James Whiteside is a Principal Dancer with American Ballet Theatre and a multifaceted artist working across choreography, writing, and media, including The Stage Rightside with James Whiteside podcast and Substack, and his memoir Center Center, published by Penguin Books.
He began his ballet training at age nine at the D’Valda & Sirico Dance and Music Centre in Fairfield, Connecticut. After completing his training, he joined Boston Ballet, where he rose to Principal Dancer. In 2012, he joined American Ballet Theatre and was promoted to Principal Dancer in 2013. His repertoire includes leading roles in Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, Romeo and Juliet, Giselle, and more, including numerous contemporary works.
In addition to his performing career, Whiteside has choreographed for artists including Mariah Carey and Taylor Swift, and continues to create work across music videos, commercials, film, and ballet. His choreography includes New American Romance, City of Women, and Danzón No. 2 for American Ballet Theatre, as well as Marilyn’s Funeral for The Juilliard School, and many more. His short film Daytripper, which he directed and choreographed, was nominated for a New York Emmy Award and premiered on All Arts/PBS.
Offstage, Whiteside is the author of Center Center: A Funny, Sexy, Sad Almost-Memoir of a Boy in Ballet. His social media platforms reach nearly one million followers, with brand partnerships including St-Germain, Sonos, and Uber. He is also the host of The Stage Rightside with James Whiteside, a podcast and Substack, where he publishes essays and conversations that offer an unfiltered, behind-the-scenes perspective on the realities of a life in ballet. Whiteside has completed Harvard Business School’s Crossover Into Business program.
Rajika Puri is an internationally acclaimed exponent of two forms of Indian classical dance – Bharata Natyam and Odissi – which she performs in solo recital all over Europe, the United States, Latin America, and India. Career highlights include a command performance for the President of Mexico.
Since 1986, when she was cast as ‘Narrator/the goddess Kali’ in Lincoln Center Theater’s The Transposed Heads, directed by Julie Taymor, she has also had a unique career on the western stage, often bringing to her roles the richness of the Indian theatre tradition she was initially trained in.
Based in New York for over twenty years, Rajika moved to Mumbai, (Bombay) for six years in 1992 and was inspired by an artistic milieu that encouraged new directions in the performing arts. A landmark project of 1998 was Flamenco Natyam, a blend of Flamenco with Bharata Natyam, presented at the Works & Process series of the Guggenheim Museum in New York, and then on tour in India.
Trained since childhood in classical Indian dance and music – her Bharata Natyam guru was Sikkil Guru Ramaswamy Pillai, her Odissi Gurukul is that of Deba Prasad Das – Rajika has also studied western music (the voice and piano), American Modern Dance (at the Graham & Cunningham studios in New York), and Flamenco.
In 1983 she received an MA in The Anthropology of Human Movement from New York University, specializing in how meaning is made through movements such as the hand gesture (hasta mudra) system of classical Indian theatre. Writings and articles range from academic papers in journals like Semiotica to previews of dance performances in Playbill, and magazine features on dance from a cultural perspective.
Lar Lubovitch trained at the Juilliard School and founded the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company in NYC in 1968. Over the course of 58 years, he has created more than 120 dances for the company, which has gained an international reputation as one of America’s top dance companies.
Lubovitch’s dances have also been performed by many other major dance companies throughout the world.* Othello – A Dance in Three Acts, was created with the Lubovitch company in collaboration with American Ballet Theatre and San Francisco Ballet, and was later featured on PBS’s “Great Performances” (Emmy nomination).
Film & television dances include Fandango (Int’l Emmy), My Funny Valentine for Robert Altman’s film The Company (American Choreography Award nomination) and, Concerto Six Twenty-Two and North Star for BBC.
His contribution to the advancement of ice-dancing includes concert pieces for numerous Olympic skaters, as well as ice-dance specials for television: The Sleeping Beauty (PBS), The Planets (A&E) (Int’l Emmy nomination, Cable Ace Award, Grammy Award).
Broadway credits include Into the Woods (Tony nomination), The Red Shoes (Astaire Award) and Tony Award-winning revival of The King and I.
In 1987, he conceived Dancing for Life which took place at Lincoln Center’s NY State Theater. It was the first response by the dance community to the AIDS crisis, raising over one million dollars. In 2007, Lubovitch founded the Chicago Dancing Festival. For 10 seasons the festival provided free performances by leading American dance companies and reached over 18,000 people annually.
In 2016, he premiered a new evening-length ballet, The Bronze Horseman, at the Mikhailovsky Ballet in St. Petersburg, Russia. In 2014, he was appointed a Distinguished Professor of Dance at UC/Irvine.
Some recent awards include: 2007, Chicagoan of the Year (Chicago Tribune); 2008, Chicagoan of the Year (Chicago Magazine); 2011, Ford Fellow (US Artists); 2011, Dance/USA Honors Award; 2012, Prix Benois de la Danse for Choreography, Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow; 2013, American Dance Guild Lifetime Achievement Award; 2014, Honorary Doctorate from the Juilliard School; 2015, named one of America’s Irreplaceable Dance Treasures by the Dance Heritage Coalition; 2016, ADF Scripps Award for Lifetime Achievement; 2016 Dance Magazine Award; 2018 Martha Graham Award; 2024 Honorary Doctorate from Boston Conservatory; 2025 Martha Hill Fund Lifetime Achievement Award; and 2025 NY Dance and Performance Award (“Bessie”) for Best Choreography (for Many Angels).
Max Rosefsky is a dancer and recent University of Chicago graduate whose work explores the intersection of neuroscience, human development, and movement. While earning degrees in Comparative Human Development and Cognitive Science, they also directed and choreographed for Maya Dance Company, further intertwining their interests in dance and the human condition—the very blend that first drew them to Dance Against Cancer. They first became involved with DAC while their mother was ill, an experience that gave their work a deeper sense of purpose. They look forward to continuing to explore the intersection of neuroscience and choreography in the years ahead.
