Ep 97 Ballet Production Director Christopher Dennis

Midlife Mixtape

“That’s my call”: San Francisco Ballet’s Christopher Dennis on the obvious career path that nonetheless had to be pointed out to him, the patience and grace that comes with experience, and the ballet’s pandemic pirouette to digital delivery. Stream the San Francisco Ballet’s 2021 season here Ok, George Lopez, being a trendsetter! Thanks as always to M. The Heir Apparent, who provides the music behind the podcast – check him out here! ***This is a rough transcription of Episode 97 of the Midlife Mixtape Podcast. It originally aired on May 11, 2021. Transcripts are created using a combination of speech recognition software and human transcribers, and there may be errors in this transcription, but we hope that it provides helpful insight into the conversation. If you have any questions or need clarification, please email [e-mail] *** Christopher Dennis 00:01 You know what? Everybody needs to understand and have a little grace. So I try to exercise that in my work today. There are challenging moments, obviously… Nancy Davis Kho 00:12 Welcome to Midlife Mixtape, The Podcast. I’m Nancy Davis Kho and we’re here to talk about the years between being hip and breaking one. [THEME MUSIC – “Be Free” by M. The Heir Apparent] 00:34 This episode of The Midlife Mixtape Podcast is brought to you by Audible. Get a free audiobook download and 30 day free trial at www.AudibleTrial.com/midlifemixtape. Over 180,000 titles to choose from for your iPhone, Android Kindle or mp3 player. And hey, one of those 180,000 titles is my book, The Thank-You Project: Cultivating Happiness One Letter of Gratitude at a Time. It’s about a year I spent writing thank you letters to the people who had helped, shaped, or inspired me up to that point in my life. It gives the reader a blueprint for doing it themselves, and the science behind why gratitude and happiness are so tightly coupled… I hope it will be a tool to help readers emerge more gracefully from the pandemic! So go to www.AudibleTrial.com/midlifemixtape for your free audiobook. [MUSIC] Hi there people of the dual cassette boom box! I’m Nancy Davis Kho, creator and host of the Midlife Mixtape Podcast and author of The Thank-You Project. If you used to wash down your Bubble Yum with a Tab, maybe flip through your Wacky Packs to see if you got the Free Toes card, this is the podcast for YOU. I hope all of you who are moms had a wonderful Mother’s Day, and if it was a hard day for you for any reason, I’m sending you a big squeeze too. This is the first year I don’t have anyone to send a Mother’s Day card to and I knew it would be weird, and it was. Holidays, man. They’re complicated. But I had today’s episode to look forward to and I’m so excited for you to hear it. Before I get to it I’m going make a request – if you happen to listen to this show via Apple podcasts, on your iPhone – would you consider writing a review? I haven’t had any new reviews up there in AGES so if you haven’t written one yet, I’m hoping you’ll consider it – makes it so much easier for potential listeners to join the party here. Throughout the pandemic I’ve been fascinated by the ways in which this horrible awful no-good very bad time has supercharged innovation and sped up solutions to longstanding problems– whether in getting a vaccine into arms in record time, or moving homeless people into hotels, or making online learning more effective. And nowhere has that been more apparent than in the way performing arts organization...