NAC Dance with Cathy Levy

In this special podcast episode, Annabelle Cloutier, Executive Director of Strategy and Communications at Canada’s National Arts Centre, chats with Cathy Levy about her career at the NAC as Executive Producer of Dance. Over the course of her 22.5 years with the institution, she programmed 23 amazing seasons highlighting the depth and breadth of the world of dance. Cathy reflects on her love of the art form, the Canadian and international dance companies and artists that graced the NAC...

This episode of NAC Dance with Cathy Levy features a fascinating conversation with Wen Wei Wang, Artistic Director of Ballet Edmonton, choreographer, and NAC Associate Dance Artist. Born and raised in Xi’an, China, Wen Wei dedicated his life to dance at a very early age upon seeing the famous Chinese ballet The White-Haired Girl. He trained at the Langzhou Army School and the prestigious People’s Liberation Army Academy of Art. A five-month cultural exchange in Vancouver led him to return...

Cathy chats with internationally acclaimed dancer and choreographer Gregory Maqoma on the eve of the National Arts Centre presentation of Broken Chord, a work created in collaboration with composer and musical director Thuthuka Sibisi and inspired by the multi-media installation The African Choir 1891: Re-imagined. Gregory speaks of his upbringing in Soweto, a township of Johannesburg, South Africa, and how he channeled the trauma he experienced and witnessed through dance. Wanting to be...

Hope Muir became Artistic Director of The National Ballet of Canada on January 1, 2022, replacing Karen Kain who had served in this position since 2005. During her first NAC visit for the company’s February 2023 presentation of Romeo and Juliet, Hope spoke with Cathy Levy over the course of a public pre-show chat about how dance shaped her life and career, about her vision for and commitment to The National Ballet of Canada and being a female leader in the world of ballet.

Carleton University Professor Janne Cleveland and playwright Lawrence Aronovitch engage Cathy Levy in conversation about her exceptional 22 and a half-year career at the helm of the National Arts Centre Dance Department as she approaches the end of her term. The discussion touches on audience development, the collaborative nature of dance, the severe impact the COVID pandemic had on dancers and how the NAC and NAC Dance responded, and the fine art of programming. This ‘Next Stages’ podcast,...

Cathy Levy chats with Vancouver-based multi-dimensional performer, creator and educator Shay Kuebler about his performing arts influences and trajectory, his philosophy of life and movement, and the massive importance he attaches to education and building awareness and appreciation of creativity.

Cathy Levy chats with world-renowned Greek artist Dimitris Papaioannou on the eve of the North American exclusive National Arts Centre presentation of his new work Transverse Orientation. He speaks of his early years as a visual artist and student of the iconic Greek painter Yannis Tsarouchis, his introduction to the world of movement and the successes that led him to direct the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. He credits Claire Verlet with launching his...

In this special NAC Dance podcast, Cathy Levy (Executive Producer of Dance at Canada’s National Arts Centre), Nathalie Bonjour (Director of Performing Arts at Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre), and Jim Smith (Artistic and Executive Director of Vancouver’s DanceHouse) chat with Alan Lucien Øyen, one of Norway’s most exciting multi-talented and in-demand artists, about his art and bringing Story, story, die to Ottawa, Vancouver and Toronto in June 2022 as part of Nordic Bridges, a celebration of...

Mélanie Demers’s fascination with creation led her early on the path of the performing arts, eventually choosing contemporary dance. A successful decade-long dancing career with O Vertigo gave her the confidence to have her own company, tell her own stories, embrace chaos. She is adamant to militate with her art. She achieves this with beautiful and complicated collaborations that are wonderfully rewarding. Her conversation with Cathy Levy touches on her approach to choreography, how being a...

Dana Gingras, Artistic Director of Animals of Distinction and a boundary-pushing choreographer, chats with Cathy while her latest multimedia work FRONTERA is presented at the NAC. The conversation touches on how Dana’s formative years influence the nature of her artistic practice, her work with The Holy Body Tattoo, her love of music and collaboration with cultural icons and artists such as Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Fly Pan Am and the UK-based United Visual Artists (UVA), and the creation...

In this podcast interview, the incomparable Louise Lecavalier chats with Cathy about her initial encounter with dance, the guidance she received as a novice, and how Edouard Lock came to invite her to join La La La Human Steps where she performed for 18 years, revolutionizing dance and doing guest appearances with superstars David Bowie and Frank Zappa in the process. In 1999, she parts with the company to seek pleasure in new beginnings and embarks on a career interpreting works by Tedd...

The sublime Principal Dancer Greta Hodgkinson spoke with Cathy Levy in December 2019 on the eve of her retirement from The National Ballet of Canada following an extraordinary 30-year career with the company. Dance found her at a very early age and she credits Principal Artistic Coach Magdalena Popa, leading choreographers and the full range of classic and contemporary ballet repertoire offered to her for her artistic success. She talks about her pre-show ritual, her favourite ballet,...

Over the course of a fast-paced conversation with Cathy Levy, Helsinki-born Mikko Nissinen, Artistic Director of Boston Ballet, describes how he stumbled into dance and how a strong technique and infectious enthusiasm for the art form rapidly led him to soloist roles with The Finnish National Ballet, Dutch National Ballet, Basel Ballet and San Francisco Ballet. Having always aspired to be an artistic director, he assumed this position with Marin Ballet and Alberta Ballet before joining...

Guest host Lindsay Lachance, Artistic Associate with the National Arts Centre’s brand new Indigenous Theatre Department, chatted with Margaret and Andrew Grenier of the family-led Indigenous dance company Dancers of Damelahamid a few days before its NAC debut and world premiere presentation of Mînowin. Margaret explains how she grew up among the Gitxsan people of the Northwest coast of British Columbia immersed in the knowledge and practice of her family’s lineage and tradition. Aware of the...

Cathy Levy’s conversation with acclaimed Canadian contemporary dance performer, choreographer, master teacher and mentor Peggy Baker opens with memories of Wim Wenders and Pina Bausch. From there, Peggy speaks of her youth, her fateful encounter with Patricia Beatty, her professional dance career that brought her to Toronto’s Dancemakers and then to New York’s Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Mark Morris and the White Oak Dance Project. She returned to Toronto in 1990 to...

Cathy converses with internationally acclaimed, award-winning Vancouver dance artist Crystal Pite following the NAC opening night performance of Revisor, her most recent choreographic work co-created with Canadian actor/writer Jonathon Young. They touch on Crystal’s childhood aspiration to be a complete dance artist, her early choreographic career, the founding of her company Kidd Pivot in 2002 that united the dancer and choreographer in herself, and life-work balance. Crystal has created...

In this NAC 50th Anniversary podcast, Karen Kain, Artistic Director of The National Ballet of Canada, and Rex Harrington, Artist-in-Residence, both acclaimed former principal dancers with the company, share memories about performing at the National Arts Centre and during Karen’s farewell tour across Canada. Throughout her career, opportunities came to Karen through artists Rudolph Nureyev, Erik Bruhn, John Neumeier, Glen Tetley and Jiří Kylián and her exquisite performances were made all the...

Cathy Levy chats with Jean Grand-Maître, Artistic Director of Alberta Ballet, choreographer and recent recipient of the Order of Canada, about the full-evening portrait ballet Joni Mitchell’s The Fiddle and the Drum that will close the National Arts Centre 2018-2019 Dance season. Co-created with the iconic singer-songwriter —who celebrated her 75th birthday in 2018— the work, which addresses war and environmental neglect, was initially produced in celebration of Alberta Ballet’s 40th...

Cathy Levy leads a captivating conversation with Alonzo King the day of his company’s NAC presentation of SUTRA, an ensemble work created in honour of the 35th Anniversary of Alonzo King LINES Ballet. Born in Albany, Georgia, to a prominent 1960s civil rights family with ties to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, Mr. King learned early on the importance of aligning actions with beliefs. His natural love of movement led to a passion for dance and the eventual creation of his San...

Cathy Levy chats with NAC Associate Dance Artist Tedd Robinson, choreographer and artistic director of 10 Gates Dancing Inc, and composer Charles Quevillon on the eve of the NAC presentation and premiere of their latest creation Love & Other Things… a drama for flower, clay and bone. The two met in 2010 when Tedd was commissioned to produce a work for LADMMI and while Charles was at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal. They have since collaborated on over 20 works. The conversation...