385. On the Job with Emily Kikta, New York City Ballet Dancer

Ali on the Run Show

Ali Feller

Run, Health & Fitness, Women, Inspiration, Runner, Entrepreneur, Sports, Fitness, Health, Running

4.9 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 15 June 2021

⏱️ 74 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

"The whole day revolved around dance. And that, to me, was the dream."

"When I'm onstage," Emily Kikta says, "no one can stop me." Emily is living every aspiring ballerina's dream: She's a corps de ballet member at New York City Ballet, where she has been a member of the company for 10 years. On this episode, Emily talks about her road to a Center Stage-like life. She grew up competing with her local dance studio, and went on to attend the School of American Ballet, which is the feeder school for NYCB. She talks about getting a job in the company, about her first performance onstage, and about how she keeps the magic alive onstage every night. She also talks about the pandemic's impact on the arts industry, and about how she and her fiancé (fellow NYCB member Peter Walker) turned to choreographing, directing, and producing during their forced time offstage. Plus, Emily talks about body image in the dance community, what a day in the life is like, and how she got into running during the pandemic.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	The On The Job Series on the Alley on the Run Show is brought to you by TrackSmith.
0:04.6	Go to TrackSmith.com and use code OnTheJob for free shipping plus 5% of your order will be donated to the Brave Lake Gabe Foundation.
0:13.8	Welcome to the Alley on the Run Show.
0:20.4	I'm your host Alley Feller and this is the On The Job Series where we hear from women who have cool, unique, interesting careers.
0:29.4	And, of course, these women are all runners, so in addition to hearing about what they do all day, we find out how running fits in too.
0:38.0	So far on season 5 of this series we've heard from casting director Ricky Gimelstop and Morning News host Joelle Tomlinson.
0:46.2	Today, we've got another woman who lives her life in the spotlight.
0:50.3	But this time, we are hitting the stage, one of the grandest stages in the world, in fact.
0:57.3	Today, we are headed to Lincoln Center, home of the New York City Ballet, to hear from professional ballet dancer Emily Kichta.
1:06.4	Emily's life is center stage, the greatest movie of all time.
1:10.3	She grew up in Pittsburgh, she was a competitive dancer, and then she moved to New York City to attend the School of American Ballet,
1:17.7	before officially getting hired at New York City Ballet.
1:21.1	Emily is obviously so talented, and when the theaters were forced to close at the onset of the pandemic last year, she and her fiance got creative.
1:30.1	They tapped their other talents, like choreographing and directing and producing and created these incredible videos to keep the masses entertained and the artists inspired.
1:42.0	I love talking with Emily, I mean obviously, you know I could talk dance stuff all day, every day.
1:48.0	And I appreciate Emily's willingness to talk about everything from her first time stepping on stage at Lincoln Center,
1:54.2	to getting into the comparison trap, to dealing with an eating disorder and body image struggles.
2:00.1	So please join me in welcoming New York City Ballet, Portaballet member, Emily Kichta, to the Alley on the Run Show.
2:07.9	Emily, I am so excited to have you here for the On the Job series on the Alley on the Run Show.
2:20.0	Everyone listening knows that the dance world has a very big spot in my heart, and it always will.
2:25.6	So thank you so much for being here and welcome to the Alley on the Run Show. How are you?
2:30.4	I'm good. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to chat today.
	...

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