Charlotte d'Amboise & Terrence Mann

Well with formal trainer and Jacques D'Amboise for a dad I would be an amazing dancer as well!

I kid. She *is* a great dancer. I remember seeing her in JEROME ROBBINS' BROADWAY and just being wowed!

I adore them both and went to see Pippin primarily to see them. I've seen Terrence several times but I hadn't gotten a chance to see Charlotte live and it was a thrill to see her dance! I agree, they really should do more work together. They are as wonderful onstage together as they appear to be offstage.

Mark-o, got a question for you about them in Pippin

Updated On: 8/28/13 at 02:16 PM

...Role That Was the Hardest
“A Chorus Line [2006, as Cassie; Best Featured Actress Tony nomination] was extremely difficult. Enjoyable? I wouldn’t say so. Cassie is the straight woman and I always play kooky characters, so it was a little boring for me in that sense. Also, standing there every night and pretending you’re at an audition, listening to someone criticize you, seeps into your soul. Plus, Cassie’s dance is so hard. It doesn’t look nearly as hard as it is, and you have to do everything to the fullest at every performance. Shows don’t usually stay with me [after leaving the theater], but that one did; it was too close to my life. I’m glad I experienced it, but I would never want to do it again.”

It's a shame she didn't enjoy playing Cassie. yes it's physically & emotionally taxing on the body, but most [female] dancers would kill to play Cassie.
d'Amboise's Broadway.com interview

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I think Charlotte is a bit of a perfectionist and she was being a little hard on herself. Of what I saw of her in the role (her MatM is on "that" site), she was quite decent and did the dance section justice. I think she found it less enjoyable because ACL is such a big legendary property, she had enormous shoes to fill and i think as a dancer she respects the work a lot. I think any woman who plays Cassie will agree that it is one of the hardest roles for a triple threat performer. Charlotte commented in the past that she always felt that she had diffficulty meeting all three of the role's demands--she always felt that something suffered in each performance. she didn't sing it, dance it or act it well enough to meet her personal standards. Maybe she's just her toughest critic. I don't know her personally but I do respect her quest for perfection as an artist and her desire to give the audience her best all the time. I think sometimes when you are thinking and stressing about something so much it becomes hard to enjoy it. But I do think she was a lovely Cassie.

I don't know if I'd say d'Amboise was a far better dancer than McKechnie ever was, because I think their bodies and dancing styles are so different. It's unfortunate that d'Amboise had to replicate a dance that wasn't molded on her body and strengths. (Like what she mentioned about doing Sweet Charity.)

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I loved Charlotte's Music and the Mirror. I've seen plenty of other people do it, both onstage and some of the great past performances up on "you know where". But each dancer does find something of their own in it. I loved Charlotte's exuberant abandon at the end when she moves all over the stage as if to say, "see how much I love to dance! I own this place, I belong here!". I also loved her expression in that exquisite moment when the mirrors are revealed and she turns and sees them and then looks back into the house, presumably at Zach but connecting with the audience at the same time, and her expression seems to say, "is this for me?". Then she turns sexy, flirting with the mirror, and revels in what she is able to convey by just the movement of her own body. It's almost such a private moment of self-discovery that you feel priveleged to see inside her thoughts. Charlotte did that little "moment" so beautifully!