How to turn everyday moves (even typing!) into dance

VPM | By Manoush Zomorodi, Andrea Gutierrez and Sanaz Meshkinpour

Published March 24, 2023 at 1:03 PM EDT

Part 1 of the TED Radio Hour episode Mind, Body, Spirit- Part 2.

Our bodies can do amazing things, even with the most mundane tasks. Choreographer Ryan Heffington encourages us to celebrate the ways the body can move and unlock our inner joy through dance.

About Ryan Heffington

Ryan Heffington is a Grammy-nominated and Emmy-winning choreographer. He has worked on everything from film to fashion, commercials to music videos.

When the pandemic started in March 2020, he instantly became a symbol of empowerment and self-expression for hundreds of thousands of people through his free online dance class, SweatFest.

Heffington’s choreography work including Sia’s “Chandelier,” HBO’s “Euphoria,” Spike Jonze’s commercials for Kenzo World perfume and Apple’s Homepod, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s film “tick, tick… BOOM!”and Netflix’s “The OA.”

This segment of the TED Radio Hour was produced by Andrea Gutierrez and edited by Sanaz Meshkinpour and Manoush Zomorodi. You can follow us on Facebook @TEDRadioHour and email us at [email protected].

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Manoush Zomorodi

Manoush Zomorodi is the host of TED Radio Hour. She is a journalist, podcaster and media entrepreneur, and her work reflects her passion for investigating how technology and business are transforming humanity.

Zomorodi is a co-founder of Stable Genius Productions and is the co-host and co-creator of ZigZag, the business podcast about being human. She also created, hosted, and was managing editor of the podcast Note to Self in partnership with WNYC Studios, which was named Best Tech Podcast of 2017 by The Academy of Podcasters.

Prior to her time at WNYC, Zomorodi reported and produced around the world for BBC News and Thomson Reuters, including a few years in Berlin.

She was named one of Fast Company's 100 Most Creative People in Business for 2018 and has received numerous awards for her work, including The Gracie for Best Radio Host in 2014 and 2018. Her book "Bored and Brilliant: How Spacing Out Can Unlock Your Most Creative Self" (2017, St. Martin's Press) and her TED Talk are guides to surviving information overload and the "Attention Economy."

Zomorodi received a bachelor's degree from Georgetown University in English and fine arts. She is half-Persian and half-Swiss but was born in New York City, where she lives with her family.

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