“Dance is the only art of which we ourselves are the stuff of which it is made.” ~Ted Shawn, Time, 25 July 1955
Someone once said that it takes about 10 years to make a good dancer. I mentioned before that I was a good dancer right? Well, I would even venture to say I was/am a great dancer. Now, I am what I would call a realist. I am the first to tell you the absolute truth, about me or anything else. There are many things in this world that I am not good at. The list is long and at times depressing, but dancing is not one of them. I was one of those people that dancing just came to naturally. That’s not to say I didn’t train hard. I worked my butt off, but I never had to worry about flexibility or arched feet. That all came naturally, but I believe that to be a really good dancer you have to be a really good actor as well. Anyone with enough training can get on stage and dance proficiently. A triple pirouette here, stick your leg up there and voila, your a “dancer”. But to be an artist in your craft you have to feel something and be able to convey that to your audience. Mikhail Baryshnikov is an amazing dancer, but it was his ability to bring you to tears without ever saying a word that made him exceptional. I loved getting on stage and becoming another character. Using my body to tell a story. That’s why I think dancers can make the best actors. Because we’ve learned to express ourselves from the inside out without saying a word.
So, that brings me to my Lament. Musical Theater. I’ve stated that to be a good/great dancer you need to be a great actor as well, so after honing my acting skills at UCLA I was ready to move to New York to be a dancer/actor on Broadway! And that’s where I hit my first road block. Singing. So not only do I need to beat out all the other dancers and actors but now I gotta sing while I do it??
My beef with musical theater is this; if you are only an actor, meaning you probably started doing school plays in high school and thought it would be fun to try this “acting thing” out, they (the casting people) act like it’s just fantastic if you can carry a tune in a bucket. IF you can do the box step on top of that, your the second coming of Christ, and voila, your the Co-star in the next dramatic musical and up for a supporting actor Tony.
Now, if your a real “singer”, meaning you probably have done school choir and maybe started some real voice lessons in High school, they (casting) automatically assume that you can act. But again, if you know how to shuffle ball change, it brings them to tears, and voila, your up for Best Actor in a Musical.
But if your a dancer, meaning you’ve been training since you were 5 to 10 years old on average, anywhere from 1 to 6 hours a day, 6 days a week, they (casting) will ask you to show Tap, Ballet and Jazz. Oh, and can you do a tumbling run? No? Pity. Then they’d like to hear you sing, an up tempo and ballad. Only “legit” music please. What’s that? You’d like me to do a four part harmony as well? While dancing my butt off, trying to avoid set pieces while fake smoke is blowing in and I can’t see my partner who’s about to hoist me over his head? Oh, and recite a monologue and understudy 4 other parts? Sure, no problem. And what award am I up for? Oh, that’s right, there isn’t one for us.
I have “moved up” in my years of performing from Chorus girl to doing Leads these days, and I can tell you that I never worked harder than when I was a chorus girl, and I never got less praise. Gypsy’s, as we’re called, are the hardest working people on Broadway, and treated with the least respect. We’re asked to do everything, and do it well, and do it while standing behind everyone else. Why do we put up with it?!! Because we love it. That is the achilles heel of being a dancer. We will put up with almost anything if it means we get to go out on stage and do what we love.
It’s a hard, short life. Most dancers careers don’t even last into their 30’s. And yet none of this will deter us. Dancing is part of our souls. I still walk turned out. I’m caught dancing in the aisles of the super market while pushing my kids in the cart. I can be seen rocking out in my minivan while driving down Harbor Blvd.
I couldn’t stop being a dancer if I tried….. not that I ever will.
