The First Performance

This was our first time participating in all three performances at the Ailey Citigroup Theater for Kat Wildish's Performing in New York Showcase. Last year, the weekend of the show was canceled because of hurricane Irene. We only were able to perform for one of the rescheduled performances. This year, we made it through all three performances in great style.

First Call

Our performance experience began with our first call at 3:30pm for our Tech Rehearsal at 4:30pm. That call was mostly to make sure the cast was on time and to give them a tour of the theater and its state of the art facilities.

Tech Rehearsal

The Tech Rehearsal would only be for 20 minutes on the actual stage to run through our piece with full lighting and music. We would barely have enough time to correct any blocking issues. We started with a cue-to-cue blocking run just to make sure the dancers understood their spacing in their new environment. Then we took the routine for a spin twice to make sure that it worked. The two runs were a little raw while spacing worked itself out. As I indicated to the cast afterwards, "We'd have to be professional dancers and just fix the issue - rehearsal time was over". That was it - the next time we'd dance on the stage, it would be the real thing.

Full Cast Call

6 o'clock was the call for the entire cast of the show. Approximately 175 dancers packed into the holding room, also known as the "green room". You could feel the nervous energy but in the dancer-world that translates into a lot of stretching, movement and pirouettes. And there were so many different forms of movement swirling around: ballerinas in white tutus, hip hop dancers in camouflage pants, contemporary dancers with cut off shorts, and our group with their black pants and colored tops.

Personally I loved watching our dancers get prepared. Some people rehearsed movements from our routine while others watched the scenery of adrenaline around them.

The producer addresses the cast

At 6:50pm - The producer, Kat Wildish, addressed the entire cast. She thanked us our hard work and gave us clear direction not to touch the wings or the cyc. She presented a box of some free sponsor gifts and wished us all a good show with dancer's famous blessing, "Merde"

Show Time

At 7:00pm the show started. Fortunately and unfortunately, we were 14th of 16 numbers to go on stage. That meant that we had to wait a full hour before even entering the backstage hallway from the green room to the stage.

Nerves were high, everyone was paying attention. It was professional, it was great! We loaded those who were to enter from stage left first, then those who were entering from stage right. We waited for the applause from the routine before us (three contemporary male dancers) to come to a hush as we awaited in the wings.

There's something about the mumble from the audience, the cool breeze from the stage and the smell of velvety curtains that makes your heart race with anticipation. It's that moment when the dancer chooses a side in the battle of fight or flight. One either fights the urge to flee or one flies forward to meet the challenge - either way, you end up on stage.

The music that is so familiar starts to play louder and the lights get brighter. In your soul, you feel a primal shout but it sounds more like 5,6,7,8....then you take your first step on the stage. From that first step to the last, it's a blink. It goes by so fast.

Here are some of the memories - the audience exhaled and murmured when we first held up our hand in the shape of a phone and said "call me, maybe" to our followers. Claps on the beat were heard during the first Hustle section. And then came the cheesy, "Barry White" walk around, complete with requisite lip synching...and the audience cheered. The choreographer's dream had come true - the vision was seen - the audience reacted to the part that was intended to invite response - the dancers had communicated.

At the final pose, there were hoots and hollers from the crowd and we even saw, through the bright stage lights, a few people jump to their feet. As we exited the stage, it hit all of us that we had just done something special.

The compliment of a lifetime

Our great performance didn't go unnoticed. The producer, Kat Wildish, came up to me within 2 minutes of completion to tell us that we were the hit of the night and should have closed the show. I've been in show business a long time - but after hearing those words, I could have hung up my dancing shoes and retired. That's the compliment that every choreographer waits a lifetime to hear...and especially from one of their mentors.

But there was more ahead....an opening night cast-party and two more Sunday performances. Now that I knew what our dancers were cabable of, I couldn't wait to perform with them again. There was no way I could retire...there was more dancing to do!!