It has been so much fun getting to work on Hairspray as choreographer. I have always loved this show as well as the original John Waters 1988 non-musical movie. This movie was a part of my childhood in a big way and I am definitely one of those goobers who can quote most of it. So getting to create dances for a show that holds so much meaning to me was kind of cool.
Before I started working on choreography I did a lot of research on popular dances of the 60’s. I also talked to many people who used to “shake a tail feather” during that time. What is great about 60’s dances is that they were very specific about certain steps. So I was able to piece together a lot of specific dances to create choreography for different numbers in the show. Dances you will see in our production include the Swim, Mashed Potato, Pony, Madison, Hitchhiker, Monkey and many more!
This show was a HUGE undertaking because it has a ton of dancing and music. This has probably been one of the biggest shows I’ve worked on in a while in terms of choreography. At times I definitely felt overwhelmed especially since I am performing in the show as well. But I was blessed with a wonderful Artistic team and an extremely talented cast of musical theatre performers. They have been great to work with and if you see the show you can see how talented they are.
