Exploring Dance Beyond the Stage: Our Two Most Recent Podcast Episodes
At Music On Pointe, we continue to explore how movement lives far beyond performance—shaping identity, justice, healing, and community. Our two most recent podcast episodes dive deeply into these intersections, offering honest conversations and lived experiences that reflect the heart of the platform.
These episodes are also the final two released in the original Music On Pointe podcast format, making them a meaningful moment of reflection as we look ahead. For now, we’re spotlighting the stories themselves.
What Connects Criminology and Dance?
In this episode, we sit down with Jackie Lopez to explore an intersection rarely discussed: the relationship between criminology and dance. At first glance, these worlds may seem far apart—but as the conversation unfolds, it becomes clear how deeply connected movement is to justice, education, and social systems.
Jackie shares how dance education can act as a powerful intervention, particularly for young people navigating systems shaped by inequality or harm. The discussion looks at dance not only as creative expression, but as a tool for regulation, discipline, emotional processing, and agency. Over time, these skills can shape life trajectories—offering alternatives to cycles of punishment, disengagement, or exclusion.
The episode also interrogates how institutions often undervalue the arts, despite their measurable long-term impact on community wellbeing. Through lived experience and critical insight, Jackie illustrates how dance creates spaces for accountability, belonging, and transformation—especially within communities most affected by structural violence.
🎧 Tune in and join the conversation: https://soundcloud.com/musiconpointe/crime2dance
Follow @jackie.dance87 on instagram!
Dance as Self-Expression, Healing, and Advocacy
In this episode, I sat down with my friend Chi for a deeply personal conversation about dance beyond performance. Rather than focusing on accolades or visibility, this discussion centers dance as a tool for self-expression, healing, and advocacy, particularly in the quieter, less-seen parts of a dancer’s life.
Chi reflects on her journey with honesty—speaking to the emotional labor of being a dancer, the moments of unlearning, and the ways movement becomes a refuge during times of transition or uncertainty. Dance, in this context, is not something created for an audience, but a practice that allows space for processing, grounding, and reclaiming agency.
We also explore how personal healing can translate into collective advocacy. Chi shares how her relationship with movement informs the work she does beyond the studio, using embodied awareness to show up more fully in spaces that demand care, resilience, and leadership.
This episode invites listeners to reflect on their own relationship with movement—how the body holds memory, how healing can be non-linear, and how dance can remain a lifelong companion, even as paths evolve: https://soundcloud.com/musiconpointe/dancebeyondthestage
To stay connected to Chi’s work and advocacy journey, follow her on instagram: @its_justchi !
A collaboration mentioned in this episode can be found here: vimeo.com/reshmadanse/runaway
For more podcast updates and releases, follow @music.onpointe on Instagram.
As always, in good health for this new year,
Music On Pointe
