Open Kwong Dore Podcast: Lindsay Fischer

[Helene]

If you've watched figure skating coverage for at least the last two Olympics, you've heard PJ Kwong's voice: she was the rink announcer in Vancouver and Sochi. She's a spectacular figure skating commentator; she does solo coverage of every skater at the World Championships on an alternate channel to CBC.

She's also an announcer/commentator for soccer, Modern Pentathlon, synchronized swimming, fencing, and, if I remember correctly, rugby or hurling or lacrosse or another bruiser sport, but her interests go much farther, and when she teamed with former skater Paul Dore to air a podcast series, she decided to expand into subjects beyond skating and sports, including media, performing arts, writing, and academia.

Episode 86 is Part One of a fascinating interview with former Dutch National Ballet and New York City Ballet dancer Lindsay Fischer -- he danced with Darcey Bussell in the Balanchine Celebration "Agon," on DVD -- who after retiring from dance worked for the National Ballet School. There he began a program to help students in the school transition into their professional careers, and he now is AD of the NBoC School's* YOU Dance program and the Director of the Professional Summer Dance at Banff.

http://www.openkwongdore.com/2014/08/11/episode-86-lindsay-fischer-part-one/

Kwong and Dore usually publish new episodes on Monday, and Part Two should be available this Monday, 18 August.

*See clarification below.

[Helene]

Here's the link to Part 2:

http://www.openkwongdore.com/2014/08/18/episode-87-lindsay-fischer-part-two/

[kbarber]

just to clarify, YOU Dance is a program of the National Ballet of Canada, not of the National Ballet School (which is a different organization)

[Helene]

Thank you for the clarification. I thought it was a school program.

[kbarber]

YOU Dance are the NBOC apprentices.

[Helene]

I haven't listened to part two yet; I'm sure he'll explain the program in this episode.

[mom2]

He does talk a little bit about the Apprentice program. In particular he mentions the audition process and the number of interested candidates they receive vs available positions.

Thank you again Helene for posting the links to these podcasts.

mom2

[Helene]

I finished listening late last night. Hundreds and hundreds submit videos and applications, and less than a hundred are invited to audition personally, to which others are added after being scouted. In the end, they're generally vying for three of seven spots, with the rest coming from the National Ballet School. He also talked about finding more interesting dancers from among the non-winners of competitions like YAGP.

I loved the part where he talked about watching Crystal Pite in the studio.