Bare Baiting with Joy French

Bare Baiting with Joy French

From A New Angle by justin angle

May 14, 2026 · 29 min

About this episode

Joy French discusses her journey in the dance industry and the mission of Bare Bait Dance.

This week's guest is Joy French, executive artistic director of Bare Bait Dance . Bare Bait began in 2011 as an effort to create more opportunities for aspiring professional dancers in Montana. Bare Bait operates out of Missoula's Westside Theater , which has quickly become a lively community hub for the performing arts.In this conversation, Joy tells Justin she didn't set out looking for a dance career. She talks about the difficult parts of that career - scheduling, stress on the body and juggling various incomes to make ends meet - and the fulfilling ones, like giving local dancers a paid opportunity to perform, finding a home-base and constantly creating. She also explains the origin story of Bare Bait's name to Justin, which does, in fact, involve bears. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.anewanglepodcast.com/subscribe

People in this episode

Host: Justin Angle

Guest: Joy French

Topics covered

  • dance
  • performing arts
  • community
  • career challenges
  • local opportunities

Keywords

  • Bare Bait Dance
  • Joy French
  • dance career
  • Montana
  • performing arts
  • community hub
  • local dancers

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Bare Bait Dance

Places: Montana, Missoula, Westside Theater

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