Gavin Larsen: "Being a Ballerina", Her Career That Keeps on Giving

In this episode of  “Dance Talk” ® with Joanne Carey,  join host Joanne Carey as she chats with Special Guest: Gavin Larsen, retired professional ballerina, author, writer and teacher.

Gavin sits down with Joanne and talks about her career as a professional dancer, a writer and a teacher. Together they also reminisce; sharing dance stories from Gavin's book: Being a Ballerina, The Power and Perfection of a Dancing Life , and her career. The beauty that is ballet is not only evident in Gavin Larsen's writing, but in her conversation and her ability to make her words dance.

Gavin Larsen, Born and raised in New York City, Ms. Larsen received her professional dance training at the School of American Ballet, the Pacific Northwest Ballet School and the New York School of Ballet. In 1992, she joined Pacific Northwest Ballet under the direction of Kent Stowell and Francia Russell, leaving the company in 1999 to join the Alberta Ballet, directed by Mikko Nissinen. In 2002, she performed with the Suzanne Farrell Ballet as a soloist at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. In 2003 Ms. Larsen joined Oregon Ballet Theatre as a principal dancer under artistic director Christopher Stowell. Over the course of her career, Ms. Larsen danced prominent roles in ballets by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, James Kudelka, Christopher Wheeldon and Paul Taylor, among others, and originated roles in numerous ballets. She retired from performing in 2010 to focus on teaching, coaching and writing about dance. She was a founding member of Incoroporamento, a collaborative trio combining dance, poetry, and music, producing several performances to critical acclaim. Ms. Larsen has taught and coached widely across the country and has been a guest teacher for schools in Japan and Canada. She has been a regular contributor for Pointe, Dance Teacher, and Dance Spirit magazines, and her essay “Why I Dance” appeared in Dance magazine in 2009. Her writing has appeared in Dance/USA’s In the Green Room, Oregon ArtsWatch, the Dancing Times, as well as the Threepenny Review, Page & Spine, and The Maine Review. In 2015 she was honored with a fellowship to the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation in Taos, NM, to pursue her work as a writer. Her memoir, Being a Ballerina: The Power and Perfection of a Dancing Life, was published by the University Press of Florida in 2021. She lives in Asheville, NC.

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Find out more about Gavin on her website

https://gavinlarsen.com/

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“Dance Talk” ® with Joanne Carey

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