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In this episode of At the Barre, we are joined by Ilana Goldman, Professor of Dance and Director of the BFA program at Florida State University, as well as an accomplished dancer, choreographer, and educator.

Ilana shares her journey from early dance training and her time at Juilliard to a wide-ranging performance career with companies including Oakland Ballet, Sacramento Ballet, Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet and Trey McIntyre Project, before transitioning into academia and choreography.

This conversation centers on her new work for Madison Ballet’s ChoreographHER, And Everything Is Still…, set to music by Andy Scott. Originally inspired by a short piece she created at Florida State, Ilana expands the work into a larger, multi-sectional piece that explores musicality, spatial design, and the architecture of movement.

Throughout the episode, Ilana offers insight into her creative process and how she worked with the “genius in the room” to create a work that reflects the dancers’ personalities and strengths. Ultimately, her work embraces the idea that dance can mean many things at once, leaving space for audiences to bring their own interpretations to what they see on stage.

About Ilana Goldman

Ilana Goldman is a dancer, choreographer, filmmaker, and educator. She served as Choreographer in Residence of Metro D.C.’s Bowen McCauley Dance (2018–2019) and Artist-in-Residence at Glacier National Park (2022). She has choreographed works for Sacramento Ballet first and second companies, New York Theatre Ballet, ARC Dance Seattle, Tallahassee Ballet, Black Rock City Ballet, Santa Cruz Ballet Theatre, Perry-Mansfield, Shenandoah University, Missouri State University, Florida State University, and University of Washington, among others. Her work was selected for performances at Brooklyn’s Dumbo Dance Festival and the Boston Contemporary Dance Festival.

She performed professionally as a principal dancer with Oakland Ballet and Sacramento Ballet, as a member of Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet and Trey McIntyre Project, and as a guest artist with Alonzo King LINES Ballet. She performed in works by George Balanchine, Marius Petipa, Agnes de Mille, Eugene Loring, Bronislava Nijinska, Ruth St. Denis, Martha Graham, José Limón, Paul Taylor, Twyla Tharp, Donald McKayle, David Parsons, George Faison, Robert Garland, Ron Cunningham, Bebe Miller, Susan Marshall, Margaret Jenkins, Dwight Rhoden, Igal Perry, Helen Pickett, Julia, Gleich, Francesca Harper, John Clifford, Septime Webre, Sidra Bell, and Amy Seiwert, among others.

Her award-winning short dance films, “Convergence,” “Fledgling,” “InterState,” “Threshold,” “Discarded,” and “Metaxu,” screened at numerous international film festivals in the United States, Mexico, Brazil, Venezuela, India, Malaysia, Russia, Sweden, Denmark, Portugal, France, Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, Great Britain, Ireland, and Slovakia.

She has presented papers on community engagement and ballet pedagogy at national and international conferences of the World Dance Alliance, National Dance Education Organization, and CORPS de Ballet International.

She has taught for schools, universities, festivals, and companies across the nation.

https://ilanagoldman.org/

See “And Everything Is Still…” by Ilana LIVE in ChoreograpHER April 3-5, 2026

🎟️ madisonballet.org/choreographer

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Credits

COVER PHOTO: Matthew Ulrich