WEBVTT - Steven Melendez on Opening Doors to Ballet 0:00:00.560 --> 0:00:03.720 Hey, hey, hey, hey, get us So Latino USA is 0:00:03.760 --> 0:00:07.880 celebrating thirty years today. In't that amos and we would 0:00:07.960 --> 0:00:10.879 love to hear from you. Dear listener. Do you want 0:00:10.880 --> 0:00:13.960 to share with us exactly what Latino USA has meant 0:00:14.000 --> 0:00:16.360 to you? Do you have a birthday wish for us? 0:00:16.840 --> 0:00:20.960 Leave us a voicemail at six four six five seven 0:00:20.960 --> 0:00:24.360 to one one two two four. That's six four six 0:00:24.880 --> 0:00:27.920 five seven to one one two two four, and we 0:00:28.040 --> 0:00:32.040 might feature your message in an upcoming show. Grass yas. 0:00:34.360 --> 0:00:38.320 Hi. I'm Fernandes Santo's editorya director at Futudo Media, and 0:00:38.400 --> 0:00:41.159 I'm so happy to be here with you, dear listeners, 0:00:41.159 --> 0:00:45.519 celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of Latino USA. Part of my 0:00:45.720 --> 0:00:48.200 job is to make sure that we continue to deliver 0:00:48.440 --> 0:00:51.120 these excellent shows that we bring to you every week 0:00:51.560 --> 0:00:56.720 for another thirty years or more. Happy anniversary, Latino USA. 0:00:58.480 --> 0:01:01.560 This is Latino USA, the radio journal of News and 0:01:01.720 --> 0:01:06.880 Court latin Us, La Latino Usa. I'm Maria INOJSA. We 0:01:06.959 --> 0:01:10.600 bring you stories that are underreported but that mattered to you, 0:01:10.720 --> 0:01:12.600 overlooked by the rest of the media, and while the 0:01:12.600 --> 0:01:14.920 country is struggling to deal with these we listen to 0:01:14.959 --> 0:01:18.520 the stories of Black and Latino Studient United Latino Front, 0:01:18.760 --> 0:01:23.080 a cultural renaissance organizing at the forefront of the movement. 0:01:23.800 --> 0:01:25.040 I'm Maria Ino Jossa. 0:01:28.240 --> 0:01:31.080 The truth is that I'm scared every day. Being the 0:01:31.120 --> 0:01:34.039 director of a ballet company is really hard. I had 0:01:34.080 --> 0:01:38.200 one director of another ballet company, a very important ballet company. 0:01:38.640 --> 0:01:40.520 He called me up after he'd heard the news that 0:01:40.560 --> 0:01:43.800 I was given this role, but all he said was 0:01:43.840 --> 0:01:48.760 my condolences. It's a lot of responsibility, but it's also 0:01:49.600 --> 0:01:53.080 for me at least, I feel the responsibility of being 0:01:54.160 --> 0:01:58.520 the artists in our community that are reflecting the community 0:01:58.520 --> 0:01:59.360 back at itself. 0:02:03.640 --> 0:02:07.480 From Futromedia and PRX, It's Latino USA. I'm Marie in 0:02:07.560 --> 0:02:12.360 Posa Today Stephen Melendez, dancer and artistic director of the 0:02:12.480 --> 0:02:16.480 New York Theater Ballet on opening the world of classical 0:02:16.600 --> 0:02:29.000 dance to new audiences. It's ten am at the New 0:02:29.040 --> 0:02:33.560 York Theater Ballet Dance Studio. The morning light filters through 0:02:33.560 --> 0:02:36.880 the stained glass windows that glow at one end of 0:02:36.919 --> 0:02:40.880 the room. On the other end is a huge mirror 0:02:41.200 --> 0:02:45.040 reflecting the twelve dancers in tights and leotards who are 0:02:45.080 --> 0:02:47.600 moving in unison to the pianos music. 0:02:47.919 --> 0:02:50.160 Let's try this from the same once more and really, 0:02:50.200 --> 0:02:52.960 really really endeavor. You have a tondo and this is 0:02:53.080 --> 0:02:53.760 with control. 0:02:54.960 --> 0:02:57.800 Stephen Melendez is teaching the class. 0:02:58.480 --> 0:03:00.560 But when you transfer your weight, you to your hips 0:03:00.560 --> 0:03:02.960 on your shoulders with you so that you can get 0:03:03.000 --> 0:03:03.760 up onto one leg. 0:03:04.360 --> 0:03:08.919 His attention to detail reveals that he's been dancing pretty 0:03:09.000 --> 0:03:13.120 much his whole life. 0:03:14.200 --> 0:03:15.040 Okay, all right, thank you. 0:03:18.200 --> 0:03:22.639 Stephen, who identifies as Afro Puerto Rican, started dancing through 0:03:22.680 --> 0:03:26.520 the New York Theater Ballet's free dance program when he 0:03:26.600 --> 0:03:34.880 was just seven years old, and he loved it. By fourteen, 0:03:34.960 --> 0:03:37.920 he was already a professional dancer with the ballet company, 0:03:38.360 --> 0:03:41.280 juggling rigorous training and school. 0:03:41.560 --> 0:03:43.960 I mean there were days when it's a whole curtain 0:03:44.040 --> 0:03:47.119 because I had a mid term. I mean, imagine that 0:03:47.440 --> 0:03:50.480 a company full of professional dancers waiting, and the curtain 0:03:50.480 --> 0:03:53.280 can't go up because Steven is doing his midterm in 0:03:53.320 --> 0:03:54.000 the dressing room. 0:03:54.200 --> 0:03:57.240 Stephen went on to dance around the world and lived 0:03:57.240 --> 0:04:02.000 in places like Argentina and Estonia, but then he decided 0:04:02.040 --> 0:04:06.480 to retire from full time dancing and began taking leadership roles. 0:04:08.680 --> 0:04:13.120 Now at thirty six. Stephen is the new artistic director 0:04:13.560 --> 0:04:17.359 of the New York Theater Ballet. It's a big deal. 0:04:17.760 --> 0:04:19.839 He's the second person to get the job in the 0:04:19.880 --> 0:04:24.359 company's forty four years. 0:04:23.200 --> 0:04:26.120 And three and two and one, and train two and want. 0:04:26.880 --> 0:04:32.400 As artistic director, Stephen trains dancers, curates the company's programming 0:04:32.760 --> 0:04:38.080 and commissions new work. Today, Stephen is going to talk 0:04:38.160 --> 0:04:41.800 about his journey and dance and how he's moved through 0:04:41.839 --> 0:04:48.080 the traditionally elite space of classical ballet. Here is Stephen 0:04:48.240 --> 0:04:55.200 Melendez in his own words. 0:04:56.240 --> 0:04:57.880 When I was little, I would get on the A 0:04:57.920 --> 0:05:01.400 six train. I grew up in the South bron and 0:05:01.920 --> 0:05:07.560 going down the hole at Hunt's Point was sort of 0:05:07.600 --> 0:05:10.359 one kind of reality. And then coming out of the 0:05:10.400 --> 0:05:12.599 train on thirty third Street and Park Avenue where the 0:05:12.600 --> 0:05:16.160 ballet studio was, was a very, very very different kind 0:05:16.200 --> 0:05:20.000 of reality. That train ride sort of became like a 0:05:20.000 --> 0:05:22.760 magic tunnel. Over the course of that thirty minutes or 0:05:22.760 --> 0:05:26.919 forty minutes, I sort of rebuilt myself so that I 0:05:26.920 --> 0:05:28.919 could walk out on Park Avenue with all the people 0:05:28.920 --> 0:05:32.160 that belonged to on Park Avenue, and I would hold 0:05:32.160 --> 0:05:34.520 my chest different and I'd look at people differently, and 0:05:35.000 --> 0:05:37.320 I'd sort of imagine and pretend maybe I'd go into 0:05:37.320 --> 0:05:41.040 the ballet studio surrounded by mostly white people, and then 0:05:41.080 --> 0:05:42.800 at the end of the day, at the end of 0:05:42.839 --> 0:05:45.880 ballet class or whatever rehearsals, I'd get back in the train, 0:05:45.960 --> 0:05:48.240 get back in the hole magic tunnel, and go back 0:05:48.279 --> 0:05:50.520 up to the Bronx and come out. And suddenly it 0:05:50.560 --> 0:05:53.200 was very different. I wouldn't look at people in the eye, 0:05:53.200 --> 0:05:55.240 and it just sort of keep to myself and keep 0:05:55.240 --> 0:06:02.480 my head down. I I think movement is really really interesting. 0:06:02.720 --> 0:06:02.880 You know. 0:06:02.960 --> 0:06:04.800 Of course I grew up dancing, and so I grew 0:06:04.880 --> 0:06:06.880 up studying the body and studying the way people move. 0:06:06.920 --> 0:06:12.320 But I think that dance is such a communicative language, 0:06:13.000 --> 0:06:16.280 probably the most communicative language we have as a society, 0:06:16.320 --> 0:06:19.960 and it surpasses geopolitical boundaries. I mean, you can see 0:06:19.960 --> 0:06:22.040 somebody move, doesn't matter what language they speak or where 0:06:22.040 --> 0:06:23.440 they're from, and you kind of know a little bit 0:06:23.440 --> 0:06:25.720 about them. You know, you can more or less guess 0:06:25.720 --> 0:06:28.960 their age, you can more or less guess their pride, 0:06:29.120 --> 0:06:32.839 And I think that's really magical. I've spent my life 0:06:32.880 --> 0:06:38.120 dedicating myself to understanding movement. It is really interesting to 0:06:38.160 --> 0:06:41.400 me to watch the way somebody from the South Bronx 0:06:41.480 --> 0:06:44.440 moves compared to the way somebody from Parking Avenue moves. 0:06:45.040 --> 0:06:47.080 And it has been really interesting in my life to 0:06:47.120 --> 0:06:50.800 try to change the way I mix in and out 0:06:50.800 --> 0:06:58.159 of different cultures. When I was seven years old, my 0:06:58.279 --> 0:07:01.440 family lived for about three years in a New York 0:07:01.480 --> 0:07:06.479 City homeless shelter, and we got there in a sort 0:07:06.520 --> 0:07:10.040 of roundabout way. My mother, a single mother, mad myself. 0:07:10.120 --> 0:07:14.000 My younger sister was to my memory at least a 0:07:14.120 --> 0:07:17.640 very successful person. She was a medical researcher at Mount 0:07:17.680 --> 0:07:21.400 Sinai Hospital. That doesn't change that she was a single mother, 0:07:21.560 --> 0:07:24.880 and that New York is expensive. And one day the 0:07:24.960 --> 0:07:27.640 landlord in the home where we lived, a private home 0:07:27.680 --> 0:07:29.800 in Rosedale section of the Bronx and I SA area 0:07:29.800 --> 0:07:32.080 in the Bronx, he passed away suddenly, I think he 0:07:32.080 --> 0:07:34.560 had a heart attack, and we were kicked out of 0:07:34.600 --> 0:07:37.480 the home sort of overnight, and we ended up in 0:07:37.480 --> 0:07:40.480 a homeless shelter. We stayed there for three years, and 0:07:41.200 --> 0:07:44.480 very very early on I was introduced to a woman 0:07:44.560 --> 0:07:48.080 named Diana Buyer, who was a director at that time 0:07:48.120 --> 0:07:51.160 of New York theater ballet, and she came into the shelter, 0:07:51.240 --> 0:07:53.680 She literally walked into the shelter and she said, I'm 0:07:53.680 --> 0:07:55.800 offering ballet classes to any kid who wants to come. 0:07:55.880 --> 0:07:58.920 Follow me. And my mother said, go follow that woman, 0:07:59.560 --> 0:08:03.119 and I did. And I had the most incredible, weak 0:08:03.680 --> 0:08:08.480 long workshop of ballet classes and lunch, reading books and 0:08:08.520 --> 0:08:10.720 all kinds of cool things related to dance and art 0:08:10.760 --> 0:08:13.800 in the ballet studio. And at the end of the week, 0:08:14.320 --> 0:08:16.840 I didn't think ballet was for me, but my mother 0:08:18.280 --> 0:08:20.680 she said I had to do it because she didn't 0:08:20.720 --> 0:08:24.040 have childcare and it was free. And so I was 0:08:24.040 --> 0:08:26.000 taking classes for a year, you know, once a week 0:08:26.080 --> 0:08:27.760 or twice a week. And at the end of the year, 0:08:27.840 --> 0:08:30.200 like every new young dancer, I was cast in The 0:08:30.280 --> 0:08:34.600 Nutcracker and I was casting the role of Little Mouse 0:08:34.640 --> 0:08:39.200 number two and I had a huge, huge mouse mask 0:08:39.280 --> 0:08:42.280 gone and a big fat suit for the mouse costume. 0:08:42.679 --> 0:08:45.840 And I was on stage for thirty seconds, maybe maybe 0:08:45.920 --> 0:08:48.920 a minute max a minute. But at the end of 0:08:48.960 --> 0:08:53.360 the performance I got to take a bow. And that 0:08:53.520 --> 0:08:56.920 was the most remarkable, incredible experience, going out on stage 0:08:56.920 --> 0:08:58.719 and taking a bow in front of four hundred twive 0:08:58.760 --> 0:09:02.720 hundred people, and I at the time was very confident 0:09:02.720 --> 0:09:04.640 that everybody was clapping for me. Of course, now I 0:09:04.679 --> 0:09:06.200 know that they weren't clapping for me, they were clapping 0:09:06.200 --> 0:09:08.880 for the professional dancers behind me. But it was so 0:09:09.520 --> 0:09:14.200 exciting the idea that I could do something and people 0:09:14.200 --> 0:09:16.360 would appreciate it. At that moment, I was hooked. That 0:09:16.480 --> 0:09:24.240 was the beginning of the end. I studied dance really 0:09:24.559 --> 0:09:28.360 seriously through the Lift program, which was the outreach program 0:09:28.360 --> 0:09:31.160 that Dana started with New York Theater Ballet. I was 0:09:31.559 --> 0:09:35.400 offered a spot in the Ballet Academy, and I joined 0:09:35.400 --> 0:09:38.000 the ballet company when I was fourteen. When I was 0:09:38.040 --> 0:09:41.040 a teenager, i'd wake up I don't know what time 0:09:41.040 --> 0:09:44.000 it was first period in public school, seven point fifty. 0:09:44.320 --> 0:09:46.080 I was coming from the Bronx, so i'd wake up 0:09:46.120 --> 0:09:49.160 with like five, get on the train at six thirty. 0:09:52.000 --> 0:09:57.400 I'd go to first period, which was usually something ridiculous 0:09:57.400 --> 0:10:01.280 like chemistry, calculus, or something really impossible to do at 0:10:01.320 --> 0:10:04.920 seven fifty in the morning, and then I'd leave school 0:10:05.000 --> 0:10:08.160 and I'd go to ballet class downtown for ten o'clock 0:10:08.280 --> 0:10:12.240 company class, and then on some days I would stay 0:10:12.360 --> 0:10:14.439 in the ballet studio and rehearse, and other days I'd 0:10:14.520 --> 0:10:17.720 go back to school or you know, a twelve thirty 0:10:17.840 --> 0:10:22.760 period where I'd do ridiculous things like literature or something 0:10:22.880 --> 0:10:25.880 really obscure and annoying that nobody wants to do there, 0:10:25.880 --> 0:10:27.240 at least that I didn't want to do. I much 0:10:27.280 --> 0:10:29.960 preferred staying in the ballet studio. And then I'd go 0:10:30.040 --> 0:10:33.120 back to ballet after school for rehearsal, and then i'd 0:10:33.160 --> 0:10:35.400 have another class in the evening, and I probably wouldn't 0:10:35.440 --> 0:10:38.560 leave the ballet studio until another seven thirty or eight 0:10:38.559 --> 0:10:41.920 o'clock at night, and then I had the trek home 0:10:41.920 --> 0:10:45.800 and the magic tunnel back to the Bronx, and I'd 0:10:45.840 --> 0:10:47.800 get home at nine o'clock so that I could start 0:10:47.840 --> 0:10:52.200 homework and do homework until ten thirty or eleven after eating, 0:10:52.679 --> 0:10:54.640 and do it all over again. And I did that 0:10:54.679 --> 0:11:00.280 for a really long time. Thirty years ago or a 0:11:00.320 --> 0:11:02.800 little bit more than thirty years ago, when Diana first 0:11:02.840 --> 0:11:06.040 started the LIFT program, she was really on the cutting 0:11:06.120 --> 0:11:09.199 edge of this kind of outreach work. But now thirty 0:11:09.240 --> 0:11:13.679 years later, my generation is graduating into positions of leadership, 0:11:14.280 --> 0:11:18.760 and it's now our responsibility to take up the flame 0:11:19.000 --> 0:11:22.400 and to do the work that the generation before me did. 0:11:22.920 --> 0:11:26.720 And the unique difference is that I have the opportunity 0:11:26.760 --> 0:11:29.120 to do the work from the perspective of someone who's 0:11:29.160 --> 0:11:33.920 lived it. The messenger matters equally as the message matters, 0:11:34.400 --> 0:11:36.360 and it means something different when I walk into a 0:11:36.400 --> 0:11:41.040 shelter saying I lived here, Come with me, then when 0:11:41.080 --> 0:11:44.200 Diana walked into the shelter and simply said, come with me. 0:11:47.120 --> 0:11:49.560 The thing that I'm realizing that maybe needs to change 0:11:49.559 --> 0:11:54.120 a little bit is the attention that we spend exclusively 0:11:54.400 --> 0:11:57.720 on children, but the adults that they go home to, 0:11:58.320 --> 0:12:00.720 they need to have their minds changed as well, so 0:12:00.760 --> 0:12:03.719 that they can participate in the new experiences that the 0:12:03.800 --> 0:12:06.920 kids are having. I love my uncle very much, but 0:12:07.679 --> 0:12:10.440 I remember when I was accepted to School of American Ballet, 0:12:10.440 --> 0:12:13.600 probably the greatest largest classical ballet school in the world, 0:12:14.320 --> 0:12:17.640 certainly in America, and his reaction to me was to 0:12:17.679 --> 0:12:20.560 sit me down on the stoop and to explain that 0:12:20.640 --> 0:12:22.440 he wanted to be sure that I didn't turn into 0:12:22.480 --> 0:12:25.000 one of them, and he was referring to the gay 0:12:25.080 --> 0:12:30.120 boys that were ballet dancers. And I remember that day 0:12:30.320 --> 0:12:33.120 so well that is the seared memory that I have 0:12:33.679 --> 0:12:36.720 of going home proud because I'd accomplished getting into school 0:12:36.760 --> 0:12:40.559 of American Ballet, and that was the reaction from my family. 0:12:41.440 --> 0:12:45.880 My mission now is to spend time targeting, in this case, 0:12:46.480 --> 0:12:50.959 new to dance audiences who are adult people, so that 0:12:51.240 --> 0:12:54.880 we affect generational change and make a generational impact from 0:12:54.920 --> 0:12:58.800 all angles whole. I don't know one hundred professional dancers, 0:12:58.840 --> 0:13:01.560 and ninety of them are going to tell you some 0:13:01.760 --> 0:13:04.800 version of I started a dance because my uncle, because 0:13:04.840 --> 0:13:07.720 my grandmother, because my mother, because my whoever showed me 0:13:08.360 --> 0:13:10.320 a dance on TV or brought me to the concert 0:13:10.400 --> 0:13:13.679 or was a dancer themselves. And the result of that 0:13:13.880 --> 0:13:19.960 anecdote is that dance maintains a sort of ancestral relationship 0:13:20.000 --> 0:13:25.080 with itself. It becomes a little ecosystem. If you're already 0:13:25.080 --> 0:13:28.160 in it generationally, then you're more likely to stay in 0:13:28.200 --> 0:13:31.120 it generationally. And if you're already out of it, it's 0:13:31.200 --> 0:13:34.600 very difficult to get in. And so if I can 0:13:34.640 --> 0:13:39.160 be successful at changing the makeup of the audience, the 0:13:39.240 --> 0:13:43.600 adult audience, then I think, secretly but not so secret, 0:13:43.640 --> 0:13:46.079 because I'm on the radio telling you right now, secretly 0:13:47.320 --> 0:13:50.600 I can change, ultimately the makeup of the people on 0:13:50.640 --> 0:14:02.160 the stage. I am really really driven on a for accessibility. 0:14:02.640 --> 0:14:08.120 Got a taxonomy of inaccessibility, and it includes economic and geographic, 0:14:08.320 --> 0:14:11.280 which are pretty straightforward. Things are too expensive and things 0:14:11.320 --> 0:14:14.880 are too far away. Then it includes things like cultural 0:14:14.880 --> 0:14:18.719 and intellectual. Sometimes something is inaccessible because it's not resonating 0:14:19.320 --> 0:14:23.120 with the community that it's supposed to be speaking at. 0:14:23.320 --> 0:14:27.200 And something like classical ballet with a long history of 0:14:27.320 --> 0:14:30.440 kings and queens and princesses and swans and whatever else, 0:14:30.760 --> 0:14:33.960 doesn't resonate with people who grow up in twenty twenty 0:14:33.960 --> 0:14:38.400 two in Harlem. That's just a reality. And there's no 0:14:38.440 --> 0:14:41.520 reason why we can't make new dances of and about 0:14:41.560 --> 0:14:44.560 the people today. And there's no reason why we can't 0:14:44.680 --> 0:14:47.880 contextualize the older master works that have been around for 0:14:48.000 --> 0:14:50.680 hundreds of years to explain to people why they're still 0:14:50.720 --> 0:14:55.680 relevant today. A lot of times, the dance industry, the 0:14:55.720 --> 0:14:57.960 performing arts, the fine arts, all the things that people 0:14:58.000 --> 0:15:00.840 consider elite up with that d quotes, the opera, the ballet, 0:15:00.840 --> 0:15:05.520 the symphony, all that stuff. They create systems where it's 0:15:05.520 --> 0:15:09.120 impossible for someone who doesn't know to figure it out. 0:15:09.720 --> 0:15:13.280 Simple things like the marketing and the branding of new ballets. 0:15:13.880 --> 0:15:17.160 When you advertise a new ballet by listing the choreographer's 0:15:17.200 --> 0:15:18.920 name and the name of the piece, well, if you 0:15:18.960 --> 0:15:20.440 don't know who the chographer is and you don't know 0:15:20.440 --> 0:15:22.000 the name of the piece, and that doesn't mean anything 0:15:22.000 --> 0:15:25.200 to you. The reviews the critics that talk only about 0:15:25.240 --> 0:15:28.120 the high level of technique that the dancers are employing 0:15:28.120 --> 0:15:30.560 to portray the characters. But if you don't know anything 0:15:30.560 --> 0:15:32.360 about dance, it doesn't matter to you if the dancer's 0:15:32.440 --> 0:15:34.880 leg is at ninety degrees or eighty nine degrees, or 0:15:34.880 --> 0:15:36.440 if they're turned out, or if they're turned in, or 0:15:36.440 --> 0:15:38.480 if they have the perfect quase line or the AFOs 0:15:38.520 --> 0:15:40.440 a line. These are just French words, so it don't 0:15:40.440 --> 0:15:43.080 mean anything. But the thing that everybody does understand, I 0:15:43.120 --> 0:15:50.560 think is the humanity and the storytelling. I'm really really 0:15:50.600 --> 0:15:54.320 interested in all of the ways that we can tell 0:15:54.400 --> 0:15:57.600 stories because I think that's what connects us. I think 0:15:57.640 --> 0:15:59.600 when I was younger, I was interested in that because 0:15:59.640 --> 0:16:03.520 it was a little bit of escapism for me. I'd 0:16:03.520 --> 0:16:06.120 go on stage with a new character and I could 0:16:06.160 --> 0:16:07.680 be that guy for a minute. I could be Prince 0:16:07.800 --> 0:16:12.360 Charming for three acts one night performing Othello. You'd go 0:16:12.360 --> 0:16:15.840 out there as Othello, and you could be really, really angry, 0:16:15.960 --> 0:16:17.320 you know, in a way that I would never be 0:16:17.320 --> 0:16:19.800 in real life. But on stage it was okay. In 0:16:19.840 --> 0:16:21.840 the classical ballet canon. You go out there and you 0:16:21.840 --> 0:16:23.800 can be a bird. You could be bluebird because I 0:16:23.800 --> 0:16:26.760 know who all those characters are. But knowing who I am, 0:16:27.040 --> 0:16:31.480 that's kind of scary. I think I'm knowing toward figuring 0:16:31.480 --> 0:16:38.760 that out. I never knew my father, except that he 0:16:39.600 --> 0:16:41.480 made it so that I didn't speak Spanish as a kid. 0:16:42.000 --> 0:16:46.840 And I heard a piece of music during the pandemic time, 0:16:47.280 --> 0:16:51.040 and it made me sort of nostalgic for this memories 0:16:51.720 --> 0:16:54.120 of having a father, but I never had a father. 0:16:54.160 --> 0:16:57.240 There were like daydreams that I was imagining, like you know, 0:16:57.360 --> 0:16:59.320 being on the bicycle and my father pushing it along 0:16:59.440 --> 0:17:02.000 or playing catch in the front yard or whatever, but 0:17:02.120 --> 0:17:04.920 I never actually had those experiences. And the music sort 0:17:04.920 --> 0:17:08.040 of compelled me to make this dance, and I thought, oh, 0:17:08.280 --> 0:17:10.880 I should make a dance about fatherhood. That'd be so cool. 0:17:11.600 --> 0:17:13.680 And then it occurred to me that if I did that, 0:17:13.760 --> 0:17:17.119 it would be a very myopic view of that relationship 0:17:17.160 --> 0:17:19.320 between a son and the father, because not everyone has 0:17:19.359 --> 0:17:21.400 my experience with a father, and who am I to 0:17:21.560 --> 0:17:24.119 make a dance that says, this is what sons and 0:17:24.119 --> 0:17:27.520 fathers are like? And so I decided instead that I 0:17:27.520 --> 0:17:32.800 would commission a series of ballets, all choreographed by different 0:17:33.040 --> 0:17:36.399 male artists, each one from a slightly different perspective, and 0:17:36.440 --> 0:17:39.639 each one a letter from that male artist to their father, 0:17:40.400 --> 0:17:44.720 and between the five or six or seven or eight pieces, 0:17:44.800 --> 0:17:48.439 over the course of many years, my hope is to 0:17:48.760 --> 0:17:52.920 prompt a dialogue in the public and the audience about 0:17:53.200 --> 0:17:56.840 the relationships plural that sons and fathers can have or 0:17:56.840 --> 0:17:59.720 should have or shouldn't have or have had. And I 0:17:59.760 --> 0:18:03.919 think it's uniquely relevant to tell these stories now because 0:18:03.960 --> 0:18:06.880 we're at an inflection point generationally, and I think if 0:18:06.880 --> 0:18:09.960 we don't have a ballet like what I'm proposing now, 0:18:10.560 --> 0:18:14.199 we'll end up talking to ghosts. And I think that 0:18:14.520 --> 0:18:19.240 dance is so nuanced that maybe actually we as artists 0:18:19.320 --> 0:18:23.120 can from the stage shed light on these other experiences 0:18:23.160 --> 0:18:26.439 that the world needs to hear about, and I need 0:18:26.440 --> 0:18:31.360 to hear about it now. The truth is that I'm 0:18:31.359 --> 0:18:34.960 scared every day. Being the director of a ballet company 0:18:35.040 --> 0:18:39.240 is really hard. I had one director of another ballet company, 0:18:39.320 --> 0:18:42.000 a very important ballet company, and he called me up 0:18:42.040 --> 0:18:45.080 after he'd heard the news that I was given this role. 0:18:45.720 --> 0:18:49.760 But all he said was my condolences. It's a lot 0:18:49.800 --> 0:18:53.919 of responsibility, but it's also for me at least, I 0:18:53.960 --> 0:18:59.000 feel the responsibility of being the artist in our community 0:18:59.440 --> 0:19:02.440 that are reflecting the community back at itself. 0:19:08.040 --> 0:19:12.000 That was Stephen Melendez, Artistic director of the New York 0:19:12.200 --> 0:19:36.879 Theater Ballet. This episode was produced by Julia Rocha and 0:19:37.080 --> 0:19:40.560 edited by Daisy Contreres. It was mixed by j J. 0:19:40.760 --> 0:19:41.240 Carubin. 0:19:42.040 --> 0:19:46.959 The Latino USA team includes Andrea Lopez Crusado, Marta Martinez, 0:19:47.040 --> 0:19:52.280 Mike Sargent, Victoria Estrada Rinaldo, Leanos Junior, Patricia Sulbrand, and 0:19:52.320 --> 0:19:57.080 Elizabeth London Torres. Our editorial director is Fernandes Santos. Our 0:19:57.160 --> 0:20:00.520 director of engineering is Steffaney Lebau. Our senior and is 0:20:00.600 --> 0:20:05.120 Julia Caruso. Our associate engineer is Gabriella Byez. Our marketing 0:20:05.200 --> 0:20:08.920 manager is Luis Luna. Our theme music was composed by 0:20:09.000 --> 0:20:12.320 Signet Rubinos. I'm your host and executive producer marieo Hosa 0:20:12.520 --> 0:20:14.840 join us on our next episode. In the meantime, look 0:20:14.880 --> 0:20:18.119 for us on your social media at Latino USA and 0:20:18.200 --> 0:20:21.600 remember lotoyas Bye. 0:20:23.119 --> 0:20:27.480 Latino USA is made possible in part by the Ford Foundation, 0:20:28.119 --> 0:20:32.120 working with visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide, 0:20:32.480 --> 0:20:36.639 the John D. And Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the 0:20:36.720 --> 0:20:43.120 Heising Simons Foundation, unlocking knowledge, opportunity, and possibilities. More at 0:20:43.359 --> 0:20:45.080 hsfoundation dot org. 0:20:51.400 --> 0:20:53.960 It's impossible, It's fun. Thank you.