Welcome to the waves, Slate's podcast about gender, feminism, and a maestro without equal.

Every episode you get a new parapeminess

to talk about the thing we can't get off our minds.

Today you've got me, Rebecca Onion, a senior editor at Slate.

And later in the show, I'm going to be joined by Erica Lance, a reporter and

producer who just put out the second season of her podcast The Turning. This one has

the subtitle Room of Mirrors. In the U.S. there is ballet before George Balanchine and

ballet after George Balanchine. Balanchine grew up dancing for the czar in

Russia. He survived the Russian Revolution.

He turned classical ballet into something new. This is a show about the choreographer George Balanchine

who died in 1983.

But not really.

It's really a show about the women who worked with him

as ballerinas.

And how that work, which demanded a level of devotion

people who aren't ballerinas like me always find

absolutely fascinating. It's really beautiful has a really great music and a good

vibe. Can't wait to talk to Erica about how she managed to pull this off. We'll be back after the break.

This is the story of a young woman who disappeared.

She cut ties with all of her family and friends,

apparently because of one woman, a kind of therapist and the extraordinary things she led

her client to believe.

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