Outsiders: Recent Episodes
Lincoln Jones, Elise Filo, and American Contemporary Ballet
Though Lincoln Jones got what most insiders would call a catastrophically late start in ballet, he is now the artistic director of “one of America’s most adventurous and exciting ballet companies” (Classical KUSC). Outsiders brings Jones' irreverent, iconoclastic approach to one of our most revered art forms, backed by his encyclopedic knowledge, immense passion, and his gift for making “the most complex issues seem like child's play” (The Los Angeles Times). An inspiring, enlightening, and often humorous conversation for the culturally curious. New episode every other Tuesday.
After discussing the difference between lucid dreaming and dreaming that you are lucid dreaming, Lincoln and Elise speak with ACB Music Director Alin Melik-Adamyan about her really, really hard job.
Lincoln opens by apologizing for saying “um” so much, then goes right on saying it. Then Elise wonders about the history of eyelash wishes, and Lincoln wishes she’d looked it up. (Sometimes she forgets she’s on a podcast). After a short foray into Lincoln’s new theory of Lucid Waking, they talk at length about Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s Never Look Away, and why you should never look away.
Also, since Lincoln forgot to mention it, Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings was played by the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, led by Philipe Entremont.
Lincoln interviews ACB principal Rochelle Chang, sort of. Actually, he calls Rochelle, and then just talks a lot. He also seems to have started saying “um” all the time. Wtf? But eventually he lets her speak a little, and things get interesting.
OUTSIDERS Interview: Lincoln speaks with Scott Bultman about the man who invented Kindergarten, why he was persecuted for it, and his remarkable system of blocks that Lincoln used to teach himself design.
OUTSIDERS Interview: David Simon. If a sculptor dies in college, does he make a sound? Tune in for the answer, plus a fascinating interview about artistic training, concept vs. craft, and the long road to mastery.
OUTSIDERS Interview: Doug Fullington is one of the few people in the world that can read the language in which the great ballets of the 19th century were written down, and his stagings have changed the way Lincoln thinks about the history of the art.
Sympathetic resonance, end zone dances, and the resolve of two dancers in the face of rejection.
Why there’s so much bad ballet music, and Madeline Houk’s parents’ valiant attempt to crush her dreams. The really not bad ballet music in this episode is Delibes' "Sylvia", played by the Razumovsky Sinfonia, and conducted by Andrew Mogrelia.
Lincoln and Elise talk about why teaching ballet on Zoom sucks, and then speak to two of ACB’s dancers, Sarah Bukowski and Brittany Yevoli, about maintaining focus on ballet when you’re also a model, feeling like everyone else is technically way ahead of you, and tap dancing on roller skates.
Everything you never knew about The Nutcracker: It was originally a flop, Tchaikovsky didn’t want to compose it, he may have written a coded message into the rhythm of the grand pas de deux, and more. Also Lincoln postulates that the production premiered in 1895 or 1893. It was 1892, genius.
Lincoln reverses himself while switching positions with Elise who inquires about decision fatigue, burnout, and other duties of being the artistic director of a ballet company.
Elise takes over and asks Lincoln about his past. Also, giving up irony for Lent, why Instagram is killing you, and how a coffeemaker can destroy your work life.
Elise learns that fog makes her pants wet, and talks about what makes a great conversationalist. Also, the role of art in society, and the role of a fat chihuahua in society.
Animals working together, a great bathroom faucet idea, and ACB's first day back to class since the apocalypse.
OUTSIDERS Interview: Brian Kiley
Lincoln sits down with Emmy Award winning writer and stand-up Brian Kiley, who performed at ACB’s last show before the apocalypse.
After discovering an incredible coincidence involving pampas grass, our hosts answer more listener questions: “Do you keep washing the same pair, or do you have a drawer full of tights?”, “Do you have to learn partnering in a ball pit?”, “How do you remember all the steps?”, and “Do dancers read sheet music?” Their answers are packed tighter than a drawer full of tights.
Our hosts continue down the list of listener responses to “What don’t you get about ballet?”, including, “How do you define ballet?”, “Can ballet be danced to heavy metal or rock?”, “Why don’t dancers get paid more?”, and “Who’s in charge, the ballet director or the conductor?” Also discussed are soccer as pointe training and using a guy who barely graduated high school to get into college.
OUTSIDERS Interview: Dr. Robert Gjerdingen
It’s everything you never realized you always wanted to know about music.
Having concluded their ten not-so-basic fundamental questions, Lincoln and Elise ask the audience “What don’t you get about ballet?”, and answer: “How do you interpret moves in a ballet?”, “I don’t get how ballerinas stand up after spinning around so much”, “I don’t understand how dancing on pointe is possible”, “Why haven’t they found a way to make pointe shoes more comfortable?”, and “How come dudes don’t do pointe shoes?” They also discuss whether or not art should be approached cynically, and why 19th century novels are so long.
Lincoln discovers he likes producing…wait for it…live dance. Elise explains why it is easier to be a negative person than a positive person, which doesn’t explain Elise. Then, unbelievably, the ten not-so-basic fundamental questions finally come to a close with “Has ballet changed over time, or stayed the same?”, “How does ballet differ from other art forms in what it expresses?" and, “Why isn’t ballet more popular today?”
Our hosts finally return to the project they started in Episode 3: answering ten fundamental questions about ballet, and make some serious progress. Lincoln and Elise discuss ballet costumes, sets, steps, style, music, and ballet dancers' hair, and how these things are used to solve design problems within the art. They also discuss the trouble classical art has with convention, a 20th century theory on how pop music differs from classical music, and how hard it is to figure out what Elise looks like.
In Episode 12, Lincoln and Elise asked, “What repulses you in art?” There was so much on Lincoln’s list that they had to continue it in this episode. In the course of answering, they discuss irony, tropes (on which Lincoln says something really dumb*, so listen to Episode 15 for a correction), musicality, and even the purpose of art in general.
*To be fair, he did say he was losing his mind at the top of the show.
Lincoln and Elise discover the complexity of pool tiling and the origin of splinter-free toilet paper before asking “What repulses you in art?”
Never judge a man by the pentagram tattooed on his forehead. This week, we learn about the Dolphin Slice, foppish affectation, and why [redacted] is the best hang before our hosts get into the main topic of art in inspiration and inspiration in art.
Lincoln and Elise ask the question, “Did you have any interesting thoughts today?” Lincoln thinks about the role of mortality in commitment, and Elise wonders who invented toilet paper. They play Lincoln’s new game show, “Dupe”, and when they finally get back on topic they discuss the role of the face in ballet and how it can “almost destroy the art completely.”
OUTSIDERS Interview: Keith Code
Lincoln sits down with one of the world’s greatest teachers to talk about the art of teaching. It doesn't seem to matter much that Lincoln teaches ballet dancers, and Keith teaches motorcycle racers.
Lincoln does the scariest thing he can think of, then shaves his head, dances in a fountain, and challenges Matthew McConaughey while Elise sells acorns door-to-door. Also: how to deal with a repetitive, crushing sense of failure.
Lincoln gets personal, joins a cult, and never gets to the show's intended topic. Elise explores her fetish for getting old people to jump out of airplanes. Also: taking risks, listening to your inner voice, and Lincoln’s approach to asking out women he’s really afraid of.
They still don’t finish question number 3. The definition of beauty, the artificial road to becoming natural, rookie mistakes when eating protein bars, and Elise embroiders your pants.
Question number 3, Lincoln’s time working in a strip club, Elise dislikes likes, and the importance of hating art. Also, they don’t finish Question Number 3.
Lincoln and Elise attempt to finish question number… 2? Who can tell anymore? Lincoln elevates tangents to an annoying art form. Also, Elise’s boyfriend’s folk-dancing man-crush, making art your best friend, and one of our hosts can’t tell time, so this episode is short.
ACB dancer Michelle DeAngelis' attempt to get her ex-boyfriend’s mother arrestedand the recipe for Blueberry Toast. Lincoln and Elise attempt to answer ten fundamental questions about ballet and barely make it past the first one, or two... it’s hard to say exactly because Lincoln keeps referring to everything as question number two. Subjects covered include: What is ballet? Why do people still do it? And what makes a work of art ‘classical’? Please pay no attention to the syntax, ladies and gentlemen.
Experiencing both sides of the audition table, training in quarantine, why not to be a robot, and the problem of toilet proximity.
Apparently, it’s not that difficult to start a ballet company. Also: doing college in a really low-impact way, the importance of occasionally taking a header into the floor, and why you don't need to be told stories in nightclubs. Also, it’s clear that our hosts don’t know how to end a podcast.