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Company Secrets: Ballet Unfiltered
Pull back the curtain on the professional dance world.
Hosted by Jared Redick, Company Secrets features candid conversations with Artistic Directors and industry leaders who share the real stories behind auditions, casting, company life, and artistic vision.
From navigating contracts to embracing career pivots, this podcast offers insider knowledge for young dancers striving to thrive in the ballet world—and for anyone who loves the art form and wants to understand what really happens behind the scenes.
Whether you're a student, educator, emerging artist, or lifelong fan, Company Secrets is your backstage pass to the dance world’s most essential conversations.
🎧 Season One: New episodes every Tuesday beginning August 5th!
Company Secrets: Ballet Unfiltered
S2 EP5: The Nutcracker Paradox: From Clara to CEO with Victoria Morgan
In this episode of Company Secrets: The Nutcracker Paradox, host Jared Redick sits down with Victoria Morgan, former principal dancer with San Francisco Ballet and Ballet West, and longtime artistic director and CEO of Cincinnati Ballet, to explore the enduring legacy, complexity, and future of The Nutcracker. Morgan reflects on the ballet as a powerful “teacher,” tracing its role in artistic development from childhood through professional careers and its importance as both an educational gateway and a financial cornerstone for ballet companies.
Morgan discusses her own Nutcracker choreography, created in 2011 and still performed today, including how her perspective as one of the few women to choreograph the work influenced creative choices, humor, and vulnerability. She speaks candidly about the balance between tradition and innovation, the evolution of a production over time, and the freedom inherent in reimagining divertissements and narrative details.
The conversation also touches on The Nutcracker’s outsized cultural impact in the U.S., its surprising origins as an initial failure, and what ballet might lose if it were to disappear. Morgan shares personal memories, from dancing Clara as a child to her evolving relationship with the ballet in retirement, offering insight into how distance from leadership has allowed her to experience the art form with renewed joy and reflection. The episode closes with a humorous onstage mishap that underscores perspective, resilience, and the lifelong lessons learned through performance.