"Just go and do whatever you feel like, but do it with a hundred percent energy and do it consistently."

Takumi Miyake, Soloist with American Ballet Theatre, joins host Alissa Hsu Lynch to talk about a career that started in his family's ballet studio in Kagawa, Japan, where he is the fourth generation to dance. At 13, he won first place at the Youth America Grand Prix and left home on a full scholarship to the Royal Ballet School. After two ankle surgeries during COVID kept him out for a year and a half, he emailed ABT Studio Company director Sascha Radetsky and asked to join the audition class. He left New York with a contract and was promoted to soloist after his first year in the corps de ballet.

Takumi also opens up about staying motivated through injury, stepping into his first acting role as Lensky in Onegin, and what it's like to share both life and the stage with his girlfriend and fellow ABT soloist Yoon Jung Seo.

Don't miss this conversation about ambition, resilience, and going after what you want.

💡 Key Takeaways:

• Opportunity often goes to the people who ask for it

• Recovery happens day by day, so do what you can and keep pushing

• Leadership starts with asking questions and helping the people around you

Media Credits: E'production, Gene Schiavone, Rosalie O'Connor, Skylar Brandt, Zordan Photography, certain photos courtesy of American Ballet Theatre

Connect with Takumi:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/taku.ballet/

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https://theleadershipdance.substack.com/s/the-leadership-dance

👉 Listen and follow: https://linktr.ee/theleadershipdance

Music from InAudio: https://inaudio.org/ "Catwalk Queen"

"There appears to be some sliver of time somewhere between 32 and 55 where it's okay for women to be successful."

Elizabeth 'Liza' Yntema, founder and president of Dance Data Project®, joins host Alissa Hsu Lynch alongside Nancy Dobbs Owen, DDP's communications lead, to talk about a career built on law, philanthropy, and a belief that dance is an economic sector hiding in plain sight. Liza founded DDP after a night at the ballet made her realize the audience, donors, and dance schools were mostly women, yet no one behind the curtain was. DDP has since published 75 reports exposing pay gaps and leadership disparities across the dance world, one company at a time.

Liza and Nancy also get personal about building careers that don't follow a straight line, overcoming outdated attitudes, and why your best work might come decades after others expected you to peak.

Don't miss this conversation about disruption and reinventing an industry from the inside.

💡 Key Takeaways:

• Reinvention doesn't erase who you are, it just changes how you show up

• Skills you build in one chapter of your career will show up again later, often when you least expect it

• Progress isn't owed to you, so keep asking, keep pushing, and keep showing up

Connect with Liza and Nancy:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dancedataproject/

Website: https://www.dancedataproject.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/dance-data-project/

✅ Sign up for the newsletter:

https://theleadershipdance.substack.com/s/the-leadership-dance

👉 Listen and follow: https://linktr.ee/theleadershipdance

Music from InAudio: https://inaudio.org/ "Catwalk Queen"

"I realized I was allowing other people to be my source of confidence."

Lisa Shalett, co-founder of Extraordinary Women on Boards, joins host Alissa Hsu Lynch to talk about a career that spans equities, compliance, crisis communications, and the boardroom. A former Goldman Sachs partner, she spent twenty years at the firm reinventing herself across roles most people wouldn't have the courage to take, including managing Goldman's brand through one of the worst crises in Wall Street history. When she left, she turned her attention to a problem she kept hearing from women in boardrooms everywhere and, with her co-founder Lisa DeCarlo, built a 1,000+ member community to solve it, which grew entirely by word of mouth.

Don't miss this conversation about reinvention, confidence, and what it means to stop waiting for permission.

💡 Key Takeaways:

• If you don't tell your own story, others will tell it for you

• Agility is a skill, and steep learning curves are worth running toward

• The most important shift in Lisa's career came when she stopped looking to others for approval and became her own source of confidence

Connect with Lisa and EWOB:

Lisa's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisashalett/

EWOB's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/extraordinary-women-on-boards/

EWOB's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ewobnetwork/

Bruce Feiler's Book: A Time to Gather: How Ritual Created the World— and How It Can Save Us: https://a.co/d/0aTg2V9I

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https://theleadershipdance.substack.com/s/the-leadership-dance

👉 Listen and follow: https://linktr.ee/theleadershipdance

Music from InAudio: https://inaudio.org/ "Catwalk Queen"