Artist: Ingrid Michaelson

Album: Everybody

“I’ve had beautiful, technical dancers walk in the room who had never really expressed themselves in a way that felt organic and real,” says Erica Sobol who teaches modern fusion classes at the EDGE Performing Arts Center in Los Angeles. “My great hope is to set those people free.” Sobol, who is also founder and artistic director of collidEdance Company, chooses music that she finds a good connection to in hopes that her students will too. She finds Ingrid Michaelson to be particularly inspiring. “Her songs are cheeky but sensual, wounded but strong,” she says. “I do a lot of improvisation to her music. It fills me up, and all I want to do is overflow with all of my ideas and all of my movement.”

For more, check out Setting Dancers Free by Rachel Zar