Q&A with director David Petersen, Artistic Director of New York Theatre Ballet Steven Melendez, and Sharia Blockwood

Monday, Dec. 4 2023, 7:27

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• David Petersen’s films have been exhibited at numerous museums and festivals and are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the National Gallery of Art and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. His documentary Fine Food, Fine Pastries, Open 6 to 9 was nominated for an Academy Award and his PBS documentary If You Lived Here You Would Be Home Now was an Independent Spirit Award nominee. His feature documentary Let the Church Say Amen premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and on the PBS series “Independent Lens.” Other films include Journey of the Bonesetter’s Daughter on PBS and 2 Months to Be Quiet, which premiered at MoMA. David also directed the acclaimed eight-part documentary series Strictly Ballet and the feature-length film The Witmans, a documentary about juvenile justice. His artist fellowships include MacDowell, Yaddo, VCCA, Blue Mountain Center, and the Ragdale Foundation.

• Steven Melendez, named as the Artistic Director of New York Theatre Ballet in April of 2022, was born in New York City in 1986 and started his ballet training with the LIFT Program at Ballet School New York at the age of 7. He has danced as a Soloist dancer with Ballet Concierto in Buenos Aires, Argentina, a Principal dancer with The Vanemuine Theater Ballet Company in Tartu, Estonia, and for over 15 years with New York Theatre Ballet. He is a national and international guest artist and teacher and has worked across Europe, Asia, and Central and South America. Steven co-choreographed his first large-scale work, Song Before Spring, for New York Theatre Ballet which was named a Dance Europe critic's choice “Best Premiere” of 2016. Steven is currently a member of the alumni advisory committee on diversity and inclusion for School of American Ballet and serves as the Hiland Artistic Director for National Dance Institute New Mexico.

• Sharia Blockwood, now age 14 in the 7th grade, and living in Harlem, hopes to join a summer dance program through the after-school program and then apply to a performing arts high school.

• Jackie Glover spent 27 years at HBO, rising to SVP of HBO Documentary Films, overseeing all aspects of the department’s programming, including development, acquisitions and production. A nine-time Emmy winner, her producing credits include True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight for Equality, King in the Wilderness—a portrait of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s final years—and Jim: The James Foley Story. She was Head of Documentary Programming at Onyx Collective, Disney’s slate of premium entertainment programming by creators of color and underrepresented voices, winning an Oscar last year for the extraordinary music documentary Summer of Soul.