Summary: <br> Today we are joined by Leslie Andrea Williams, chorus dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company. Leslie was born in Newport News, Virginia and grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina. She received her BFA from The Juilliard School. Ms Williams has danced in the Martha Graham Dance Company for six seasons. She performs numerous featured roles in iconic Graham ballets such as The Woman in White in Diversion of Angels and The Pioneering Woman in Appalachian Spring. Her most notable role has been performing the Lead in Chronicle— the first Black dancer to do so. Her performance recently earned Ms. Williams a mention in The New York Times’ “Best Dance of 2019” list. Ms. Williams’s work has been described as “hypnotic” and “larger than life,” and in 2016 she was named in dance magazine as a dancer “On the rise.” <br> <br> <br> <br> Today we talk with Leslie about her training, her transition to the Graham technique, and her time with the company.<br> <br> <br> <br> As a note: we wanted to let you know that we will be taking a short time off from Conversations on Dance due to other work commitments. This will be our last episode until the middle of November. We are hoping to make it up to you with some extra bonus content in November, so stay tuned. In the meantime, be sure to connect with us on social media @conversationsondance. <br> <br> <br> <br> One more note. During the editing process of this episode we realized we had some background noises that were not apparent to us while we were recording. While we tried to edit the episode as much as possible, we appreciate your patience with at home Zoom recordings. Enjoy the episode and we can’t wait to be back with you in November!<br> <br> <br> <br> This episode is brought to you by Yumiko (yumiko.com).<br>
