Why Dance Matters

The new season of Why Dance Matters opens with one of the great ballet princes – David Hallberg, star dancer and now artistic director of Australian Ballet. The epitome of classical elegance, in his …

In an exciting bonus episode of Why Dance Matters, we meet the choreographer Dame Arlene Phillips as she receives a special honour at the Olivier Awards, marking a career packed with achievement. A d…

Giles Terera is no ordinary actor. He won an Olivier Award as Aaron Burr in the UK premiere of the all-conquering musical Hamilton, writing a book about his creative journey. Last year, he played two…

Francesca Harper, Artistic Director of Ailey II, is back where it all began. She trained at the Alvin Ailey School, where her mother, Denise Jefferson, was director for 26 years. She has also choreog…

Ana Maria Campos is a Royal Academy of Dance teacher from Brazil. She has travelled widely and lived in several different countries – dance and dance teaching are wonderfully portable skills. As an R…

Raphael Ng began his career in the ballet studio – only to leap effortlessly into high finance. Based in Singapore, Raphael threw himself into ballet, contemporary and Chinese dance, taking part in i…

In this episode, we visit the Royal Academy of Dance’s global headquarters in London to meet its new chief executive – the ebullient Tim Arthur. Tim’s previous experience is dizzyingly varied – he ar…

Tiler Peck, one of the world’s great ballerinas, opens the new season of Why Dance Matters. The California-born dancer is a reigning star at New York City Ballet, where she has been a principal since…

Benjamin Zephaniah

In the last episode of this series of Why Dance Matters, we meet a poet – the resonant, rousing, heart-stopping Benjamin Zephaniah. Benjamin’s specific dance connection is that he’…

Dr Kathrina Farrugia-Kriel

Why Dance Matters has benefited hugely from encouragement and inspiration from Kathrina Farrugia-Kriel in the Faculty of Education at the Royal Academy of Dance, so it’s hi…

Jay Jay Revlon

Ballroom culture was celebrated in the tv drama Pose, set in New York during the 1980s and 90s. It originated in Harlem, where queer people of colour came together in act of self-expre…

Charlotte Edmonds

Unusually, Charlotte Edmonds began her career as a professional choreographer while still a teenager. The RAD spotted her talent for making dance when she was just 18: she was Commi…

Zack Frongillo

The Savannah Bananas is not what you might expect from a US baseball team; players break off to twerk, or do a TikTok challenge, and the Entertainment Director, Zack Frongillo, is a tr…

Dame Monica Mason

May you live in interesting times may be an ancient curse, but Monica Mason has voyaged through some very interesting times and places. She spent most of her career at The Royal Ba…

The opening guest in the new series of Why Dance Matters is a star among contemporary dance artists. Akram Khan is a dancer, choreographer, director and dreamer, whose work has shaped the internation…

In this episode, we meet dance royalty – Dame Darcey Bussell, who is President of the Royal Academy of Dance. Darcey has been a warm and inspiring figurehead for dance as an artform and for the RAD i…

Harper Watters is a highly accomplished dancer with Houston Ballet – but that’s not what got him noticed on social media. The combination of a quick-running treadmill in the gym and a pair of towerin…

On Why Dance Matters we enjoy meeting people whose work isn’t obviously connected to dance. As a teenager in California, Jordan Thomas was being groomed as a political fixer, but instead broke away t…

Twenty years ago, in the early hours of new year’s day, a young artist tumbled off the Eurostar, ready to begin a new life in London. Hofesh Shechter grew up in Israel but had been living in Paris, a…

With American ballerina Kathryn Morgan we cover some challenging subject matter – Kathryn’s journey through dance has clearly brought her joy but she has also had to deal with issues around physical …