Person Place Thing is a public radio interview program created and hosted by Randy Cohen. Built around the idea that people are especially engaging when they speak about something they care about, each episode explores one person, one place, and one thing with particular meaning to the guest.

This September, Randy Cohen returns to Taylor Dance West for three live recordings featuring David LaMarche (Wed, Sept 2), Lauren Lovette (Wed, Sept 9), and Robert Battle (Wed, Sept 16), with live performance excerpts by the Paul Taylor Dance Company.

Register below to attend a live recording of

Wednesday, September 2
David LaMarche

DAVID LAMARCHE has been working as a conductor in the dance field for over forty years.  He served as Music Director for the Dance Theatre of Harlem from 1993 to 1998. As a guest, he has conducted for New York City Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, National Ballet of Canada, The Joffrey Ballet, Houston Ballet, L’Opera di Roma, and Het National Ballet. The orchestras he has directed include the Houston Symphony, the Lyric Opera Orchestra of Chicago, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, The Paris Opera Orchestra, the Tokyo Philharmonic, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the Moscow Radio Orchestra, and the Orchestre Lamoreux.

Mr. LaMarche is currently in his twenty-sixth  year as a conductor on the staff of American Ballet Theatre. He is the Music Director of the Paul Taylor Dance Company and an Adjunct Faculty member of collaborative piano at the Juilliard School. Mr. LaMarche is a graduate of Boston University and resides in New York City.

Wednesday, September 9
Lauren Lovette

LAUREN LOVETTE (Resident Choreographer) personifies the intertwining of dance and choreography, moving seamlessly from one to the other. In spring 2022 she was invited to be the first-ever Resident Choreographer for the Paul Taylor Dance Company and creates new work on the Company annually. Born in Thousand Oaks, CA, Lovette began studying ballet at the age of 11. She enrolled at the School of American Ballet as a full-time student in 2006 and from 2009-2021 she danced with the New York City Ballet, quickly rising to the role of principal dancer.

Lovette began creating dance as a ballet student, and as a principal dancer at New York City Ballet, she choreographed for the 2016 Fall Fashion Gala. She was awarded the Virginia B. Toulmin Fellowship at the Center for Ballet and the Arts at NYU in 2018, and a year later created a second work for the Fashion Gala. In addition to the Taylor Company and NYC Ballet, her work has been commissioned and performed worldwide with a full-length Romeo + Juliet at Leipzig Ballet, and regionally at American Ballet Theatre, Vail International Dance Festival, American Ballet Theatre Studio Company, Nevada Ballet Theatre, Oregon Ballet, Colorado Ballet and showcased in a self-produced evening, “Why It Matters.” Lovette received the Clive Barnes Award for dance in December 2012, was the 2012-2013 recipient of the City Ballet Janice Levin Award and won the School of American Ballet’s Mae L. Wein award for Choreography in 2024. In 2023, Lovette joined the Nantucket Dance Festival as Co-Artistic Director.

Wednesday, September 16
Robert Battle

ROBERT BATTLE (Resident Choreographer) Robert Battle’s journey to the top of the modern dance world began in the Liberty City neighborhood of Miami, Florida, where he showed artistic talent early. He attended Miami’s New World School of the Arts and then the dance program at The Juilliard School where he met his mentor, Carolyn Adams. He danced with Parsons Dance from 1994 to 2001, and set his choreography on that company starting in 1998. Mr. Battle founded his own Battleworks Dance Company in 2002. A frequent choreographer and artist in residence at Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater since 1999, he set many of his works on the Ailey Company and Ailey II. In July 2011 he was personally selected by Judith Jamison to become Artistic Director of Ailey, making him only the third person to head the Company since it was founded in 1958. During his 12 years as Artistic Director he expanded the Ailey repertory with works by artists as diverse as Kyle Abraham, Mauro Bigonzetti, Ronald K. Brown, Rennie Harris, and Paul Taylor. He also instituted the New Directions Choreography Lab to help develop the next generation of choreographers. In spring 2025 he was invited to be a Resident Choreographer for the Paul Taylor Dance Company.

Taylor Dance West
307 West 38th Street, 9th Floor Studios
New York, NY 10018

Doors Open: 5:00 PM
Recording Begins: 5:30 PM

SPACE IS LIMITED!
If you have any questions, please contact rsvp@ptdc.org.