AIRED: August 24, 2020
SPECIAL GUEST: Evan Money, PhD
“A must read for any creative person who’s felt they’ve lost their voice only to realize it’s been there all along.” -John Fleck
What happens when our dreams of becoming professional athletes, concert pianists, singers, writers—whatever we excelled at and loved in our youth —become impossible? For Susan Priver— author of the memoir, Dancer Interrupted—a girl obsessed with ballet, a gifted child ballerina, the center of attention without ever having to speak, it was, she believed, the end of her life.
She was a prodigy, recruited for the School of American Ballet in New York City, studying under George Balanchine. She gave her body and soul to dance, struggling, practicing throughout her teenage years. Her plan was to dance until she died.
Dancer Interrupted is the story of an artist who loses her ability to practice her art and how she rediscovers herself without the veil of ballet. It’s a story of loss, self-recrimination, family drama, love affairs. It’s also the story of one woman’s vibrant, uplifting climb out of a world she believed to be the only world possible, and into a world far better than she had ever anticipated.
ABOUT SUSAN PRIVER
Susan began her career as a ballet dancer and trained under George Balanchine at School of American Ballet in New York City. Her professional career in dance included Eglevsky Ballet in New York City, The Hannover Ballet in Germany, and finally the Cleveland Ballet.
She settled back in her hometown of Los Angeles and began her acting training with Susan Peretz and Charlie Laughton of the Actors Studio and with Bill Traylor of The Loft, now known as The Lost Studio.
After working with members of the Actors Conservatory Ensemble in a well received but small production of John Patrick Shanley’s “Savage in Limbo,” Susan began supporting herself with odd jobs; namely art modeling and waitressing so she could continue her passion.
Since then, Susan has built an extensive resume of dramatic and comedic roles in a variety of contemporary and classic plays on a number of LA stages. Additionally, Susan is a beloved yoga teacher in Pasadena, California.
