14 OCT 2026 · 1 H 44
Breaking the Routine and Final Words
with LEILA STEWART
About this episode
Who is responsible for protecting dancers when the systems around them fall short? In this episode, Leila Stewart and Marius Iepure confront the safeguarding questions DanceSport can no longer ignore: what happens when a young dancer raises a concern, who should handle it, and are studios equipped to keep dancers safe?
Drawing on Leila’s experience in dance and frontline ambulance work, they discuss independent reporting, child protection, first-aid training for dance teachers, and the pressures dancers face, including harmful comments about their bodies. This is a conversation about accountability and what meaningful protection should look like across DanceSport.
Chapters
- 00:00Intro and Welcome Leila Stewart
- 02:39Opening Balliamo Dance Academy
- 07:00Life After Dance and COVID Pregnancy
- 14:08Teaching and Performing on Cruises
- 19:17Moving to Italy at Eighteen
- 25:30Italian Family Roles and Passion
- 31:40Winning British Under 21 and Diet Pressure
- 34:47When a Coach Called Her Fat
- 40:30A Turbulent Dance Partnership
- 47:21Why Dancers Must Speak Out
- 49:42The Safeguarding Questions DanceSport Ignores
- 1:03:19First Aid Training for Dance Teachers
- 1:06:50Rapid Fire Questions
- 1:10:56World Atlas: São Tomé and Príncipe
- 1:21:32What Elite Training Gives You
- 1:23:31From Harry Potter to Emergency Medicine
- 1:34:37Ballroom Fever Tour with James Wilson
- 1:40:04Breaking the Routine and Final WordsThe Chain
Reels from this episode
All Reels on Instagram →They play on their own, muted. Tap one to hear it, tap again to mute.
Transcript
The full conversation, 1557 passages
Hello and welcome back to Break the Routine. We have a very special guest today who moved to Italy when she was 18 to develop her Latin American dance style. An important chapter was winning um a very important championship in Mr. Adelmo Mandia. Now her lives moves through teaching, judging, performing, touring and opening her own dance studio by Lammo Dance Academy. Um and um very interesting path into emergency medical work. Uh this episode is about reinvention is about pressure and what stays with you after the dance results. We have with us
Leila Stewart.
Hello. Thank you for
coming from the wonderful Brighton.
Well Buckingham now.
Are you in Buckingham? Are you not in Brighton? James is in Brighton.
I thought you moved there as well.
No, we're not married.
Transcribed automatically from the episode audio, so some names may be misspelled. Tap a time to play that moment.