My friend, Joanna, and I treated ourselves to a $2 movie at the Regal in Pasadena. We saw the documentary Every Little Step about the audition process during the Broadway revival of A Chorus Line. Not only did they follow the stories of aspiring dancers, but it was juxtaposed with the workshop of the original production, as well as reel to reel tapes of the initial storytelling session where Michael Bennett got most of his character material from. He simply put a number of Broadway chorus people in a room with a jug of bad red wine and everyone talked about their lives.
It really was a pretty good documentary. It also brought back many memories of my dancer days, auditioning and doing musicals. Jay Binder was in the film and his company casts most Broadway musicals. I remember my brush with them in my early 20's. I was doing a revival of The King and I in a 4000-seat theater as one of the king's many wives. I was one of the few non-Asian wives (they dyed my hair black.) Let's just say that if a 60-something Lee Meriwether could pass for the character Anna who was supposed to be in her 30's, then I sure as heck could pass for Asian in such a large theater. I was also one of the dance soloists in the well-known ballet sequence Small House of Uncle Thomas. We did the original choreography, which was stunning,and I remember getting yelled at by the choreographer during one rehearsal because I was having trouble with the intricacies of some of the Thai hand movements. During the run, a Broadway team came to the show to scope out people for the Broadway revival. I'll never forget getting a call after the show from Binder casting telling me they were interested in seeing me for the Broadway version. Sadly, they called me back the next day and said they just realized I wasn't actually Asian and they wanted the entire ensemble to be Asian. Easy come easy go.
Anyway, the movie made me want to dig out my ballet shoes and get back to class. My back and neck tell me otherwise, but maybe I'll get back in the studio one of these days. It was a part of my identity for so long and I so miss expressing myself in that way...
It really was a pretty good documentary. It also brought back many memories of my dancer days, auditioning and doing musicals. Jay Binder was in the film and his company casts most Broadway musicals. I remember my brush with them in my early 20's. I was doing a revival of The King and I in a 4000-seat theater as one of the king's many wives. I was one of the few non-Asian wives (they dyed my hair black.) Let's just say that if a 60-something Lee Meriwether could pass for the character Anna who was supposed to be in her 30's, then I sure as heck could pass for Asian in such a large theater. I was also one of the dance soloists in the well-known ballet sequence Small House of Uncle Thomas. We did the original choreography, which was stunning,and I remember getting yelled at by the choreographer during one rehearsal because I was having trouble with the intricacies of some of the Thai hand movements. During the run, a Broadway team came to the show to scope out people for the Broadway revival. I'll never forget getting a call after the show from Binder casting telling me they were interested in seeing me for the Broadway version. Sadly, they called me back the next day and said they just realized I wasn't actually Asian and they wanted the entire ensemble to be Asian. Easy come easy go.
Anyway, the movie made me want to dig out my ballet shoes and get back to class. My back and neck tell me otherwise, but maybe I'll get back in the studio one of these days. It was a part of my identity for so long and I so miss expressing myself in that way...
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