4:04pm Wednesday 10th December 2008
By Giles Woodforde
It is easy for them, sitting in judgement. It’s easy to think this when you’re sitting in front of an interview panel, trying to get a job.
The same thought can occur as you watch the acerbic judges delivering their verdicts on BBC TV’s Strictly Come Dancing.
But one of the Strictly judges, choreographer Arlene Phillips, knows exactly what it’s like to lose out in a competition: she was hoping to get the job of choreographing the dance musical film Flashdance.
“Tom Hedley, the creator of the film, was looking for a choreographer,” Arlene told me. “He’d seen Hot Gossip, where I made my name, so I went up as one of the possible choreographers for Flashdance. It got down to the last two, and I was hoping, hoping, hoping I was going to get it. But in the end it didn’t go with me. So when Chris Malcolm, the producer of the Flashdance — The Musical stage show phoned, and asked me to choreograph it, I cried: ‘YEESS!’ I couldn’t believe it. I loved the film, and so wanted to do it, but getting the show was even better.”
What was it, I asked Arlene, that particularly set her juices flowing about this show?
“With ‘dance’ in the title, by its very nature it’s got lots of dance for me to work on. I’ve choreographed so many musicals where dance is only a small part of the show. So to be asked to choreograph a musical where dance is a major force was one of the main reasons why I wanted to do it. Secondly, a lot of that early 1980s dance hasn’t been seen by a newer and younger generation, and there was some great dance at that time. It excites me to recreate the ideas, and that whole 80s video age.”
Landing the Flashdance stage show was poetic justice for Arlene Phillips in another way too: additional numbers have been written for it, so there is more material for her to work on than there would have been in the film. Some of the numbers are quite raunchy, too — something Arlene is very keen on: she frequently tells competitors on Strictly that they need “more raunch”.
“Dance is about the body. You use the body to express yourself. Even the raunchy moves, they’re powerful moves. They are not easy to do, and certainly not easy to do well.”
Auditions for a show like Flashdance can attract 1,000 applicants for maybe 25 jobs. What does Arlene look for?
“The most important thing for a dancer is to have a strong technique and a strong ability to express themselves with their body, and make me believe that they are speaking through dance. They’re not just doing steps, however good they are.
“Let’s say we’re looking for girls. 40 girls at a time come in: we give them a fairly simple combination to perform. Already I’m looking for someone who isn’t just blank, and doing the steps. You start to eliminate, and then you do the same thing with a boys’ group. Next you do a longer section that’s far more challenging. Are they still able to tell the story? The next thing is: can they sing? If their dance is good, but the singing isn’t quite so strong, can you work their voice in? Then they have to act. It’s a very hard, very tough process.”
One person who didn’t have to come under Arlene’s eagle eye is Bruno Langley, who doesn’t have to dance: “I can’t dance at all — it’s a blessing,” he confessed. Starring as low-grade criminal Jimmy, Bruno has lately spent three years in Coronation Street, playing the bright Todd Grimshaw, a very different character to Jimmy.
“Todd got a place, here in Oxford. But he didn’t come in the end, he’s in London somewhere — I hope you’re all right, Todd! But Jimmy is American, so I’ve had to acquire an American accent. Luckily I’m into music, and accents are musical, in the way that they go up and down. Also, we had an American dialect coach, and if anything wasn’t right, she’d say, ‘stop, that isn’t good enough!’ Jimmy grew up in Pittsburgh with the main character, a girl called Alex. He has spent time in what the Americans call a ‘juvenile facility’. He dabbles in drugs and stuff like that. He’s a street kid, basically. It’s a great role — characters who are a bit weird or crazy are always more fun to play.”
Victoria Hamilton-Barritt, who plays the lead role of Alex, was actually invited to audition, having worked previously for Arlene Phillips in Saturday Night Fever. As all the world now knows, Arlene is pretty forthright in her opinions, so the invitation was an honour, I suggested.
“It was quite a compliment,” Victoria confirmed. “It was a very important time for me, and when I got the good news, I was blown away, I was totally overwhelmed. The audition process was really intense — the first one was something like five hours, the second was seven hours, and the finals were four hours. It was full-on — we had to learn something like five songs, two bits of choreography, and three sets of script. I got there in the end.”
Then it was into rehearsal, and on to discovering the character of Alex, a nightclub hoofer with an ambition to become a ballet dancer.
“She’s a hard cookie, and doesn’t let a lot of people into her life” Victoria explained. “Her boyfriend Nick [played by Noel Sullivan] breaks that mould, and she lets him in. The scene where that happens is a high spot for me: it’s soft, and we always get applause at the end of it, when we have a bit of a kiss. A lot of people say that I’m very much like Alex — my mother-in-law, in particular, says so. It freaks her out a little bit! We’re both quite feisty, confident, and well-lived!”
lFlashdance opens at the New Theatre on December 15, and runs until January 3. Tickets from 0844 8471585, or newtheatreoxford.org.uk.
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