dancersFAQ

In this special double-host episode, Wouter and Alix share their experience as "Corona-podcasters". How did they manage the lockdowns as freelancers? What made them start this new journey? What is it like to be juggling with dance and other passions? 

Fanny Rognone approaches asanas under her architect eye. While she was completing her teacher training, she launched a blog that became famous very fast and the family of B.K.S. Iyengar (an Indian guru) commissioned her to illustrate a book. A 3 years journey started...

While many people have trouble squatting, people from some cultures and demographics seem to find it easy and comfortable.

Is the deep squat impossible for me because I am from a different culture and background? Is it possible but it will take time? Is it possible but it will take generations? Tomislav English, a mover and researcher - who in 2015 founded Ferus Animi //Terra Nova movement research - will answer these questions by taking us through anthropological, cultural, biomechanical and philosophical knowledge and more.

Mentioned in this episode:
• flexibility and mobility
• ethnicity, physiology, anthropology and culture
• environment interaction
• technology
• neurosciences
• evolution
• sedentary lifestyle
• environmental tools
• biomechanical energy needs
• the stretch reflex
• skills and movements
• childhood and puberty
• postural integrity

Feeling like crying when your physio gives you a psoas stretch? That’s not surprising. Most of the time, this stretch feels really nasty and the psoas is known as the “emotion muscle”.

With Chloé Arnoux, an osteopath, yoga teacher and blogger based in Paris, you’ll get to know more about this muscle and how to pamper it. Nutrition, posture, balance between reinforcing and stretching… so many things enter into consideration!

Mentioned in this episode:
• warm up
• stretching
• Pilates
• Svadhisthana
• inguinal, umbilical and scrotal hernias
• crunches
• dance education

The French Cancan was a forbidden dance when the Moulin Rouge opened.

And when Charles Zidler and Joseph Oller opened this cabaret, they recruited the best Parisian performers and offered them a fortune to join the Moulin Rouge. Thierry Outrilla, the "living legend" of the Moulin, recruited 46 years ago, tells us about this phenomenal place, its dancers, its shows...

A special thanks to Alexia Pau and Fanny Rabasse who made the Moulin Rouge interviews' series possible.

Mentioned in this episode:
• Montmartre
• French Cancan
• Toulouse Lautrec
• Quadrille réaliste
• Celeste Mogador
• Charles Zidler and Joseph Oller
• La Goulue, Jane Avril, Valentin le Désossé
• Monsieur Clerico
• Cécile Sorel
• Casino de Paris
• Les Folies Bergères
• Liza Minelli

Feeling controlled by your hormones is not inevitable or a divine punishment. And, yes, painkillers or the pill are not the real solution.

Get to discover the natural functioning of a menstrual cycle, what is “normal” and what should make you change your habits and see a health practitioner. Understand what are your body mechanisms linked to fertility and give a chance to tune with yourself.

Siri.Kalla from Our Fertlity speaks to us in detail about the menstrual cycle and our inner-seasons. You will see that nothing happens “locally” and that the body works as a whole thanks to her knowledge in the Justisse Method (a symptothermal method of Fertility Awareness).

Enjoy!

Mentioned in this episode:

• period
• cervical mucus
• ovulation
• follicular phase / luteal phase
• menstrual bleeding
• menstrual health
• imbalance / disturbances
• menstruation
• estrogen / progesterone
• follicle
• corpus luteum
• fertile window
• infertile phase
• ovaries
• endometrium
• sexual hormones
• serotonin / dopamine
• neurochemicals
• uterus
• PMS
• cycle synch training
• holistic health
• Justisse Method
• SENSIPLAN

The idea that Martha Graham was suddenly revolutionary is a myth. It was a whole process.

Rafael Molina, a dancer, choreographer, writer and the founder of Graham for Europe will take us back to the birth of this dance in New York and through time and space in the steps of Martha and her disciples.

Mentioned in this episode:
• Denishawn
• Loïe Fuller
• Isadora Duncan
• American Modern Dance
• Louis Horst
• Movement Studies
• Bennington college
• Doris Humphrey
• Mary Wigman
• Juilliard
• The Ailey School
• floor work / standing work / going across the floor
• Graham technique
• Batsheva Dance Company
• London School of Contemporary Dance
• London Contemporary Dance Theatre
• Robert Cohan
• Rudra Béjart's School
• Jerusalem Dance Academy
• Kibbutz Dance Company
• Ohad Naharin
• LaGuardia High School

Giving birth is like sex, it's an intense and pleasurable experience. That's how Shirley Pavlik, a nurse and the founder of the WanderWomen Clinic (based in Haifa, Israel) feels about birth.

After a traumatic experience in hospital and loosing confidence in the medical establishment, she chose to empower herself with knowledge about the body and self-connection. She got to understand the reproductive functions of the body, tuned in with her menstrual cycles, and embraced her inner-seasons. Fertility awareness was the starting point of this journey toward her life changing experience.

Get to know her whole orgasmic birth stories in this episode.

Enjoy!

Mentioned in this episode:
• fear of the medical establishment
• Fertility Awareness
• Natural Family Planning
• cervical mucus, cervix and basal body temperature
• menstruation
• menstrual cycle
• SENSIPLAN
• symptothermal method
• contraception
• sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight) / parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest)
• mucus plug
• nipple stimulation
• water birth
• oxytocin surge

Breaking a vicious circle happens most times when you hit rock bottom. What if we weren’t waiting for that and educating ourselves as soon as possible? It’s one of the messages that I got from my exchange with Frey Faust, the founder of Axis Syllabus.

He danced for several iconic choreographers such as Merce Cunningham, Daniel Ezralow, Stephen Petronio and Meredith Monk but felt that something was wrong as a lot of dancers around him were getting injured and as he was feeling more and more pain throughout his career. But, he still had to reach the point of not being able to walk to dive into the scientific findings of the study of the human body and movement in order to find a better way of training and moving.

Discover Frey’s story in this episode.

There are physical techniques to create space in your pelvis for a faster, smoother and easier birth.

Ginny Phang - from Four Trimesters Birth Sanctuary in Singapore - gives us some precious information about pregnancy routine and how to prepare physically and mentally for labor and delivery when you are a dancer/athlete. Make sure you head to our Instagram account @dancersfaq in order to access the videos recorded during this interview.

Thinking about having a baby? Pregnant? Due very soon? This episode is for you! Don't forget that alignment and misalignment of the pelvis work on a weekly basis!

Fusion of ballet and hip hop is so cliché! Girls on pointes + b-boys turning on their heads.

From my point of view, fusion is like scrapbooking or making a collage, you mix and match steps, music or expressions from different styles but you don't really create anything genuine. Creating a brand new language, inspired from different disciplines, is really challenging and much more interesting.

In this episode, Joseph Simon tells us about his dance and choreographic research called Ballet Fantasies.

What is contact improvisation?

You can find contact improvisation jams nearly wherever you go.

What is this style gathering movers from so many different background (martial arts, dance, circus, yoga...)? Irene Sposetti, a dancer/teacher for over 20 years enlightens us on this subject. In this episode, she discusses the topics of movement research, cultural adaptation, gaze and intimacy. 

If you want to develop your improvisational skills, access and refine your intuition, empower your creative imagination and connect to fellow movers, this style could be for you!

Repetition will make you master a particular skill.

Tina Afiyan Breiova, a performer/teacher, keeps on putting her beginners' shoes on, diving into new movement practices. She believes that people can get a richer range of possibilities in their movement and develop their athletic skills by getting out of their comfort zone on a regular basis and working across disciplines.

Get to know her point of view on traditional repetitive training and her advice to get better at what you do.

Most of us grew up in a world where Barbie dolls and pink toys were for girls and plastic swords and blue toys were for boys. This binary way of thinking has been affecting the classical dance industry for decades.

Landing from a jump must be trained consciously. A lack of technique, bad habits and anatomical limitations can predispose to injuries such as fatigue fracture.

Santiago del Valle, a physiotherapist and the founder of Corporis Fabrica (physiotherapy and body disciplines center in Paris) explains why it is so important to put our heels down when we jump.

If you are curious about the foot physiology and/or classical ballet, this episode is for you!

Being a drag queen is not only about hyper femininity and female glamour standards.

Sascha aka Absinthia Absolut is a bearded queen with glittery lips from Berlin. He shares here how his life switched after attending a RuPaul's drag race screening.

Becoming a drag queen made Sascha become his true self, embracing the multiple facets of his personality. He could dance freely, not being judged but only admired. He could be at the centre of the attention, performing in an ocean of mesmerising lights. He could be Sascha and Absinthia at the same time, not choosing one gender only but mixing both and reinventing the rules of drag culture. In fact, he did not choose to put an emphasis on hyper femininity, shaving his arms and looking for female glamour standards, he kept his beard, put on a pair of high heels and asked his first audience: "Give me all your luvin'".

What's your story, a dancersfaq program where amazing people share their story.

The cryotherapy, cold shower and ice bathing craziness explained by Daniel Ruppert, a mover and Wim Hof Method instructor.

In this episode you will find evidence based information and understand why the cold therapy combined with breathing exercises and commitment can take your career to the next level ; enhancing your creativity and increasing your performance.

It’s not always easy to be confronted to negative feedbacks from your audience, your fans or those close to you BUT there is a way of being prepared for it and not letting yourself be destabilized.