ballet, now the English National Ballet—and was made principal within four years. But it...

TALKING POINTES | Claudia Lawson

Lucinda Dunn's Key to Success

Today I am speaking with the Artistic Director of the Tanya Pearson Academy, Lucinda Dunn. Lucinda started her life in dance destined for London’s West End - where her mum had been a performer, but a chance meeting with a ballet teacher named Tanya Pearson saw a change of direction, and at 15 she flew to Tokyo to compete in the Prix de Lausanne—and Lucinda’s life changed. In our conversation Lucinda shares her life story—how she joined the Royal Ballet School, broke her back, before being offered a contract with the Australian Ballet—a partnership which lasted nearly 23 years and...

TALKING POINTES | Claudia Lawson

Steven McRae, Full Throttle

Today I am speaking with Steven McRae, principal dancer with the Royal Ballet, London. Steven grew up in Western Sydney, in a suburb called Plumpton, 45kms West of Sydney. His Dad was a drag car racer, and no one in the family had ever learnt to dance. But somehow, dance found Steven, And at the age of 7, he asked his mum and dad if he could start dance lessons and he enrolled in a local studio around the corner from home. It was a life changing decision. By 17, he had not only won the Genée International Ballet Competition...

TALKING POINTES | Claudia Lawson

Dana Stephensen's Triple Bill

Today I am speaking with the divine Dana Stephenson. Dana grew up in Brisbane learning tap, jazz and singing, and never dreamed of being a ballerina. But ballet had a way of finding her. And strangely enough, it was a rejection letter from the Australian Ballet School and the disappointment that followed that awakened her passion and changed the trajectory of her life. In this beautifully courageous and candid interview, Dana speaks about her career with the Australian Ballet, managing her thyroid condition and the affect that had on her body image, and being promoted to Senior Artist after becoming...

TALKING POINTES | Claudia Lawson

Fame! with Rafael Bonachela

Today I am speaking with the Artistic Director of Sydney Dance Company, Rafael Bonachela. Rafael grew up in the small town of La Garriga near Barcelona in Spain, the eldest of 4 brothers. With no dance school in the town, the young Rafael would instead create dances for himself and his classmates, before at 15, being allowed to take the train to Barcelona to take his first dance class. It was a pivotal moment—both a star and a passion was born. By 17 he was offered a professional contract and was travelling Europe as a contemporary dancer. But rather than continue...

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