Female performers who aren't dancers?
Female performers who aren't dancers?
#1Female performers who aren't dancers?
Posted: 1/11/20 at 5:10pm
Who comes to mind? A friend and I got into a debate today about the triple threat requirements of many modern musicals, and how those requirements tend to be different along gender lines for principal performers - what actresses can you think of from the last 30 years would you say are firmly not dancers, but also firmly musical performers as opposed to known screen or straight play performers who happened to do one musical.
"Life is already so dark. If you have got the talent to make it brighter and bring people hope & joy, why would you withhold that?"
fosseboi008
Swing Joined: 5/3/09
#2Female performers who aren't dancers?
Posted: 1/11/20 at 7:36pm
Of the last 30... Sutton Foster Karen Olivo Kelli O’Hara Audra McDonald Sure more will come to mind. Sutton and Karen may dance but I’d never put them in the league of some of the truly great dancing leads of years past.
tomwsjr
Leading Actor Joined: 5/9/05
#4Female performers who aren't dancers?
Posted: 1/11/20 at 7:56pmSJB
"The sexual energy between the mother and son really concerns me!"-random woman behind me at Next to Normal
"I want to meet him after and bang him!"-random woman who exposed her breasts at Rock of Ages, referring to James Carpinello
sabrelady
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/16/03
#5Female performers who aren't dancers?
Posted: 1/11/20 at 8:09pm
When Laura Benanti did the show at RAdio City Music Hall part of the joke was she was a singer who "dances".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPNJCZEgBk0
#7Female performers who aren't dancers?
Posted: 1/11/20 at 8:22pm
Carolee Carmello is another if we're limiting it to the last 30 years or so. Excellent singer and talented actress, but she's the first to say she isn't a dancer.
I'd also put Jessie Mueller in this category too, probably? I don't recall a ton of choreo for Jenna or Carole King, and she definitely didn't have much in the most recent Carousel revival.
miamama2
Swing Joined: 11/17/16
#8Female performers who aren't dancers?
Posted: 1/11/20 at 9:32pm
fosseboi008 said: "... Sutton and Karen may dance but I’d never put them in the league of some of the truly great dancing leads of years past."
Having seen Sutton in Thoroughly Modern Millie, Drowsy Chaperone ["Show Off"] and do two of the best dance numbers I've ever seen in Anything Goes ["Anything Goes" and "Blow Gabriel Blow"], I would heartily disagree about her, in particular
.
Jarethan
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/10/11
#9Female performers who aren't dancers?
Posted: 1/11/20 at 9:41pm
I can't recall Bernadette Peters dancing, beyond the Who's That Woman number in Follies. She was in George M, so she probably did.
Clearly, Sutton Foster is a dancer with a capital D. I think of her primarily from that perspective.
#10Female performers who aren't dancers?
Posted: 1/11/20 at 9:46pmI think a far more interesting question would be the other way around. Which female performers ARE dancers? Performers who were dancers before they were actors/singers. Leanne Cope and Melanie Moore immediately jump to mind.
My father (AIDS)
My sister (AIDS)
My uncle and my cousin and her best friend (AIDS, AIDS, AIDS)
The gays and the straights
And the white and the spades
#11Female performers who aren't dancers?
Posted: 1/11/20 at 10:32pm
Call_me_jorge said: "I think a far more interesting question would be the other way around. Which female performers ARE dancers? Performers who were dancers before they were actors/singers. Leanne Cope and Melanie Moore immediately jump to mind."
Chita Rivera is the archetype for this, imo. (Predates the 30-year rule, but she has done shows with great choreo even within that timeframe.)
BWAY Baby2
Broadway Star Joined: 11/10/14
fosseboi008
Swing Joined: 5/3/09
#13Female performers who aren't dancers?
Posted: 1/11/20 at 10:34pm
Sutton does well. She’s a remarkable performer. Bonafide dancer she is not. She has even admitted publicly about her the extent of her dance abilities. Chita, Gwen, Debbie Allen, C. D’Amboise, Ariana DeBose she is not. and I like her but come on.
miamama2 said: "fosseboi008 said: "...Sutton and Karen may dance but I’d never put them in the league of some of the truly great dancing leads of years past."
Having seen Sutton in Thoroughly Modern Millie, Drowsy Chaperone ["Show Off"]anddo two of the best dance numbers I've ever seen in Anything Goes ["Anything Goes" and "Blow Gabriel Blow"], I would heartily disagree about her, in particular
.
"
#14Female performers who aren't dancers?
Posted: 1/12/20 at 1:16am
fosseboi008 said: "Of the last 30... Sutton Foster Karen Olivo Kelli O’Hara Audra McDonald Sure more will come to mind. Sutton and Karen may dance but I’d never put them in the league of some of the truly great dancing leads of years past."
Sutton Foster’s work in Anything Goes was some of the most impressive choreography from the last decade. She’s a dancer.
ParkandBark
Chorus Member Joined: 3/18/19
#15Female performers who aren't dancers?
Posted: 1/12/20 at 3:03am
Beth Leavel talks a lot in interviews about how she's not a dancer. Caitlin Kinnunen is another who doesn't really dance.
The entire OBC of Come From Away always joked about how bad they all are at dancing and how long it took them to learn choreography (same with the older actors in Prom).
hairspraydude1962
Leading Actor Joined: 7/20/09
singer234
Broadway Star Joined: 8/31/08
#17Female performers who aren't dancers?
Posted: 1/12/20 at 5:38amI think a lot of the leads in Mean Girls who have passed through “can dance” but are in no way dancers. Taylor Louderman comes to mind. Caissie Levy?
henrikegerman
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/29/05
#18Female performers who aren't dancers?
Posted: 1/12/20 at 9:34am
Fro the sake of the argument, let's agree Sutton not "a dancer."
But if she isn't a dancer, who among her first tier contemporary peers is?
#19Female performers who aren't dancers?
Posted: 1/12/20 at 6:14pm
Jarethan said: "I can't recall Bernadette Peters dancing, beyond the Who's That Woman number in Follies. She was in George M, so she probably did.
Clearly, Sutton Foster is a dancer with a capital D. I think of her primarily from that perspective.
"
Also Peters' role in DAMES AT SEA demanded some serious tap dancing.
AEA AGMA SM
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/13/09
#20Female performers who aren't dancers?
Posted: 1/12/20 at 8:51pm
Jarethan said: "I can't recall Bernadette Peters dancing, beyond the Who's That Woman number in Follies. She was in George M, so she probably did."
She moved beyond dance roles fairly early in her career, but she was a Hollywood Blonde/Dainty June understudy in the national tour of Gypsy in her youth, gained recognition for the original productions of George M and Dames at Sea, and continued to do quite a bit of dancing throughout the 70s and early 80s on variety shows and in movies (Annie and Pennies from Heaven come to mind).
#21Female performers who aren't dancers?
Posted: 1/12/20 at 9:59pm
Patti Lupone, Kelli O’Hara, Donna Murphy?
yankeefan7
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/14/12
fosseboi008
Swing Joined: 5/3/09
#23Female performers who aren't dancers?
Posted: 1/12/20 at 11:25pm
hey henrikegerman... thanks for opening the discussion. It’s just my opinion. I start again, love Sutton. But the idea of triple threat, especially involving dance over the years to me has been so cheapened. I know many dancers who feel this way in the broadway community. Leads aren’t REALLY dancing like some of the truly demanding dance roles before. Many broadway actors who I say are triple threats aren’t “stars”. Most of the real triple threats are standing by and understudying. Sorry but a battement, chainé turns and a split in “Show Off” and a timestep and shuffle in “Anything Goes” and surviving the “long number” doesn’t make you this excellent dancer. She ain’t auditioning for A Chorus Line or American in Paris. Sutton has just been among her contemporary peers the one who has repeatedly done more and better as a star because she does better in dance than her contemporary “star peers”. But I’ve never really seen her ever do anything truly technical or remotely difficult that every other chorus person behind her can’t do. People like Donna McKechnie, Chita, Debbie, Gwen, Ann Reinking, Bebe Neuwirth, Wanda Richert, etc were dynamites that did things you could never think anyone could do. Those days seem gone. Things just change.
Roles are no longer being written for true female lead dancers anymore. It’s sad to me. It’s just my opinion.
One person I am excited to see as the future goes is Ariana DeBose who seems to have it all. And I’m loving seeing the path of Adrienne Warren.
henrikegerman said: "Fro the sake of the argument, let's agree Sutton not "a dancer."
But if she isn't a dancer, who among her first tier contemporary peersis?"
#24Female performers who aren't dancers?
Posted: 1/13/20 at 6:35pm
Jarethan said: "I can't recall Bernadette Peters dancing, beyond the Who's That Woman number in Follies. She was in George M, so she probably did.
Clearly, Sutton Foster is a dancer with a capital D. I think of her primarily from that perspective.
Bernadette was one of the few woman (there were only two others) who had taps on her shoes for that number which led me to believe she is actually a trained tapper.
"
"The sexual energy between the mother and son really concerns me!"-random woman behind me at Next to Normal
"I want to meet him after and bang him!"-random woman who exposed her breasts at Rock of Ages, referring to James Carpinello
#25Female performers who aren't dancers?
Posted: 1/13/20 at 7:00pm
fosseboi008 said: "hey henrikegerman... thanks for opening the discussion. It’s just my opinion. I start again, love Sutton. But the idea of triple threat, especially involving dance over the years to me has been so cheapened. I know many dancers who feel this way in the broadway community.Leads aren’t REALLY dancing like some of the truly demanding dance roles before.Many broadway actors who Isay are triple threats aren’t “stars”. Most of the real triple threats are standing by and understudying.Sorry but a battement, chainéturnsand a split in “Show Off” and a timestep and shuffle in “Anything Goes” and surviving the “long number”doesn’t make you this excellentdancer. She ain’t auditioning for A Chorus Line or American in Paris. Sutton has just beenamong her contemporary peersthe one who has repeatedly done more and better as a star because she does better in dance than her contemporary “star peers”.But I’ve never really seen her ever do anything truly technical or remotely difficult that every other chorus person behindher can’tdo. People like Donna McKechnie, Chita, Debbie, Gwen, Ann Reinking, Bebe Neuwirth, Wanda Richert,etc were dynamites that did thingsyou could never think anyone could do. Those days seem gone. Things just change.
Roles are no longer being written for true female lead dancersanymore. It’s sad to me. It’s just myopinion.
One person I am excited to see as the future goes is Ariana DeBose who seems to have it all. And I’m loving seeingthe path of Adrienne Warren.
henrikegerman said: "Fro the sake of the argument, let's agree Sutton not "a dancer."
But if she isn't a dancer, who among her first tier contemporary peersis?"
"
I get what you’re saying, but just because she’s not on Gwen Verdon’s level doesn’t mean that Sutton’s not an exceptional dancer.
Videos