Choreographers Michele Lynch and Tim Kashani cast dancers on instinct, not just skill. They describe it as falling in love at first sight, looking for eye contact and energy that signals the performer fits their artistic world. Malcolm Gladwell's Blink shaped how they think about these snap decisions.
When you look at those, all of this talent that's coming up in these dancers, whether you're teaching class or auditioning for a show, what is it that you look for that catches your eye? Besides the talent, because once you're in New York, you've got huge amounts of talent.
I want to fall in love with them, and I want to get someone I want to get to know and fall in love with immediately. You know, there's this great book, Blink, Malcolm Caldwell, right?
Yes.
You know, it's sort of the same thing. It's like your first instinct, whoever your eye goes to, whoever is I'm just drawn to. I think different people are drawn to different things, and I think different shows bring out different— or different people are drawn to different shows. I think about things I wasn't cast in, and I thought, "Well, that probably wasn't right for me." So I just look for someone who I think would fit in my world. For me, it's a lot of an instinct, and it's just you look in someone's eyes and you see this energy about them, and you think, "I want to get to know them. I want to spend an evening with them on stage." It's a job.
So, yes, you've— they've— boy, you've got somebody, they just dropped off the bus and they auditioned for you and they got the job. What comes with it?
I think a lot of people don't know what the job is, I find. And I think people think— I've experienced this a lot with fellow performers and people who've worked for me— is that they think this job is going to make them happy, you know? And then it's like the reality of the work, the reality of 8 shows a week, the reality of the toll it takes on your body, the reality of especially if you're doing a new musical, the changes that go in daily. The reality of the show may not be the biggest hit. The reality of you may be in the back on the right, you know, and you've worked so hard and no one sees you, or you're only in one number. You know, the reality of what it is, but your job is to help tell the story and be part of this community and not take anything personally. And if you don't like it, then you don't do it again. But, you know, that's the reality. And I think not to expect that the job's gonna make them happy.
