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[0:20] Bryan Plovski: Hello and welcome to the official Broadwaysted podcast where we're drunk on theater. I'm your host, Bryan Plovski, and meet me at the bar. I'm joined by my bot ma and pa for vodka in martini glasses and coupe glasses. But I want you to join me. Pliés, bring birthday balance, we'll spill the jet, and when we hit our PK, we'll go around and play Pada Doo and Pada Don't. We'll either have a grand old time or susu. Then we'll clean with a vacuum or uh how do you say ouvert? But what's the point? Avengers Assemble. Joining us today.

[1:03] Kevin Jager: Wait, that was the best opening you've ever written. Ever. Ever, ever, ever. Oh my god, I'm crying.

[1:12] Kimberly Cooper: I would crash this over your head. Would you all of you like me to spell all of those words for you?

[1:19] Bryan Plovski: No. Incredible. Johnny Sawyer. Tony Sawyer, everybody. Tony Sawyer, we laughed. If that makes it happen to me once in my life, I've done nothing. Like I walk into the lobby of a theater where everyone performed, but somebody says Kenajager, everyone.

[1:44] Bryan Plovski: Um well, joining us today are the usual first, second, third, fourth, and fifth swans, who I'm quite fondue of, including Kevin Nutcracker Jager. Kimberly, our turnout for what game master. What a name. Oh my god, I want to see a ballet where they change it from turned out for what to turn out for what? It's just ballet. That Cooper Nielsen would choreograph that.

[2:18] Kevin Jager: Yes.

[2:20] Bryan Plovski: And with us today are our restless creatures. Let's give a big, but not in a sad way, not in a sad way. Let's give a big Broadwaysted welcome to friends of the show. Friends of the show. Hayley Podschun and Aaron J. Albano.

[2:39] Hayley Podschun: You all ready for this?

[2:41] Bryan Plovski: And like that Kevin's trying to make sure his arms are in frame. So that's the same thing. So today we're at the ballet. But before we start, what are you drinking? What are you drinking? Kevin, what are you drinking?

[3:02] Kevin Jager: I have tequila and orange juice because I just okay. Yeah. That's what I usually drink.

[3:12] Aaron J Albano: I am alternating between my cab salve as normal as my bar dog cab salve as normal and my Ariansata Rosa, San Pellegrino, because I'll be taking bites of leftover pizza once in a while.

[3:28] Bryan Plovski: But I'm not talking. Cool. Where did you order it from, Aaron? Erin, what like local establishment are you ordering pizza from?

[3:36] Aaron J Albano: This really like small local place called Domino's.

[3:40] Bryan Plovski: Oh Minos. Domino's. Dominos. Oh god. I flipped you. Never mind. I'll do that later. Did you get the Philly cheesesteak pizza? Because it's amazing.

[3:47] Aaron J Albano: Okay, fairs. I'll get it later. I got this one right now, but I'll get it later.

[3:54] Kimberly Cooper: I have a lacrema Chardonnay from the fridge of Gail Cooper.

[4:00] Bryan Plovski: Lovely. Perfect. I have the tiniest sip of white wine left just to finish out the bottle. But then I'm going to be moving on to grapefruit bubbly.

[4:11] Kevin Jager: Oh, nice. I also have a seltzer at the ready.

[4:14] Kimberly Cooper: Ah, so look at us. Same. Well, and I'm done. So again, like Kevin, I found this Waterloo in the ABBA section of uh Whole Foods. Um, but I'm drinking that mixed with um some tequila in my wicked cup.

[4:32] Aaron J Albano: Oh, I have my New York City Center cup.

[4:34] Kimberly Cooper: Oh, nice. Bless. Um, well I have a cup from Silver Oak Winery. Not the most appropriate of my show cups for uh this evening's discussions. The New York City Center Cup.

[4:46] Bryan Plovski: No, it is. There's um that's the building that you see in Restless Creature, the City Center building, where all of those ballerinas get their PT.

[4:57] Kimberly Cooper: Oh it's perfect. Yes, yes, I did perfect. I knew that. Well, great segue into this was Hayley's week to choose our films, and we watched some very um, this is my opinion, we'll get to everyone's, but some a spectacular week in terms of what we were watching and how they related to each other. Um, and so Hayley, take it away.

[5:20] Hayley Podschun: Well, as PYT says so, our three choices this week. Can you hear me over there? Beautiful background. This is great. So our three choices this week were first position was Center Stage, second position was Restless Creature, and for our Patreon members, we went way back with Billy Elliot.

[5:53] Bryan Plovski: Yeah, yeah. Okay, I'm gonna stop that now because all I want to do is sing and do some um dancing. Really, I want to be with you, but only I'm missing all of you like candy.

[6:09] Kimberly Cooper: So good. So to start off, um, we are first going to start off with Center Stage. Um, let's start with had you guys seen this before, Bryan.

[6:22] Bryan Plovski: No, this was my first experience. I have a huge gap in my movie. My I'm a movie nut, blah blah. What were you doing in 2000?

[6:31] Kevin Jager: I was I I have a huge gap in um high school dance films. Um, I have never seen Save the Last Dance. I haven't terrible. I have never seen this before. Now I have.

[6:43] Bryan Plovski: I have named some other ones I've probably never seen.

[6:45] Kevin Jager: Which one was Save the Last? I mean, those are the movies. Julia Styles.

[6:48] Bryan Plovski: Julia Styles. Is she auditioned for Juilliard? And like she's like a rock ballet dance at the end.

[6:54] Kevin Jager: So I have seen the rock ballet dance. Jimmy has showed me that on YouTube. That's the only thing I've seen. A girl in my high school did that exact choreography dance for the talent show and came in second place.

[7:08] Bryan Plovski: Good for her. Wow. Wow, wow. What I've seen in that YouTube video, it was probably better. But no, I've never seen Center Stage. Um just never.

[7:20] Hayley Podschun: Wow. I have seen Center Stage more times than I could probably count. I owned it on DVD. It was in heavy rotation at the sleepovers. Oh, yes. And then I feel like it took a gap when like it wasn't streaming for a long time. And then all of a sudden it was streaming, and then we there were so many watch parties as soon as it was on Netflix. So I could quote you, probably start to finish this film.

[7:51] Kevin Jager: I saw this movie when it came out, and then I never saw it again. So I saw it once in high school in like 2000, and then never saw it again. But I think that was because that was like 2000 was like freshman year, soft freshman sophomore year, Kevin. And so like he was like leaning hard into the butch thing. So like I think I saw it and then was like, I loved that too much. I can't ever watch that again.

[8:16] Hayley Podschun: Sure.

[8:19] Kevin Jager: But it was incredible watching. I just say it was incredible to watch it again because now, like when I watched it, I lived in Florida. I had never been to New York City before, at the time of seeing this movie. So seeing it now, like Lincoln Center is one of my favorite parts of the city. So to see some of the places, and I was like, I know where that is, I know where that is, I know where they are. It's really good for the whole time. They do a decent job of like keeping it as accurate as possible.

[8:42] Hayley Podschun: Yeah, they really do.

[8:44] Bryan Plovski: Yeah, they're all they say they are.

[8:47] Aaron J Albano: I watched this in the theaters as well when it first came out. Get this. Straight Aaron saw this in the movie theater.

[8:56] Bryan Plovski: What? Not gay Aaron.

[8:59] Aaron J Albano: Straight Aaron saw this in the movie theater. What did Straight Aaron think about this?

[9:03] Bryan Plovski: Oh, he was living because Straight Aaron was still like three years into dance at that point.

[9:08] Aaron J Albano: Okay. But he just liked like all the girls because they were they were cute or whatever. Who knows? Who knows what his reasoning was? But I remember him, him and I were gagging at the at the um Charlie. At the battle at the at the Charlie Charlie Cooper battle in the middle of the rehearsal room to the point where Straight Aaron exclaimed whatever the Northern California equivalent to Fierce was and made the entire movie.

[9:41] Bryan Plovski: Would that be wicked? I don't know.

[9:42] Aaron J Albano: Hella close closer to Hella than whatever. But like made the entire theater movie theater laugh at me.

[9:53] Bryan Plovski: And did you think that like one day you would fight that hard for a girl?

[9:59] Aaron J Albano: Um I mean not too soon after Straight Aaron disappeared. So you know the details.

[10:08] Aaron J Albano: So I saw it twice in theaters when it first came out. And I think since then I've watched it probably once a year once a year.

[10:16] Bryan Plovski: Um that's consistency.

[10:18] Aaron J Albano: I mean it's I there might be a year or two in between that it might not come up, but oh lord, it's so good to revisit. Um and the whole reason I chose this theme was because I just wanted to watch Center Stage.

[10:35] Bryan Plovski: And I thought it'd be fun for us to talk about it. And then yeah, so anyway, this film, and it is a film, this film came out May 12th in 2000. It stars Amanda Scholl of the San Francisco Ballet, Zoe Saldana with her, I believe this was her film debut.

[10:54] Kevin Jager: Yes.

[10:55] Aaron J Albano: Ethan this is before um what was that other movie we watched?

[10:59] Bryan Plovski: Crossroads.

[11:00] Aaron J Albano: Get over it.

[11:01] Bryan Plovski: Get over it. This is before you get over it.

[11:05] Kevin Jager: Yeah.

[11:06] Aaron J Albano: And before Crossroads were crossroads. Brittany Spears.

[11:08] Bryan Plovski: Brittany. This is kind of like a Zoe Zaldana podcast.

[11:18] Aaron J Albano: Also starring Ethan Stiefel, I think that's how Stefel stifled of ABT, Sasha Retetsky of ABT, Peter Gallagher, Donna Murphy, Deborah Monk. But we also have to talk about the other amazing stars who are in this Julie Kent of ABT, Lisa Laguillo of Assistant Director of Wicked, Warren Carlisle, my love choreographer, director Extraordinaire, Priscilla Lopez, Jim Borstelman, Joanne Hunter. I mean the list goes on and on and on. And I could talk about more, but I won't.

[11:50] Hayley Podschun: Can we so I know Warren was like the dance assistant for Cooper? I saw that. I know when Priscilla Lopez came out I absolutely gagged because I remembered like I remember little lines from this because this was a very quotable movie at the time, especially with theater kids. So at the time I mean it's still a hundred but like we were all doing that a lot when it first came out like the part of my friend the dance the blank out of it, like when she yells at them for Lopez. Like it was just like I didn't realize it was Priscilla Lopez until this viewing, and I was like, oh my God.

[12:24] Bryan Plovski: But who are the other people you were naming? Like the ballet names? Like, because I didn't know from watching this movie who was a professional dancer and who was an actor. I had some guesses, but like who would you guess?

[12:36] Hayley Podschun: Who was professional? And who would you guess was an actor first?

[12:40] Aaron J Albano: So the straight the people who are straight up actors are Jody Sawyer and Eva Rodriguez and the three main girls. Jody Sawyer, Eva Rodriguez, and um uh Maureen Maureen is Maureen's an actress.

[12:59] Hayley Podschun: Like I think she got into act more than anything else she tried to do in this movie. But um, those are the three actors. I think that all of the the uh Eva's best friend who pulls a bobby and hurts himself. Oh he's I'm guessing he's an actor, and then the rest are just all dancers.

[13:20] Aaron J Albano: Is that true true?

[13:22] Hayley Podschun: So Amanda Scholl, who plays Jody Sawyer, she is a ballerina. danced for San Francisco Ballet. She was found a bad pronoun. Uh yeah, ish. I mean, I don't want to say like yes or no, but like you can, and this is coming from someone who doesn't have great, like I don't have the best feet, but like you can see her feet compared to other ballerinas. Talking about like the final ballet, like you can just tell like her feet isn't comparative to like Wendy Wayland's feet, you know, what we're gonna talk about in the future.

[13:58] Hayley Podschun: Like she is a vast difference. Um, so yeah, but ballerina. She is a ballerina. Zoe Zaldania had ballet training, which is why her like Porta Bras is so beautiful. Um she's got a yes, porta bras where you're moving your arms and all this goodness. Um, but she did have a dance double, and then the girl who played Maureen, forgive me. Thank you. Um, she is not a dancer, and she had a dance double for everything.

[14:32] Aaron J Albano: You mean Mandela from 10 Things I Hate About You?

[14:35] Hayley Podschun: Yeah, exactly. She just played the mean girl in every movie because she was the mean best friend in Drive Me Crazy.

[14:42] Aaron J Albano: Yeah.

[14:43] Hayley Podschun: Who steals them, like tries to steal the boyfriend. Like, she was just like the not nice girl in like every movie. I mean it's that thin that she looked like a ballerina. Yeah, collect that check.

[14:54] Aaron J Albano: Yeah.

[14:57] Hayley Podschun: So um, I just thought it was fun. Um, one other like fun fact is well, I have actually have a lot of fun facts. Um I don't know. Do you guys want to hear the facts or do you want to just chat about how you feel about it?

[15:09] Bryan Plovski: Let's talk about it. I'm sure you can have some facts that as we talk.

[15:14] Hayley Podschun: It's a perfect movie.

[15:18] Bryan Plovski: Film, it's a film.

[15:20] Hayley Podschun: It's a perfect film. I mean, at least was nominated for best picture, right?

[15:24] Aaron J Albano: Yeah, uh-huh.

[15:25] Hayley Podschun: Totally. It swept all categories.

[15:27] Bryan Plovski: It won all 24 awards that yeah.

[15:30] Aaron J Albano: All 24.

[15:31] Hayley Podschun: Okay.

[15:39] Kevin Jager: Charlie.

[15:40] Hayley Podschun: Charlie.

[15:41] Kevin Jager: Charlie.

[15:41] Hayley Podschun: Charlie is a dancer, correct?

[15:43] Aaron J Albano: Yes.

[15:44] Hayley Podschun: And they basically told Charlie, you're this guy. And then he was like, Great. So I say every line like that. So like every line he had was just like, I'm the nice guy with an edge. Like some of these people I felt like they were told their archetypal character. And that's what they were doing.

[16:01] Hayley Podschun: Well, I think. Well, it's also early 2000s, and archetypal characters, I think were very heavy in the movies that were coming out.

[16:08] Aaron J Albano: Oh, true.

[16:09] Hayley Podschun: That's real. There was no nuance here. I know about that. Because like Maureen's fights with her boyfriend are the best. Like when she's like, I'm talking like this. Like it's like this like gruffness, it's just like it's like cartoonish almost in a sex, but who are you?

[16:24] Aaron J Albano: Nobody.

[16:25] Hayley Podschun: Nobody. Well, the movies. So as a first-time viewer, this movie is a is weird in I liked it a lot. Like I'm gonna yell at your best friend as soon as we're done because he has seen this movie many times. Oh, this just like this is just not in my wheelhouse of things I watch, which is fine. Um I had a great time watching it. We I really enjoyed it. Um I thought it was very interesting. This movie, it works in like spurts, in that all of a sudden, like part sections of the movie, nothing is is done parallel in a way.

[16:59] Aaron J Albano: A lot of this movie is like done.

[17:03] Hayley Podschun: Yeah, exactly. Um a lot of this is done in a is done in a weird way, and that like I had no investment in whether she chose Cooper or Charlie because the movie had no investment in that. And but but the ending makes it seem like it's a bigger deal. I'm wondering if things got cut along the way or whatever the case may be. But I never ever, ever, ever felt um one Cooper's a douche. So like obviously, you knew that was gonna happen and all that, and I thought she handled it pretty well as as things go. Um, but like the Charlie characters trying to be made, like Kevin said, into this like this like cool, suave, like bad boy hero who's like always on her side. And like I just had no, I didn't care about that because the movie is so much about the dance and ABT and all of that.

[17:50] Bryan Plovski: Yeah, that like the other stuff was felt like it was it was wedged in there just because it was this type of movie in the early 2000s, when the real for me, the draw of this film, especially because I watched this after Restless Creature. So I was I had a very different eye for this movie because I had literally just watched that earlier that day.

[18:12] Hayley Podschun: Okay. So jumping off what Brian said, I feel like like the final ballet, we we all gag over that. It's so much fun. It's so ridiculous to think that those costumes makeup and hair changes are even remotely possible in a live, it's live. Like it's just the way it just goes, you're just like, yep, uh-huh, perfect. That's my favorite thing in the whole movie when she like dips.

[18:37] Aaron J Albano: Yeah, she's like this, she's like this.

[18:39] Hayley Podschun: Yeah, literally, like the way that would have worked is like she would have lit where the entire four. Changes point shoes, her hair is in cornrows, she's got totally different makeup, completely different Leotard. They no longer care that we're like you know uh supposed to be a live performance. They're just like, we're making a movie, let's do this, they'll go with us.

[19:02] Aaron J Albano: Yeah, it's fun. Like the entire point of that ballet is she doesn't need either guy.

[19:08] Hayley Podschun: Right. It's awesome message, and it's such a beautiful, which makes the dance so powerful, and she's in a red dress, and she's like, I'm doing this for me, like I'm working, like I'm living my life. Like, like it's so great. So, like the movie would have had a more powerful ending, and I still love it because like I swoon because it was the 2000s, so it's perfect, but like maybe a more like timeless lasting ending would have been her, like being like, No, Cooper, but I'll take the job in your company, and then to that guy when he's hitting on her, she'll be like, I'm going to this place, you're staying in New York, so like be proud of what you've achieved, and I'm proud of what I achieved.

[19:43] Aaron J Albano: So, so you mean like more of like a power to her character, and so that's sort of what happened though, but she did, but then she's exactly what she did, but then she kisses him, and it's all like yeah, but then she's moving to San Francisco, and she goes to yours.

[19:57] Hayley Podschun: No, I know, but it's it just makes her. I feel like with the kiss at the end that's forced in, it just makes it like, and you have to have a romance too.

[20:05] Aaron J Albano: I see what you mean.

[20:06] Hayley Podschun: Like, it would have been like I will say, based on what Kevin said, I don't I don't know if I realized this until right now, but even though I was like hot or cold about Cooper as we go through this, because he's like really he's heavy on the smarm early on, but like I was I forgave him for a lot of what he did because of how progressive his dance was in its theme and what it says at the end. Because like it seemed like a person like him being smarmy would like have him win because he's playing himself, even though that was not his intention to play himself, but then like in the end, she kind of chooses dance as opposed to either of them in the actual piece, and I just thought that was so open-minded and super cool of a character that Cooper was set up to be to actually choreograph that way, and it really I yeah, and and that is why I believe she would join her his troop, because it not just because he was a good choreographer and like and choreographed to her, I also think that's the sexiest term choreographing on somebody or to somebody.

[21:10] Hayley Podschun: Um but like that, like that is a little like thing that the movie does that truly won me overall. It's almost as if a woman choreographed that dance.

[21:20] Aaron J Albano: Oh, but wait, she did. Her name is Roman.

[21:25] Hayley Podschun: Oh, which is why in the jazz class you see the entire cast of contact because contact was happening during the time and they rehearsed some stuff at Lincoln Center in the in all of those studios, obviously.

[21:42] Aaron J Albano: So we choreographed that ballet.

[21:44] Hayley Podschun: Yes, do you not read the credits?

[21:47] Aaron J Albano: No, I think no.

[21:48] Hayley Podschun: The credits start and I get something to eat.

[21:52] Aaron J Albano: She also choreographed that jazz class.

[21:57] Hayley Podschun: That my college professor was in, and when we all found out that he was in that part of center stage, we all like got together and like ordered pizza and watched it and just kept yelling, Julio, Julio, like 100%.

[22:08] Aaron J Albano: I had the same, I did a summer program at ABT, and um my teacher Kirk Peterson told us that, and he is the male ballet teacher in this film. So whenever he's there's a male ballet class and he's like, good Charlie, that was my ballet teacher for a little bit. So sassy, I loved him.

[22:27] Hayley Podschun: Is he the same? And that location, maybe not like the interior, but when they're in the window, yeah, that's the old Broadway dance center that used to be above the hard rock cafe on 57th Street instead of where it is now on 45th Street between it and Mike.

[22:44] Aaron J Albano: Okay, there was so much space, so much more space to stand on 57th Street.

[22:49] Kevin Jager: I have some questions.

[22:51] Hayley Podschun: Yes, Kevin.

[22:54] Kevin Jager: My first question for Brian.

[22:56] Hayley Podschun: My first question is for Aaron.

[22:58] Kevin Jager: Yes, the fight scene where they do all those leaps back and forth, like to like show off.

[23:03] Aaron J Albano: Oh, it's a fight scene.

[23:05] Kevin Jager: Fight scene.

[23:06] Aaron J Albano: I mean, it's not, he's not wrong. It's like West Side Story brawling.

[23:11] Hayley Podschun: So in real life.

[23:12] Aaron J Albano: Yeah, so is that combination back and forth of leaps just basically the newsy dance call?

[23:20] Hayley Podschun: Because every time they leaped, I was like, that's like the fancy newsy.

[23:24] Aaron J Albano: Like I wouldn't say it was like the call, but we definitely had a moment in when we were at the beginning of rehearsals when all of us were like, all right, anything else? Does anyone want to like do any tricks that might or might not end up in the show? And the entire room just busted everything they could out.

[23:42] Hayley Podschun: That's when you can tell people's age, because children will say, I can do this, this, this, this, and then us oldies, like all of us in Hello Dolly, when they asked that, we all turned away.

[23:57] Aaron J Albano: But it always makes you think of uh was Kate Schindle said when she like was just joking around in legally bond rehearsal and she optioned up at the end, and they were like, Yep, you're doing that every week now. And she was like, Wait, what?

[24:09] Kevin Jager: Okay, my other question, my real question.

[24:12] Hayley Podschun: I didn't really understand the montage of like getting new ballet shoes and destroying them with these like violent ways. So is that like do you like make your shoes ugly so people think you've been dancing more and working harder?

[24:25] Aaron J Albano: Or like go ahead, Hayley.

[24:28] Hayley Podschun: There is there is so much here that no, I'm not gonna answer that question, but I I am gonna add to that, like you wouldn't be doing that like right before class. That's something you do at home, right? But anyway, um, but this is like this is obviously like Kevin. Did you ever have a baseball mitt?

[24:45] Kevin Jager: Or like I mean, yeah.

[24:48] Hayley Podschun: That's a good one.

[24:49] Kevin Jager: Wait, everyone from oh sorry, my internet went out. What'd you ask Kevin?

[24:52] Hayley Podschun: Did you ever have a what?

[24:53] Kevin Jager: Like a baseball mitt, like from act two of Dear Evan Hansen.

[24:57] Hayley Podschun: Yes, but like we never did anything to it. I just had a mitt and I like played catch with my dad. And the only way I would I would agree to play is if you let me do a uh what I call the Madonna catch, which is where I pretended I was all the way May, and I caught and then did a sexy walk like May, and my dad was like, at least he's playing catch, and so that's what we did. He would throw the ball to me and I pretend to be Madonna.

[25:20] Aaron J Albano: Oh they would never catch that is the best thing I've ever heard.

[25:24] Hayley Podschun: That's the same thing. That was my experience with a baseball mitt.

[25:30] Kevin Jager: So why do they do that to their shoes? And also, why would a ballet company make new shoes if they know the ballerinas are just gonna destroy it to make it look like they don't have new shoes?

[25:39] Hayley Podschun: It's a wonderful question and very valid. So um there's so many different shoe companies first stuff that you have to figure out which shoe is gonna fit you the best, and they're all made differently with different glues, um, different, you know, the bottoms of the shoes, some of them have uh like rubber or some of uh they all there's all different types of things, different satins, how it's sewed, it's all very different. So then once you find what shoe you want, you then figure out oh, if I want like my shank to be gone, which is what's inside, like my foot looks better if like half my shank is gone. So you'll take out that shank inside. Some people don't want it because it's less support on their foot.

Um what other things? I mean, even the ribbons. So why point shoes don't come with ribbons on is because everyone's foot is different. So it's time consuming, but you as a ballerina sew your own ribbons on because you know exactly where you want it with the um ribbons and the elastic. And sometimes the ribbon has elastic in it. So it's all just personal preference, and that's why people break it. Like one of my favorite things with my point shoes was if you open a door and you see um, you know, inside of a door, I put my shoe inside, like the toe of it, and then you slam the door so that box of it gets a little bit more uh it's not as hard. The glue starts to separate, so it's softer on your foot.

People do this all do a lot of this kind of stuff with show shoes also, and like in Broadway shows. Like it's you know how you had your like you just used your baseball mitt and just like let it naturally break in. Yeah, like what Brian was saying, and what they described in German Hanson is sort of shortcuts to get it to break in faster. And those are sort of the tricks of breaking your shoes to uh get it to do that faster way. Like brushy thing was making it all prickly, so it's like sticks easier.

[27:43] Aaron J Albano: Yeah, yeah, that's like the end of a tap shoe, you know, like you'll take your tap shoe outside and like scuff it up against um concrete or something, you know.

[27:51] Aaron J Albano: When you tap right, would you run a marathon in brand new shoes?

[27:57] Hayley Podschun: You'd have so many blisters at the end of mile one.

[28:00] Aaron J Albano: Yeah, no, that makes sense.

[28:01] Hayley Podschun: And then I'm assuming that the fire is just to make the ends like frayed.

[28:06] Aaron J Albano: Well, it's to not fray them, it's to end the fray.

[28:09] Hayley Podschun: Oh, okay.

[28:10] Aaron J Albano: And then the water was for what?

[28:13] Hayley Podschun: The wall oh on the heel?

[28:14] Aaron J Albano: Like when they were like making like their like part of their foot wet?

[28:18] Hayley Podschun: Yeah, it's mostly to soften the satin and the glue um so it's more pliable on your foot.

[28:26] Aaron J Albano: Sounds like a lot of work just to put a shoe on.

[28:29] Hayley Podschun: It's so then you know, they're showing also like the inside.

[28:33] Aaron J Albano: So some people I would wear a toe spacer between certain toes so like you don't start getting like messed up feet and what um padding are you using?

[28:42] Hayley Podschun: Are you just using paper towels or are you using lamb's wool?

[28:46] Aaron J Albano: What are like are you using gel?

[28:47] Hayley Podschun: It's all very much um a science experiment on yourself.

[28:52] Aaron J Albano: And what's nice is this was intentional for people to watch and be like, wow, this is what goes into ballet?

[28:58] Hayley Podschun: Yeah.

[29:00] Aaron J Albano: I think you mean ballet.

[29:02] Hayley Podschun: Yeah.

[29:02] Aaron J Albano: Yeah, I definitely thought it was like they were pretty badass for that.

[29:06] Hayley Podschun: I was just like that also and showing how their feet were all cut up and stuff, and I was like I feel like this movie took picked and chose its shortcuts in showing us how this all works.

[29:19] Aaron J Albano: And I think that some of the ones that they didn't choose, like this one, show people getting ready, those type of montages are kind of the the like the the the meaty parts of this movie in terms of like being able to like get into the mindset that these people are in so we can understand them a little bit more when they're making their decisions, whether it be you know, bad decisions or does you know that or they think are good decisions or like in or or or or what the stakes are for them by just showing that montage and setting up what they do just to get started.

[29:50] Hayley Podschun: I thought that was a really nice kind of setup.

[29:53] Aaron J Albano: Yeah.

[29:54] Hayley Podschun: Does anyone else have any other thoughts?

[29:56] Aaron J Albano: I have one other question after this, but I thought yes.

[30:02] Kimberly Cooper: Go Kimberly.

[30:03] Kimberly Cooper: Um, my notes from this most recent rewatch and probably every time I watched it since college, but especially having just watched um Wendy Whalen's documentary.

[30:14] Kimberly Cooper: How old is Cooper Nielsen that he is bringing basically a college freshman back to his apartment?

[30:23] Aaron J Albano: Correct.

[30:24] Kimberly Cooper: Excuse me.

[30:26] Kimberly Cooper: And then she just like is a puppy dog all over him, and he's like, I don't get it.

[30:30] Kimberly Cooper: And it's like she's never had a boyfriend before.

[30:32] Kimberly Cooper: This she thinks you're her boyfriend.

[30:34] Kimberly Cooper: Makes sense because she's a ballerina.

[30:36] Kimberly Cooper: You're not allowed to have them.

[30:38] Kimberly Cooper: Like, can I tell you?

[30:39] Kimberly Cooper: Like a gem.

[30:40] Kimberly Cooper: Julie Kent is my favorite part of this entire movie.

[30:43] Aaron J Albano: Oh my god.

[30:43] Kimberly Cooper: Her talking through her smile and her lips don't move.

[30:47] Kimberly Cooper: Everything about her in this movie.

[30:49] Aaron J Albano: First off, answer the question first because then we'll get to get into Julie Kent.

[30:53] Kimberly Cooper: Was she the ballerina?

[30:55] Aaron J Albano: She's Kathleen Donahue.

[30:56] Kimberly Cooper: Oh my god, she was incredible.

[31:00] Aaron J Albano: But just that part just makes me feel so like icky and uncomfortable.

[31:03] Hayley Podschun: And I've also like been the Jody Sawyer in a relationship that's like, you're my boyfriend, right?

[31:08] Aaron J Albano: Haven't we all though?

[31:09] Hayley Podschun: Yes, we all have.

[31:10] Aaron J Albano: Let's be real.

[31:13] Hayley Podschun: Do we know exactly how old Cooper's supposed to be?

[31:16] Aaron J Albano: We just know that he ran away to London, right?

[31:18] Aaron J Albano: For we also know he's a principal that used to be with someone who's now with an old man.

[31:23] Hayley Podschun: So I would guess late 20s.

[31:29] Aaron J Albano: What's really interesting is we don't really know the ages of like Jody and Maureen and everyone, because technically, if you were going to school at SAB, which is what their this school is based off of feeding into like ABT and all that stuff.

[31:46] Hayley Podschun: Um you wouldn't be like 24 years old.

[31:50] Aaron J Albano: Like you would be like 16, 15, 14.

[31:55] Hayley Podschun: Like you're very, very young.

[31:57] Aaron J Albano: When they filmed us, I just looked it up.

[31:59] Aaron J Albano: He was um uh he was 27 when this was filmed.

[32:05] Hayley Podschun: Too old for an 18 year old girl.

[32:07] Aaron J Albano: That makes sense.

[32:08] Hayley Podschun: Because her parents were saying stuff at the very beginning, um, there's a great dance program at Indiana, like just go to college.

[32:15] Aaron J Albano: And so that made me think that she is 18 and fresh out of high school and gets on the back of a motorcycle and goes to Brooklyn.

[32:23] Hayley Podschun: Goes to Dumbo.

[32:24] Aaron J Albano: I'm like, yes, you're going.

[32:30] Hayley Podschun: I have a question, Hayley.

[32:32] Aaron J Albano: Um the program there that they all got into and get placed at the end.

[32:37] Aaron J Albano: Is it only one year?

[32:39] Aaron J Albano: Did they shorten all of that?

[32:40] Hayley Podschun: It feels like that should be more than a year.

[32:43] Hayley Podschun: Cause it seems like she just like does she is she quitting the program to go to San Francisco?

[32:47] Hayley Podschun: Like, can you explain kind of how that works?

[32:50] Hayley Podschun: Yeah, um, I don't want to say anything wrong.

[32:53] Hayley Podschun: So just a second.

[32:54] Hayley Podschun: Um But did anyone else have that feeling it was kind of like it seemed like they were gonna be there for multiple years and then like she had been there since she was nine or seven or something.

[33:05] Hayley Podschun: So here's last year.

[33:07] Hayley Podschun: So here's SAB.

[33:09] Hayley Podschun: Um, it's pre professional ballet training for students six to eighteen years old.

[33:14] Hayley Podschun: Um so these people are basically getting trained for a showcase over the course of a year from the best place for to simplify it.

[33:24] Aaron J Albano: I mean, but Sergei was saying how he'd been there for four years.

[33:27] Hayley Podschun: This was his fourth year.

[33:28] Aaron J Albano: Right, I'm saying if like 14.

[33:31] Hayley Podschun: Assuming that the Jody character like did all four years of her high school, and then instead of choosing like an Indiana, like a dance program like at Indiana or something like that, she decided to do her one year at this school to basically like get into the to try and like get the best training and stuff like that.

[33:48] Hayley Podschun: Yeah, the best way to get into a company if of a caliber of like ABT um is to go to something like SAB.

[33:56] Hayley Podschun: Um Erin and I were texting last night.

[33:58] Hayley Podschun: There's a program that I did, their summer program, North Carolina School of Arts, and they have a year-round program of like music, dance.

[34:06] Hayley Podschun: Um, I think vocal, I can't really remember.

[34:09] Hayley Podschun: But I had some friends who have gone to that.

[34:11] Hayley Podschun: Um I did not get in for their year-round ballet program.

[34:16] Hayley Podschun: But um having that type of it's like going to a good college, but it's in your high school.

[34:24] Hayley Podschun: So you're going for those years to put you into what would be college, but it's your professional life at 18, 19 years old.

[34:36] Aaron J Albano: Cool.

[34:36] Hayley Podschun: Yeah.

[34:37] Aaron J Albano: Because you can't start when you're 22.

[34:39] Hayley Podschun: Like you have to you're halfway, you're more than halfway.

[34:44] Aaron J Albano: Yeah.

[34:46] Hayley Podschun: Um unless you dance till you're 50.

[34:50] Aaron J Albano: Is Maureen's boyfriend and the situation of how they get together creepy or okay?

[34:56] Hayley Podschun: I think I think it's I think it's fine.

[35:00] Aaron J Albano: I was thinking that too, and I was like, listen, in the time before he could find her on Facebook and stop her there, like this was his only choice to like call the receptionist and then like find out when she was out of class.

[35:15] Hayley Podschun: Because I I first like the like I thought like the waiter thing is cute, but then the like showing up outside and waiting for her was like not so cute, but like and kind of creepy, and like the the like walking up and writing your number on her hand was creepy, but I was like, oh, right, before cell phones, you like gave someone your house number, like anyone.

[35:34] Aaron J Albano: This was a normal way how people met, and she was into it.

[35:38] Hayley Podschun: I also feel like she was into it from the flip side of that.

[35:42] Aaron J Albano: We judge how he not the not the flip side, not the other perspective, but um we judge how he gets together with her or how they meet each other based on if he turns out to be a good or bad guy.

[35:57] Hayley Podschun: If in the movie he turned out to be a bad skeezy guy, we would have judged the way that he quote hunted her down, but because he turned out to be a really good guy who cares about her well-being and a doctor and all that, it all of a sudden retroactively makes how he found her charming.

[36:13] Aaron J Albano: That's real.

[36:16] Hayley Podschun: I thought it was really well played, how their first date was a group of friends of his going bowling.

[36:22] Aaron J Albano: I thought that was what helps make him a really good guy right away.

[36:25] Hayley Podschun: Totally.

[36:26] Aaron J Albano: Because if it had been like a candlelight dinner, like that could be really sweet ruins all ballerina's where is a suburban bowling alley near Lincoln Center at Columbia.

[36:39] Hayley Podschun: Well, there used to be there.

[36:41] Aaron J Albano: Used to be a rock climbing place in Lincoln Center.

[36:44] Hayley Podschun: There also used to be a bowling alley.

[36:46] Aaron J Albano: They're but yeah, I guess bowling alley.

[36:47] Hayley Podschun: I mean, that could be a big thing.

[36:48] Aaron J Albano: That bowling alley looked like it was in like oh Norway or something like that.

[36:53] Hayley Podschun: Yeah, yeah.

[36:56] Aaron J Albano: I also love that day for Eric's birthday.

[37:00] Hayley Podschun: They take a limo from Lincoln Center through Times Square all the way down to the Statue of Liberty.

[37:09] Aaron J Albano: Yeah.

[37:09] Hayley Podschun: And they get on the fact that there's even daylight left when they're on that ferry.

[37:14] Aaron J Albano: Yeah.

[37:15] Hayley Podschun: So true.

[37:16] Aaron J Albano: What kind of duty?

[37:18] Hayley Podschun: What kind of no traffic did you hit?

[37:20] Aaron J Albano: I know, right?

[37:21] Hayley Podschun: I was the kid in Florida that was like, that's so glamorous.

[37:24] Aaron J Albano: They're in Times Square.

[37:27] Hayley Podschun: But like now it's like fast forward like 20 years, and I'm like, oh god, stay away from Times Square.

[37:33] Aaron J Albano: I look at it and I'm like, how did you students pay for a limo?

[37:37] Hayley Podschun: And why would you take one in the daytime?

[37:40] Aaron J Albano: Who drives a limo in the daytime?

[37:42] Hayley Podschun: They're just carrying things.

[37:43] Aaron J Albano: They gotta be back for class the next morning.

[37:46] Hayley Podschun: They called Carmen.

[37:48] Aaron J Albano: Oh so does anyone have any favorite quotes from this movie that they would like to reenact or share?

[37:55] Hayley Podschun: Please.

[37:56] Aaron J Albano: I think I have one, but I think Kevin's gonna do it.

[37:59] Hayley Podschun: So I'm gonna leave it to Kevin.

[38:01] Kevin Jager: So good.

[38:02] Aaron J Albano: Which one?

[38:04] Kevin Jager: Deborah Monk is the MVP of this movie.

[38:06] Hayley Podschun: She is she is not.

[38:08] Kevin Jager: I will fight you, but continue.

[38:09] Aaron J Albano: I'm gonna lie.

[38:12] Kevin Jager: Deborah Monk is an amazing, amazing part of this movie, but uh Juliet Simone, Miss Donna Murphy, is the MVP of this movie.

[38:20] Hayley Podschun: She is brilliant.

[38:20] Kevin Jager: I'll also fight you, but okay, go ahead.

[38:23] Aaron J Albano: You'll be wrong.

[38:24] Kevin Jager: But the best part is when Deborah Monk is talking about Donna Murphy, and she says, Juliet Simone, ah, please.

[38:31] Kevin Jager: Her name's Julie Simon.

[38:33] Kevin Jager: She grew up in Perth and Boy, and her father's a manager of Walmart.

[38:37] Hayley Podschun: Like that it is such a good cut, and exactly what like that type of like tearing mother would say.

[38:45] Kevin Jager: Like it was just so good that I was just like it's perfect.

[38:54] Hayley Podschun: My favorite, goes to someone else, because I need to pull up the scene because I can't say it loud and that loud.

[38:59] Kimberly Cooper: Oh, it's just when Donna Murphy like lays her hand on and is like, you come here, here I just cry every time.

[39:08] Aaron J Albano: I I do like I think one of the more touching scenes, I did not expect for the Zoe Saldana because of who the characters and the trajectory of Zoe Saldana's career, where like I don't know, you just there's there's something that's that she's been typecast into where like I know where her storyline is always going.

[39:29] Aaron J Albano: And I feel like this one I was I did not I did not expect to be so invested in her story as opposed to the thousands of other characters in this movie, but and I and I think that Donna Murphy scene where she catches her continuing to practice and just like and she's she's like this kind, gentle, like through the even the Netflix, like I could feel her energy, and when she was like, and then she was like, Do you mind if I watch?

[39:56] Hayley Podschun: Like there was something very wonderful about that sequence it's so Donna, too.

[40:00] Aaron J Albano: Like it's it's that really is her.

[40:03] Hayley Podschun: Oh that was just like I don't know.

[40:06] Hayley Podschun: That really that was touching, and for some reason, and maybe I was just I'm usually good at this stuff, but like I was totally there.

[40:13] Aaron J Albano: It was a surprise to me when she shows up in that dance because I wasn't even thinking that Maureen wouldn't do that dance.

[40:19] Hayley Podschun: Do you know what I mean?

[40:20] Aaron J Albano: Like to me, Maureen was gonna do that dance and then make a decision afterwards, like or one way or the other, but the and and somehow I just thought like Zoe Saldana was gonna like stand out.

[40:29] Hayley Podschun: I didn't, I honestly wasn't even thinking about plot.

[40:32] Aaron J Albano: That's how engaged I was with the movie.

[40:34] Hayley Podschun: When I'm not thinking of plot, I know that I'm into the film.

[40:37] Aaron J Albano: Sorry, sorry.

[40:38] Hayley Podschun: Um, and so the Zoe Saldana part, and that that and what sparked the kind of investment for me in that is um one, it's always wonderful to see Zoe Saldana not in green or blue.

[40:50] Aaron J Albano: Um that scene with Donna Murphy really touched me in a in a very um sentimental and kind of nostalgic way.

[41:00] Hayley Podschun: Yeah, I also forget how good her scene is when they offer her the job when she like apologizes.

[41:09] Aaron J Albano: Oh, oh Eva.

[41:10] Hayley Podschun: Yeah, she apologized.

[41:11] Hayley Podschun: She's like, you know what?

[41:12] Hayley Podschun: I'm not sorry, that was the best time of my life.

[41:15] Aaron J Albano: Oh yeah.

[41:16] Hayley Podschun: Yeah, that was badass.

[41:20] Aaron J Albano: Did you find your quote?

[41:21] Aaron J Albano: I couldn't find my quote, so I'm gonna do my best.

[41:23] Aaron J Albano: But Julie Kent is my MVP.

[41:26] Aaron J Albano: Kathleen Donahue is the best thing in this movie.

[41:30] Aaron J Albano: Looks like a gerbil.

[41:32] Aaron J Albano: This is why.

[41:33] Aaron J Albano: Because A, the quote, the most quotable, quotable, quotable, quotable thing is when she's fighting in the theater with Cooper and Cooper's yelling about how they danced the best, and she's like, God Cooper, that was acting.

[41:48] Kimberly Cooper: For God's sakes, Cooper, that was acting. That's our job. And after that, God's sake, that's our job. I gotta get back. I gotta get back. I gotta get back, as my favorite quote from this entire movie. And literally, my favorite thing about her is that her character has zero stakes and all the reactions, yeah. She has no investment in any of the story. The best part is when Eva comes out instead of Maureen, all you see from Kathleen Donahue is.

[42:25] Aaron J Albano: Which is like it should have been. I will say it is it is super rude that. So I have something to say about Peter Gallagher and that whole part of the story plotline. Oh god. I think it's really interesting how this movie portrays that type of a character and that type of a person. Because I think that they are there, it's like the Uda Hagen questions like how do people describe you? How are you described in the script? And how do would you describe yourself? Like as an actor to kind of take on a role. And I feel like that character embodies that because to some people, he's this misogynist, awful person. But in his scenes, he he's like he's obviously presented as misogynist, but there's like a fairness to him, and like you understand the business sense of it all from him.

Like, I'm not saying that he's a good guy, nor am I saying is he the monster that we associate with those types of people within those types of programs. But I thought the actual um portrayal of that character was so mixed, and every scene I saw him as either a bad guy or a good guy or somewhere in between. And and I think that is highlighted by the Zoe Zaldana scene, the Eva Rodriguez scene that um uh uh that Kimberly was bringing up, and that like one, it's super rude that like they seem to like kind of get mad at her when like she's not like it's not like she like punched Maureen and Maureen didn't do it. They just don't have both sides of the story. So that's just like super rude and and horrible, and and you can attribute whatever you know factors you want to attribute to that.

Um, however, I I do think that that scene is weird because you have that like him taking a policy and trying to take the power at the beginning of that by making her feel small, but then she takes the power back. But then he like I don't know if that's the way he was going to, or he changed his approach to telling her that she made the company. Um, but that scene, just the way that the power dynamic in that scene between the two of them was was not something you expect from a movie like this, to be totally honest.

[44:21] Kimberly Cooper: I would agree with that. Yeah, I think they did a great job, especially Peter Gallagher, not only of his mannerisms, but of just how he played that role, because I think all of the things you said of being a business person, but somewhat caring a little bit is exactly what the ballet world, especially who that character was semi-based off of. Which was hard not to see after watching the Wendy Whalen documentary. I was like putting all these people into very specific places. Did you guys watch that reality show about Ballet West?

[44:55] Aaron J Albano: What was it called? Dance something.

[44:56] Kimberly Cooper: Breaking point.

[44:59] Aaron J Albano: No. I forget. I remember what this is like. Oh, there is a scene where like in Sol Lake City, yeah. And there's a scene where the artistic director has to tell a girl that there's no place for her next year.

[45:13] Kimberly Cooper: Oh god, I have to say the whole time. It's so good. Chat and Dance Academy, if you haven't seen that.

[45:19] Aaron J Albano: Can I ask a question?

[45:21] Kimberly Cooper: Oh, sorry, Aaron, go for it.

[45:22] Aaron J Albano: Oh no, I was just I will say, like, I will I think of the dancers playing actors and actress playing dancers. I feel like the person, my real MVP, without being completely rich about it, is probably Donna Murphy. Because I feel like she is the most believable actress who I could believe had like a dance career before.

[45:53] Kimberly Cooper: Sure. Yeah.

[45:54] Aaron J Albano: Or her life on this movie. Well, it doesn't help that she is the most beautiful bird body ever. I was just like her body, just the way she moves naturally, like the way she moves is so graceful that like you see it in this movie when she turns the way she turns the way her shoulder curves, you're just like, she was a ballerita. It's like not like watching when we were watching Wendy Whalen how she moves. Like it's just I mean, it just it's like you see it in their body, like and Donna did so well.

[46:23] Kimberly Cooper: I have a question, and I want to talk about the eating disorder aspect of this film. Because when I was in college during our ballet class, our um teacher assigned to us the book Winter Season, um, which is basically like the diaries of ballerinas, but it really goes into the not necessarily the technique and all that, but like the behind the scenes of what you know, very in-depth about the work. Conditioning, the conditioning and all of that. I guess my question for you is is um, I don't know, having been in this world more so than maybe any of us in in terms of that, I guess like uh can we talk about a marine in terms of like um it's it it seemed and I'm not saying it was obviously, but this movie obviously only takes one character to tell that story, and I'm assuming two the two sides of that story, yeah.

So I wanted to tie those in and kind of like um if you could talk a little bit to that, and I and Kevin, even our text um talked a little bit about the sizes and then come even compared to when Wendy Whalen in that documentary, just like can you talk about like the conditioning of the body and and the extremes one way or the other that some will go through to do that and how the do you think this movie handled it well?

[47:35] Aaron J Albano: I do think they handled it well because um it wasn't enough of um an extreme focus on it, but it was like this is also something that happens, and it is very truthful within not only like as dancers, but especially in the broad in the ballet world. Um I will say from both like summer programs that I did at ABT and NCSA, they always had a uh we had to have a nutrition course while we did it because it's such a big thing that they're like, we have to talk about this, like you have to eat, you have to eat certain things. Um, and I think why it's such a big deal in the ballet world is you are wearing nothing on stage, first of all. So everyone wants to look good when they're wearing as little as possible.

You're also being lifted all the time, or um you just wanted things to be easier for your partner. But the hours that ballerine has put in um and ballerino's uh ballet dancers into their training is it's I mean, they barely get a day off, they're dancing from 9 a.m. till you know 12 p.m. Who knows? The hours are insane. Um so that's cardio after cardio, and your muscles are getting stronger and leaner, which is why everyone wants a ballet body, but they work so hard, and then the pressure to stay in that certain weight is very intense from uh the ballet masters and the company. Um, so it's a whole other thing, and you know, certain people I think are better about it um health-wise than others.

Um, but I've I know I've had a lot of friends deal with eating issues, and um, luckily I think most of them have gotten help by now, or at least have like figured out the way to be healthy, but it's it's intense, and um, I think it's great that they they did talk about it in the film, and that companies um, you know, at least in like these summer programs that I did talk about it because I think it's very important.

[49:45] Kimberly Cooper: Oh, thank you. Yes, did that really answer it?

[49:48] Aaron J Albano: Yeah, it did answer it.

[49:50] Kimberly Cooper: Okay. There was always a joke at my dance studio that um my ballet teacher, whom literally I owe so much to, she's incredible. Um, uh Alicia the good, she's the greatest. Um, but there was a joke that uh she made us all eat cotton balls because we were like thin, but it's like, well, we were just working really hard and we wanted to do a good job. So that was a joke, but it's also like that's not funny that it jokes about like 14-year-old.

[50:17] Aaron J Albano: I I I heard a non-joke from a friend who used to who will remain nameless, who used to dance for Abby Lee and Abbey Lee Dance Dance Company, where what like every once in a while she would make them all wear black and she would take chalk and draw where they could lose weight.

[50:36] Kimberly Cooper: Yeah.

[50:37] Aaron J Albano: And then another one where they were where she would she would make them do like across the floors with like potato sacks and be like like 10 pound potato sacks and be like, yeah, that was hard, right? And they'd be like, Yeah, they like imagine how much easier it would be if you lost 10 pounds.

[50:54] Kimberly Cooper: Yeah, yeah that's it's a problem.

[50:57] Aaron J Albano: It's definitely a problem. It's intense um should we go to our Rotten Tomatoes?

[50:58] Kimberly Cooper: Yes Yes Oh what does everyone think uh the critic's choice for Rotten Tomatoes is 95 No I'm gonna go 76 I'm gonna go with 68 only because it's a very specialized movie and specialized movies don't go well I'm gonna say 87 is my real answer I mean once again Aaron J Albano not you're not on the dot you definitely went over but you were the closest 42 it's that low wait what's the critics consensus no that's the critics consensus was 42 sorry the actual like little sentence they put in as a review oh I did all this research before so I have to pull it up oh rotten tomatoes uh center stage I didn't sorry I'm not that shocked but that's pretty low like you think about some of the acting choices and stuff like yeah maybe but the audience percentage was 82 percent oh that cracks yeah yeah yeah oh of course now it says thing not found hold on you can edit this out no no it's fine um that's cool that's okay here we go critics consensus viewers willing to set through sit through soapy plot contrivances to see some excellent dancing might enjoy center stage for everyone else, there's always fame.

[52:36] Kimberly Cooper: Dragged wow dare wow.

[52:41] Aaron J Albano: Unexpected shade.

[52:43] Kimberly Cooper: How dare!

[52:44] Aaron J Albano: Wow.

[52:48] Kimberly Cooper: I feel like it just like stabs me in the chest, but I also have to snap. Like I'm so confused.

[52:54] Aaron J Albano: Oh also, I hadn't heard I want to be with you in probably 20 years.

[52:58] Kimberly Cooper: This music, everything. Should we all just like sing along for one moment?

[53:12] Aaron J Albano: I'll have to do the music video.

[53:15] Kimberly Cooper: This is pliés. Here we go.

[53:22] Aaron J Albano: Oh man.

[53:25] Kimberly Cooper: The music video is one of my favorite things ever.

[53:28] Aaron J Albano: A middle space.

[53:28] Kimberly Cooper: She's a dance if I ever heard one.

[53:34] Aaron J Albano: Yeah, because his face is in it.

[53:36] Kimberly Cooper: Who is?

[53:38] Aaron J Albano: Uh Sasha.

[53:39] Kimberly Cooper: Yeah. And like Jessica Simpson's like uh like I would have love you forever is in this.

[53:47] Aaron J Albano: Yeah, it's all the hits, Kevin. It's all the hits.

[53:50] Kimberly Cooper: Isn't it when they're on the bike? Doesn't it? Isn't it I Wanna Love You Forever?

[53:53] Aaron J Albano: No.

[53:54] Kimberly Cooper: It's uh on the bike is um hold on.

[53:59] Aaron J Albano: Or is that candy?

[54:00] Kimberly Cooper: No, don't get lost in the palace.

[54:03] Aaron J Albano: This one.

[54:04] Kimberly Cooper: Oh no, that's the ballet. Sorry. That's a ballet.

[54:07] Aaron J Albano: I have the soundtrack list here. Um a grill can dream, cosmic girl, higher ground, baby Tom. This was on repeat in my car in my on my CD, on my CD channel.

[54:24] Kimberly Cooper: We uh it was Kevin. Were you team Charlie or Team Cooper?

[54:30] Aaron J Albano: Team Charlie.

[54:32] Kimberly Cooper: Okay. Were you in your team this this this watch was the first time where I was like, yo, Cooper's a better dancer? I'm sorry.

[54:44] Aaron J Albano: Pretty fierce, man. I was actually involved.

[54:46] Kimberly Cooper: I was team choose yourself and I won.

[54:50] Aaron J Albano: Oh get out, Brian.

[54:53] Kimberly Cooper: I didn't like Charlie. Charlie would Charlie was a piece of wood. He brought nothing to the table. He had a very pointy head.

[54:59] Aaron J Albano: So cute.

[55:00] Kimberly Cooper: It was a piece of wood. Um should we move on to Restless Creature?

[55:05] Aaron J Albano: Yes, please.

[55:06] Kimberly Cooper: All right. Who had or had not seen this before?

[55:09] Kevin Jager: I did not even know what this was. I thought it was gonna be a fun happy go-lucky ballet movie. And I watched this and Billy Elliot back to back. So I I watched center stage one night with like a cocktail and was like, this is a fun night. And then I watched these two back to back and wanted to die. I was crying so much. So I didn't expect this to be just chorus line, this woman's like.

[55:35] Aaron J Albano: Yeah. Literally. I had not watched this before. I had never heard of it before. I did not know Wendy Whalen, because I'm not a big I'm not hugely into the ballet world, really, outside of friends like friends like Hayley and just ballet adjacent. But um this movie put me through it a little bit.

[55:59] Kimberly Cooper: Um I had never heard of this movie. I had heard Wendy Whalen's name, but I couldn't like place who she was. And then as soon as it started, I was like, oh, I think I know who you are, and then I just looked it was great.

[56:14] Bryan Plovski: Yeah, I had never seen this movie, heard of this movie. Like Kimberly, I knew the Wendy Whalen name, but that is as far as it went. I had no idea what like multitudes that name actually means to a group of to like that world. Yeah, I think I remember seeing her final performance poster and like reading those Times articles about her 30-year career, but that's about it.

[56:39] Aaron J Albano: Yay. Well, I'm so glad I got to welcome this into everyone's viewing. Um, this was my second viewing. I've only seen it one time before, and I loved it. Um this came out in 2016. It is a documentary following Wendy Whalen of New York City Ballet, Principal Dancer. Um director is Linda Sapphire and Adam Schlesinger, not Adam Schlesinger from John Zwain. What's that show? Oh, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, not that one. Um so yeah, she was 47 years old when this was filmed. She is now 53. She danced with New York City Ballet for 30 years. That's like a crazy step, right? Like I know that they go through that, but like I just want to confirm like that is a crazy step. Being a principal dancer. That's like not normal for 30 years to be a principal dancer.

[57:32] Kimberly Cooper: No. Um you get 10 years to do ballet. Yeah, you don't get to be a dancer for as long as she was. And for her to not have any like major surgeries or injuries or um just pain for as long as she did is really incredible. Not only as a human being, but just as a ballet dancer, is crazy. Um, so I'm gonna open the floor. What did everyone think?

[57:58] Hayley Podschun: I loved it. I thought I thought it was so sorry, I thought it was so interesting. I like similar to Kevin. I didn't think this was gonna be like I didn't think it was gonna be like all like happy go lucky stuff, but I I did think it was gonna be more of a chronicle of like how important she was to the ballet world, and while it touches upon that, that I think I even texted you when I first started watching that, like I did not expect to just burst through the gate with a surgery to be in this movie.

[58:21] Aaron J Albano: Yeah, like that really it set once we knew she was going in for surgery and they showed it, like that was that set the expectation for what this was going to be.

[58:31] Kimberly Cooper: Oh whether her hammering, yeah. Oh I know. I just like chat and did that, and when you texted, I was like, oh right, I forgot. But also while they were doing the surgery, was the first time I was like, her leg is the most muscular thing I've ever seen. All you could see was just her leg, and I was like, it's the perfect leg. While being like thin and long and I was like my bar classes started, like watching this movie was just like this is why the trend of bar class is a thing because everyone wants those legs, those long, lean, muscular legs.

[59:06] Aaron J Albano: Yeah. When she when she's in PT and they're like, bring your legs in to parallel, and she it's like I can I couldn't tell you. And then she's like, we were perfect. And I didn't realize that like a tuck position could be breathtaking. I was like, oh okay. This is why this is why you have a documentary, but yeah.

[59:30] Hayley Podschun: Jumping off what Aaron said, like I just so I watched Center Stage and I was like, oh, I love ballet, it's so beautiful. And then I watched her, and it was like, I couldn't breathe. Like she's so effortless. And like the videos they showed of her, and just like even her now when she's in rehearsal, she's like, like it just like otherworldly watching her dance. Like, she's so it made you like, oh, right, I understand why you did this for 30 years. Like it was also, I don't know, there was something, there's a difference between someone like her with her dedication and her obsession and her love that make things like that art versus just a dance piece.

[1:00:11] Aaron J Albano: Like I feel like I was watching like, like, not to make this funny, but like watching like a Hogwarts painting, kind of like this like active artwork, this active painting. Like there was something like very moving, and and the way that she described a dance partner is unlike anything I've ever heard before. I think she not make, I mean, pun intent, I guess. She painted a wonderful picture of her process without like sitting down and explaining her process. I thought the movie does a great job of showing, not explaining in a lot of places.

[1:00:45] Kimberly Cooper: Um, you know, if we're talking documentary style, that was something that absolutely stood out to me. And it also was a very interesting insight. We hear a lot about that dance company specifically, and a lot of the the um politics within it and the inappropriate things and amazing things about it. And this didn't it, it never touches on any of that, which however you see that this is about her, so make it about her. But I thought like these underpinnings of things we know that are happening in there, like sneak their head out sometimes. It was super interesting to watch those pop in and pop out at different moments.

[1:01:21] Aaron J Albano: The only thing that's been that I thought fascinating, jumping off of what you were saying about her partners, and I was texting with Hayley about this last night, where it was it was so fascinating. Boop take wait, start again. Start over, take two. As a person in this business who has partnered a lot of people before, it was fascinating in this culture in the in this ballet culture, how watching how she talked about her partners, but then going into the room and watching how she talked to her partners was very jarring for me.

[1:01:58] Hayley Podschun: And again, I was like, okay, because with my own sense memory of knowing in the in the Broadway world where we have multiple partners and swings, and there's not like a moment of like you're with your partner forever in your career.

[1:02:14] Aaron J Albano: Sure. Watching how she spoke to her partners that she's had for nine years. My instinct was like, why are you so rude? But then recognizing that like this is their language. This is this is how they this is how they've learned how to operate. And again, as she said, like she has essentially educated them on how to be her partner, and now they will educate whoever is after her how to be their partner, and it the cycle continues. And it was just like that she had the power.

[1:02:49] Kimberly Cooper: Yeah, it was with the choreographers. She had the power.

[1:02:52] Aaron J Albano: Yeah.

[1:02:53] Kimberly Cooper: Yeah.

[1:02:53] Aaron J Albano: Which probably wasn't the same at the beginning of her career.

[1:02:56] Kimberly Cooper: Like it's a good one.

[1:02:58] Aaron J Albano: Yeah, as a principal dancer, you do have a little bit more of that power. But to piggyback on what you're saying, Aaron, I think that that is a language that people have with partners. I've been lucky enough that I've had like experiences with um like a single partner and I mean it is such um you have to really communicate and there really is no sugar on top because it is sometimes your life is at stake because they're holding you above your head and you have to say like I cannot have your hand there because this and this and this and this.

[1:03:34] Kimberly Cooper: So yeah what you can say to your it's not like a stabbing behind the back situation. You're just saying this I love this partner so much but then when you're with them you're like you have to do this because otherwise we will both fail.

[1:03:46] Aaron J Albano: For sure no absolutely and that was that was the most interesting thing to watch and how like nuanced of a difference adjacent industries can feel like where one because that felt that because even even with the like when you're in a show and you have your partner there's still you have like that show is where you have been to partner. It's not like you've carried the same partnership from show to show to show right so it's and then you have swings and you and so there's a there's a an etiquette that exists in our world sure that doesn't need to exist in the ballet world because they have carried their partners through their career.

[1:04:31] Kimberly Cooper: It was it was fascinating to notice and see and react to I also wonder if she spoke so harshly to him all the time or if that was just the sense because I can't remember exactly if that was rehearsal right before she decided to cancel.

[1:04:48] Aaron J Albano: Like she couldn't, like, I was taking that more in that moment that she was maybe in pain, and also the the harshness came out when he like did something that she didn't expect, and she said it felt dangerous.

[1:04:58] Hayley Podschun: Is that what you're talking about?

[1:04:59] Aaron J Albano: That scene where he was like that scene, but but but the tone carried through through in multiple scenes, at least what I thought.

[1:05:07] Kimberly Cooper: Yeah, I just tell that story about like you can stick your finger out my ass as long as it's um as long as it's still pretty.

[1:05:14] Aaron J Albano: Yeah, it's just pretty. I think she's definitely like a harder like woman, like more like stern and intense, which I think as Hayley you kind of alluded to us. That's like more the ballet world to be like that.

[1:05:27] Hayley Podschun: And it also started intense.

[1:05:31] Kimberly Cooper: I'm intense, I'm very intense.

[1:05:35] Aaron J Albano: But yeah, I just I thought it was super, it was just this was such a great movie to watch. She's super inspiring. I thought the part where I cried the most, which I thought was gonna be like at her end, or like was there was like one moment where she was like trying, like you could just tell she just couldn't let go, and she was like trying to explain to the documentary first what it felt like, and she was like choking up, but like not letting herself like moments like that were so great.

[1:05:58] Hayley Podschun: But when she talked to her two partners and she told them your masters, like that was like the moment that she was like basically being like, It's your turn now, you're gonna start teaching someone. Like it was like it felt like I was like they had captured in this documentary like a really important like rite of passing.

[1:06:19] Kimberly Cooper: Yeah, like yeah, 100% passing the torch, and like she didn't need to do that, like, but like the way she did it was just so lovely that it felt like it was just like they that meant so much to them. Like, you could just you just know that like five years, 10 years from now, they're gonna remember that moment or she gave them like the strength to like be the new leaders.

[1:06:40] Aaron J Albano: I feel like I've never seen a documentary like this in terms of where you're actually watching this transition um from dancer to whatever it is. We talk about it all the time in interviews, or you you talk to them after they've done the transition and they talk about the transition or or there's it's a it's you know it's a narrative where somebody is being you know acting uh but like I feel like this is the first time I actually watched in somebody's eyes them having to grapple with not only making the decision but going through with the decision and even reflecting on it those three portions which I think was very impactful for me personally and setting and setting goals and having to back out of one of them, yes.

[1:07:21] Kimberly Cooper: Dealing with the site like psychological effect of what that does to someone at the end.

[1:07:26] Aaron J Albano: Yeah, yeah.

[1:07:27] Kimberly Cooper: It was my biggest um the one that hit me was when she's talking to one of her friends who's a former a former uh ballet dancer, also when they're in that in that like cafe restaurant next to he's basically like it's hard because we've spent our whole lives defining our identity in this way, and we don't and I still do, and he's they was like saying he's like multiple years out now, and I'm just like and the scene with her like uh childhood friend that stopped dancing when she was 22.

[1:08:06] Hayley Podschun: That was like heartbreaking.

[1:08:07] Kimberly Cooper: She was like, but you're still happy and you don't miss it, right? And you are good and it's fine to be done.

[1:08:14] Aaron J Albano: And she was like, No, of course I meant that.

[1:08:18] Kimberly Cooper: It's just like, wrong answer, wrong answer.

[1:08:20] Aaron J Albano: That just that shows how intense and dedicated you have to be if you're going to be a ballerina.

[1:08:28] Kimberly Cooper: Is it is your life from when you go to your very first dance class, like uh where Kimberly works? Um, it starts there and it does not end.

[1:08:39] Aaron J Albano: It is every day.

[1:08:41] Kimberly Cooper: If you decide that you're gonna do it, is every single day until you are done at like what, like maybe 35?

[1:08:48] Aaron J Albano: Like it's every day. And then when you're tired, you're like, Well, what do I do now for the next 40 years, 50 years of my life?

[1:08:56] Kimberly Cooper: You know?

[1:08:58] Aaron J Albano: It's true, it's truly the chorus line, like the last the chorus line movie.

[1:09:03] Kimberly Cooper: Like it's the last scene of the chorus line, a chorus line, as a documentary.

[1:09:09] Aaron J Albano: And I was um I was going to I was it read me hard.

[1:09:16] Kimberly Cooper: Yeah, it was rough.

[1:09:19] Aaron J Albano: I have a great question.

[1:09:21] Kimberly Cooper: I have a I have a question.

[1:09:23] Aaron J Albano: The one of the parts that struck me the most about this is when she talks about her meeting, where it first gets put into her head to kind of maybe it's time to wind down meeting with Peter Martins, yeah.

[1:09:33] Hayley Podschun: Her meeting with Peter Martins that we don't see that she talks about, um, uh in terms of winding down, which is his job to do. Um and then she she she doesn't maybe she does, but she doesn't absolutely state that her injuries came from that meeting. But she talks about how the idea that now she had to slow down, that's what she started hurting, otherwise, like a mental thing where like her body was finally given permission to like not be that way anymore.

[1:10:01] Aaron J Albano: The breakdown, yeah.

[1:10:02] Hayley Podschun: Yeah. What do you what are your feelings on that? And how much do you think that is the actual mental aspect of that? How much of that do you think is like it just started hurting, like after all like what are your what are your thoughts on her perception of that and how you kind of put that.

[1:10:18] Aaron J Albano: I fully believe that you can mentally break yourself down. You can mentally make yourself sick. Like I I 100% believe that and I think for her to hear that from someone that she I'm this is my own interpretation for her to hear that from someone that she thought had her back and then he was like you should you should um maybe take a step back like that then you start going into that spiral of am I okay what's wrong with me and then it's downhill from there.

[1:10:51] Hayley Podschun: Yeah.

[1:10:52] Aaron J Albano: Yeah I could agree. That's what I mean and also even if that's yeah I think you're right the the movie and her telling of the story sort of frames it in the way that like whether intentionally or not it's like I was fine and then this meeting happened and then I broke and while the nuances of that are more I think mental stress does that to you. Even if even in just the way of like if you if your mental state is anyway distracted your body's gonna reflect it and you're not going to be as careful as you all you normally are.

[1:11:31] Hayley Podschun: Yeah.

[1:11:32] Aaron J Albano: Like that's without getting too into like that's how I broke my ankle like I was going through some stuff in real life and like it weighed on me more psychologically more than I thought that it did. And I was not as careful and as aware as I normally am.

[1:11:48] Hayley Podschun: Sure.

[1:11:48] Aaron J Albano: Yeah, that happened to me in Freckleface Strawberry that I did off Broadway. I was I didn't know how much of that show put random words together to make a title. Yeah, when I was doing that, I had the weight of that show and the company, and it was it was not run the way that I think it should have been run. And I didn't realize how um heavy that was and my back, I've never had back issues, but I had a cast member who was a brilliant human being. Um she was like, your back is coming from your stress of literally carrying everyone involved on this, and I didn't notice it. And then when she said that, I was like, You're so right. And I I had to leave the show because that was one making me just like it was just too emotionally draining, and then physically, I like couldn't, I couldn't walk. It was sure tortuous.

[1:12:43] Hayley Podschun: So yeah. Related but unrelated. My audition for Freckleface Strawberry was the first show that I had done that I the first audition that I had done where they told me that I was too old for the show.

[1:12:55] Aaron J Albano: Oh no, did you go into Danny?

[1:13:00] Hayley Podschun: I forget.

[1:13:01] Aaron J Albano: They said they said I they said Aaron was great, he's everything we want. He's a little too mature than what we were looking for.

[1:13:10] Hayley Podschun: And this is before newsies.

[1:13:13] Aaron J Albano: Yep.

[1:13:13] Hayley Podschun: Oh, way before.

[1:13:15] Aaron J Albano: Way before newsies.

[1:13:17] Hayley Podschun: Uh-huh.

[1:13:18] Aaron J Albano: I said, Oh, cool, great. See you guys.

[1:13:21] Hayley Podschun: Oh my god. Did anyone else catch this brilliant quote from the doctor that said, ballerinas are God's best athletes?

[1:13:30] Aaron J Albano: Yes, I did. That is the most in love with that doctor.

[1:13:34] Hayley Podschun: That's what I want all doctors to be like. Obviously, he was on T camera, so he's not gonna, he's gonna do what he has to do. But like, I mean, he's obviously has amazing clients and he's very well respected, but like I was very into that doctor in terms of like having a doctor.

[1:13:48] Aaron J Albano: Yeah.

[1:13:50] Hayley Podschun: Also like when not to bring another doubter moment, but it was just this whole movie was just so bittersweet the best way. When she talked about in hindsight, like when she like was spent her whole life wanting to be this prima ballerina, and I'm gonna be the principal ballerina, and she did it, and then she said immediately that came into her head, it's oh god, what what'll I do if I can't do this anymore? Like feeling that like when she like talks about like going through your career, like feeling that like weight, but like that like black hooded character behind you that's gonna come and take your dance career away, like just like life basically getting older. Like that was so sad to actually get if she really did have that realization, or if that's not just like a reflection of now.

But yeah, it's it's a real thing, and I think it's a real thing for anyone who is in the arts, like performance arts and what we do, because we do train our whole life, and there will come a day that we won't be able to do what we want to do, and it's utterly heartbreaking. And I thought it was a beautiful um depiction of that.

[1:14:56] Aaron J Albano: Something that I that really struck me in this as well is um, and they don't really talk a lot about it, but I would be prompted to do my own research on it just because it was interesting, is when I forget who she was meeting with, but he was talking about what what influence Wendy as a person had on the ballet world in general, in terms of the idea of like knowing everybody's name, being there on time, like just like change the idea of what a prima ballerina was, not just like a get out of my way, I have to perform, you know, that like associate with like obnoxious, you know like when we think about like obnoxious ballet you know whatever the the noses up yeah divas yeah but like it was really nice to hear whether you know whether that's true or not or whatever the case may be like the fact that she over her 30 year changed how ballerinas approach productions was like a very interesting thing to me and and how it's how it grew from her now isn't she assistant artistic director yeah she moved into um let's see after her departure from the ballet she shifted her focus to contemporary dance um but then she was appointed artistic associate for developing new projects at uh New York City Center oh yeah oh yeah uh for a two year term then she was artist in residence at Barnard um she did go back uh yeah associate artistic director of New York City ballet so I think yeah she's still there um it's what her Instagram says because I followed her today how about that little Annegram stuff at the end of the movie.

[1:14:56] Bryan Plovski: All right I was gonna bring that up I was like oh look at what those filters used to be remember when we all just used those.

[1:14:56] Kevin Jager: So what would you guys rate this for Rotten Tomatoes said 95.

[1:17:04] Bryan Plovski: What do you say, Aaron?

[1:17:05] Aaron J Albano: I'll go 88.

[1:17:07] Bryan Plovski: Brian is the winner.

[1:17:09] Hayley Podschun: Yeah I'm gonna go 98.

[1:17:09] Aaron J Albano: It was 100%.

[1:17:12] Aaron J Albano: 92 I'll go.

[1:17:12] Hayley Podschun: Yes.

[1:17:13] Bryan Plovski: Good. I've never won anything on this podcast before.

[1:17:16] Kevin Jager: Congratulations.

[1:17:18] Bryan Plovski: Can I read the um critics consensus?

[1:17:21] Hayley Podschun: Yeah.

[1:17:24] Bryan Plovski: No consensus yet.

[1:17:28] Aaron J Albano: This greatest consensus is maybe better than fame.

[1:17:35] Hayley Podschun: And the audience score was 71%.

[1:17:38] Bryan Plovski: So there were like I know there were some great um, there was like for user ratings, there were 506 people, and then for critics, 17. So I think that's a pretty good cool, at least number for those. This was great. I really appreciated this.

[1:17:55] Hayley Podschun: Yeah, I'm so glad. So for those of you listening, we will now be moving into our Patreon section. And if not, we'll we'll jump uh we'll jump right to the uh the rankings of all three of the movies. But uh so I know that all three of these films were very, very different, but if you had to rank them, what would you rank them?

[1:18:22] Aaron J Albano: This isn't fair because they're all just yeah, this is a very like because they're so different. It's not severe, it's like the it's like yeah, for sure. This may be the closest I've ever like.

[1:18:34] Hayley Podschun: Yeah, like a shallow rank.

[1:18:37] Aaron J Albano: Like the top ranking them in order of like putting them on with wine.

[1:18:43] Hayley Podschun: Well, that's when I'm sad. Do that. Do make your own theme. I love that. And then do that. So it can be different themes of like, oh, this is my favorite um way that whatever.

[1:18:56] Kevin Jager: You could drink wine with it. So like a ladies' wine night. It goes center stage.

[1:19:04] Hayley Podschun: Oh, it's really hard. Because then it's Billy Elliott Restless Creature, unless it's like just me and one very close friend, and then that might switch.

[1:19:15] Aaron J Albano: Totally.

[1:19:16] Kevin Jager: What's your theme and your ranking?

[1:19:18] Aaron J Albano: Okay. My ranking is uh movies that inspired me as like a creator and like a writer. So I'll say um number one was uh oh god, number one is Billy Elliot, number two is Wendy Whaling, and number three, though I love them and enjoy them as center stage.

[1:19:40] Hayley Podschun: Yeah, as a writer, I can understand why you wouldn't say uh center stage is the best here.

[1:19:50] Aaron J Albano: Every time I touch a ballet bar, I do that.

[1:19:52] Hayley Podschun: Oh god, same.

[1:19:58] Aaron J Albano: Um for movies that I'd watched after an emotionally charged weekend of high of high emotions, high volatile current events. Um I'd probably go Billy Elliot because it viscerally moved me way harder than I ever thought it would. Center stage because it's good, it was good escapist, and then Wendy Wayland. As much as I love Wendy Wayland.

[1:20:32] Hayley Podschun: That's okay. You can say whatever you want.

[1:20:34] Bryan Plovski: Brian, what's your theme and ranking?

[1:20:36] Bryan Plovski: My theme is uh, so I ranked these already, so I'm I'm putting a theme onto it, and my theme is movement, how much it moved me, but it's a double entendre because also movement because ballet. Get it, guys. Um, but uh my uh it would be in order Billy Elliot, uh Restless Creature and uh center stage. I'm with Kevin on that one. It's just like that's that's the order in which they I was very affected and engaged by them.

[1:21:05] Hayley Podschun: Um I would have to say my theme would be nostalgia. So I'm going center stage, restless creature, Billy Elliot. Um center stage being number one because it is who I am deep inside. I may watch it again tonight. I'll probably watch it. Yeah, I'll probably watch it again next week.

[1:21:28] Aaron J Albano: Um I'm so glad you guys enjoyed this. Thank you for letting me be a little um bunhead dork with you all. I love ballet, I love the world. Um yeah, I took one today.

[1:21:46] Hayley Podschun: There you go.

[1:21:47] Aaron J Albano: Um this was great, thank you. You know, of course, we have to say that everyone is beautiful at the ballet. Every prince has gotta have his swan.

[1:21:55] Hayley Podschun: Yes, everyone is beautiful at the ballet. That's our obvious quote of the episode. I wasn't not gonna use that.

[1:22:03] Bryan Plovski: But uh again, thank you all for joining us. Everybody out there stay safe and healthy. You can find us at Broadwaysted, you can find um us on Patreon. That's where you can see us talking about Billy Elliot. Um, and you can, of course, find us on things like Spotify and iTunes, rate and review us there. Five stars.

[1:22:26] Kevin Jager: Oh, you're muted, and thank you.

[1:22:30] Bryan Plovski: Thank you. This was great. As you can probably figure out, Aaron is up next week. So stay tuned to our Twitter feed to see what he has chosen to do for next week. And it is going to be super fun that one. Not that this wasn't, this was delightful. But thank you all again so much. And as we end every episode, we raise our glass and we say one day soon we'll be able to actually do that.