CREATIVE TEAM INTERVIEWS
CHOREOGRAPHER
ANTHONY VAN LAAST
Anthony has worked on some of the most well-known musicals, plays and films such as Mamma Mia!, Sister Act, Candide, Joseph and the Technicolour Dreamcoat, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, and Beauty and the Beast.
The process of mounting the show began with a few workshops, and I created quick staging of some of the numbers in order to get a sense of how we would realise the story. Choreography is more than just a sequence of steps: it involves a lot of detailed discussion with the director to decide what the story is that we are trying to tell.
I don’t do a lot of task-based rehearsal work in musicals, although I might do that in some of my other work. I do a huge amount of preparation before the rehearsals begin so that there is very little left to the moment once we’re in the room. That’s partly because rehearsal periods are short, but we also have the opportunity to tweak choreography once it’s been taught.
Tina herself worked with the Ikettes to curate (rather than create) the choreography in the early years of their shows. The Ikettes would go out dancing in clubs and come back to Tina with some new moves that they had seen other people do.
The choreography was the only element of control that Tina had, and so it became her focus. She was very strict on the choreography, and the quality of it in our own production too! Tina’s dance style is idiosyncratic – it is what makes her style. In our choreography we have weaved some of the iconic movements (such as the rowing motion in Proud Mary) with choreography that is more appropriate for our theatre environment.
Tina was involved in rehearsals for Tina, and she shared some of her choreography from later concerts and performances. What’s important is that all of the movement is choreographed and strictly blocked: that’s what helps us avoid mimicry or pastiche. Working with Adrienne (who created the role of Tina in London, and later performed in New York), we had the space in rehearsals to explore the nature of the movement we required.
Some of a choreographer’s work is on movement, rather than dance steps: we can contribute to the dramaturgy of the piece, for example the way in which Tonight is not choreographed but the use of space and movement is important as GG and the Younger Tina sing to her as Tina prepares to perform for the studio executives. Good musical theatre is that which is a strong collaboration with the director, choreographer, musical director and designers (including projection and moving image).
A scene that I think is particularly effective in Tina is Private Dancer at the beginning of Act Two. We use the revolve in particular – Tina is surrounded by men, all of whom are strangers, and we show her trapped within their circle. They are intimidating, she isolated and it’s a great example of storytelling in musical theatre. It also allows her to move downstage in the smaller scenes within the song and then opens back out into the drama of Ike shooting at her from upstage.
Advice for aspiring choreographers and movement directors: When you’re trying to tell a story, you have to identify the ‘problem’ that needs to be solved in the particular scene or dance. How are you going to incorporate it into the story? Frederick Ashton (choreographer) used to work on primary emotions, and that’s a helpful way of looking at the problem. You can play and explore and it can be helpful to play against your initial instinct. For example, if your piece is about bullying, portray the bully rather than the victim (even though your victim may be the main focus of the entire story). That helps avoid cliché and going for the first idea that you think of. Most importantly, you can’t choreography sitting down! You need to be up, active and moving!