HOW TO SELF TAPE: TIPS 4 BEGINNERS
It’s no surprise that auditions have gone virtual. Crowded hallways and long lines wrapped around a building, last-minute hair and makeup adjustments, and checking your dance bag for that other shoe have been replaced with online submissions.
On the A4D Audition Calendar, you’ll discover nearly every audition begins with an online video submission. Each has a different set of rules; you have to learn the choreography that’s posted in a drop box or on YouTube, film yourself, and then submit your video before the stated deadline.
What? Now you have to be a video expert? Film where you live? Submit in a matter of hours, or if you’re lucky, in a few days? What’s a dancer to do?
We reached out to agents like Jim Keith partner and president, The Movement Talent Agency (MTA), who told us the three most important things you must do if you want to book in today’s environment, ‘Learn how to self tape. Learn how to self tape, and finally, learn how to self tape… and turn it in very quickly.’
We also spoke with Brandon Sierra, Agent/Director of LA Talent, McDonald Selznick Associates (MSA) who gives key advice. ‘You have to be on top of your materials more than any other time before. With a lack of in person opportunities, hiring authorities are really relying heavily on the fact that your materials are up to speed and fully represent you and your abilities as a talent.’
To help you navigate this new information, Answers4dancers is introducing a new series to untangle the 2022 style of auditioning in a post-COVID world. There’s lots to know, but as dancers, it’s important to adapt to the current rules.
Our first installment covers basic rules of self-taping. We want to provide the tools you need to be comfortable on camera, develop skills for filming and editing, and build the confidence you need to submit a great audition video... Let’s do this!
SELF TAPE TIPS 4 BEGINNERS >
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SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE: THE SEMI FINAL ROUND & WHICH DANCER FELL SHORT AT THE END OF THE NIGHT
 With only two weeks left in the competition, the final three contestants hit the stage and performed two unique numbers as they headed toward the finals. First, they danced together in pairs and then they were matched with one of three All Stars: Kiki Nyemchek, Audrey Case, or Robert Green. At the end of the night, one dancer was sent home, one week shy of the finale. The show began with a challenging Bollywood number for Keaton & Alexis. It was choreographed by Nakul Dev Mahajan. Then Alexis & Essence performed a Chase Haley Bowden contemporary piece. It was beautiful, but Essence struggled with the technical aspects. Our first All Star, Robert & Essence performed a Mel Charlot Hip Hop routine. She did a great job. Then Keaton & All Star Audrey performed a powerful Contemporary number choreographed by Robert Roldan. It was the best number of the night with a one arm lift for the ages from Keaton. In the middle of the show, auditions were announced for a new season of So You Think You Can Dance. Back to the competition: Alexis & All Star Kiki performed a Tango which was supposed to be in Alexis’ style but she never did a Tango before and it was harder than expected. It was choreographed by Leonardo Barrionuevo & Miriam Larici. Keaton & Essence hit the stage with an Ellenor Scott choreographed Jazz number that had heavy hip hop content. When the dancing was done, the audience voted. They chose to send home sweet Essence leaving Keaton and Alexis in the finale. One of them will win $100,000 and the title of America’s Favorite Dancer!
JAMES MONROE IGLEHART, JESSIE MUELLER, STEVEN PASQUALE & PHILLIPA SOO TO STAR IN GUYS AND DOLLS AT THE KENNEDY CENTER
 The Kennedy Center’s Guys and Dolls has found its stars. Tony winner James Monroe Igleahart will play Nathan Detroit, Tony winner Jessie Mueller will play Miss Adelaide, and real-life couple Steven Pasquale and Phillipa Soo will play Sky Masterson and Sarah Brown. Marc Bruni will direct the musical as part of the theater’s Broadway Center Stage series set to bow at the Eisenhower Theater in Washington, D.C. from October 11-16. Iglehart won a Tony for his performance as Genie in Aladdin and was recently seen on Broadway in Chicago, Hamilton, and Freestyle Love Supreme. Mueller won a Tony Award for playing the title role in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. She garnered additional Tony nominations for her work in Carousel, Waitress, and On a Clear Day You Can See Forever. Pasquale’s Broadway credits include American Son, Junk, and The Bridges of Madison County. He was seen in off-Broadway’s Assassins as John Wilkes Booth. Soo can currently be seen as Cinderella in Into the Woods at Broadway’s St. James Theatre. She earned a Tony nomination for originating the role of Eliza Hamilton in Hamilton. Guys and Dolls, a Tony–winning musical by composer and lyricist Frank Loesser and book writers Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows, is set in Damon Runyon’s mythical New York City of the 1950s. The show follows a rowdy bunch of gamblers, gangsters, and showgirls in a wild game of chance. It features the songs Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat, Sue Me, A Bushel and a Peck, Adelaide’s Lament, and Luck Be a Lady. The production will feature choreography by Denis Jones.
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INTO THE WOODS REVIVAL EXTENDS BROADWAY RUN THROUGH THE FALL
 The revival of Into the Woods will extend its limited engagement on Broadway. The production will now play at the St. James Theatre through October 16. It was originally set to play its final performance on August 21. Lear deBessonet directs the Broadway transfer of the Encores! staging of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s musical. Lorin Latarro choreographs and Rob Berman serves as music director. The current cast includes Sara Bareilles, Brian d’Arcy James, Patina Miller, Gavin Creel, Joshua Henry, Phillipa Soo, Julia Lester, Cole Thompson, Annie Golden, Ta’Nika Gibson, Brooke Ishibashi, Kennedy Kanagawa, David Patrick Kelly, Albert Guerzon, David Turner, Nancy Opel, Aymee Garcia, and Alysia Velez. This marks the third revival of Into the Woods and its first time back on Broadway in 20 years. A movie adaptation was released in 2014.
JELANI REMY RETURNS TO BROADWAY’S THE LION KING AS SIMBA
 Jelani Remy returned to Broadway’s The Lion King at the Minskoff Theatre on July 26. Brandon A. McCall is on leave and scheduled to return on August 23. Remy was last seen on Broadway as Eddie Kendricks in Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations. He made his Broadway debut playing Simba in Disney’s The Lion King and appeared in the show in Las Vegas and the North American tour. He most recently starred as the Emcee in Cabaret at Goodspeed Opera House. The Lion King features a book by Roger Allers and Irene Mecchi, music by Elton John and lyrics by Tim Rice, with additional contributions by Lebo M., Mark Mancina, Jay Rifkin, Julie Taymor, Hans Zimmer, and Mark Mancina. The Lion King took home six 1998 Tony Awards, including wins for Taymor’s direction and costume design and Best Musical.
THE MUSIC MAN, STARRING HUGH JACKMAN & SUTTON FOSTER, TO RELEASE CAST RECORDING
The Broadway revival of Meredith Wilson’s The Music Man, starring Tony winners Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster, will release a cast recording. The album is produced by seven-time Grammy nominee Robert Sher in partnership with producers Brian Gillet and Huck Walton. The two-day recording session with the complete original cast took place at Manhattan Center. The Music Man follows traveling salesman Harold Hill (Jackman) as he cons the people of River City, Iowa into buying instruments and uniforms for a boys band he vows to organize. He falls for the town librarian, Marian Paroo (Foster), and his plans take an unexpected turn. The show features (Ya Got) Trouble, Goodnight My Someone, 76 Trombones, Marian the Librarian, and Till There Was You.
Stage and screen star Pat Carroll has died at the age of 95. Carroll was a Tony nominee perhaps best known for voicing Ursula the sea witch in Disney’s animated The Little Mermaid. Carroll went on to become a fixture on TV game shows like Password, I’ve Got a Secret, and more. She also appeared on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Police Woman, and more. She won an Emmy Award in 1957 as a regular on the Sid Caesar sketch show Caesar’s Hour… Mary Alice, a Tony winner for the original Broadway production of Fences, died on July 27. She was 85. On screen, Alice is known as Leticia ‘Lettie’ Bostic on A Different World and Effie Williams in the musical drama Sparkle. She won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her performance as Marguerite Peck in I’ll Fly Away. Additional credits include All My Children, Beat Street, Spike Lee’s Malcolm X, Clint Eastwood’s A Perfect World, The Inkwell, Maya Angelou’s Down in the Delta. She was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 2000…
LENA HALL & ANDREW CALL TO JOIN OFF-BROADWAY’S LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS
 Tony winner Lena Hall will take on the role of Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors on September 6 at off-Broadway’s Westside Theatre. Hall will star opposite two-time Tony nominee Rob McClure, who joined the company as Seymour, and Andrew Call, who steps into the role of Orin Scrivello, D.D.S. on August 30. Hall and Call replace original cast members Tammy Blanchard and Tony winner Christian Borle. Hall won a 2014 Tony Award for Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Her Broadway credits include Kinky Boots, Tarzan, Dracula, The Musical, 42nd Street, and Cats. Call was seen as King George III in Chicago’s production of Hamilton. He appeared on Broadway in Groundhog Day, Rock of Ages, American Idiot, Glory Days, Cry-Baby, and High Fidelity. This production won the 2020 Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Revival of a Musical and earned Lucille Lortel and Antonyo Award nominations for Outstanding Revival.
CAESAR SAMAYOA & LUBA MASON TO STAR IN MICHAEL JOHN LaCHIUSA’S LOS OTROS OFF-BROADWAY
 Michael John LaChiusa and Ellen Fitzhugh’s Los Otros, A New Musical in One Act will arrive at A.R.T./New York Theatres’ Mezzanine Theatre on August 24. The production, directed by Noah Himmelstein, stars Caesar Samayoa and Luba Mason. It will open on August 31 and play through October 8. With music by LaChiusa and a book and lyrics by Fitzhugh, the semi-autobiographical work tells the story of Californians Carlos and Lillian. Currently starring in Come From Away, Samayoa’s Broadway credits also include Sister Act and The Peewee Herman Show. Mason was last seen on Broadway in Girl from the North Country and has also appeared in The Capeman, Jekyll & Hyde, Chicago, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, The Will Rogers Follies, Sid Caesar & Company, and Late Nite Comic. The show received its East Coast premiere in 2017 at Everyman Theatre in Baltimore under Himmelstein’s direction.
NEWCOMER VERONICA STERN TO LEAD NATIONAL TOUR OF ANASTASIA
 Veronica Stern will lead the national tour of Anastasia beginning August 23 at the Citizens Bank Opera House in Boston. Kyla Stone will perform during the first week completing her run as Anya. The production will travel to over 50 cities. Stern has performed professionally at Carnegie Hall, Cincinnati Music Hall, and Totem Pole Playhouse. The cast will also feature Willem Butler as Dmitry, Ben Edquist as Gleb, Gerri Weagraff as Dowager Empress, Bryan Seastrom as Vlad, and Madeline Raube as Countess Lily. From the Tony-winning creators of the Broadway classic Ragtime and inspired by the beloved film, Anastasia features a book by playwright Terrence McNally, a new score by composer Stephen Flaherty and lyricist Lynn Ahrens, and direction by Darko Tresnjak.
Darius Barnes, a Broadway dancer and choreographer who was set to serve as associate choreographer on Broadway-bound Kimberly Akimbo, has died. He was 34. As an actor, Darius’ six Broadway credits include Mean Girls, Memphis, the Roundabout Theater Company revival of Kiss Me Kate, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark, and Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella. On television, Darius was featured in music videos plus appearances on Good Morning America, Halston, Katy Keene, Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, New Year’s Eve With John Legend, One Night Only: Best Of Broadway, Smash, The Today Show, and the Tony Awards. Darius trained with The Baltimore School For The Arts, The Kirov Ballet Academy, Chautauqua Institute, Pacific Northwest Ballet and School of American Ballet…
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