“I look for friendship. I always try to see who a potential cast member is as a person. I have a few silly things I do to make them laugh. And music. I would never willingly hire someone who is so pleased with themselves and so aware of their own look that they weren’t really listening. I like to find a person.
“My choreography always has acting in it. It’s never just a beautiful line, 40 million pirouettes, a great arabesque, a leap across the stage. It’s always, ‘What is their soul saying, what is their body saying, how is their mind reacting to the music?’ I like when there’s a thought process going on and not just dancing.”
Those are the words of the late choreographer and SDC Member Dame Gillian Lynne, interviewed by general manager Nina Lannan on Lynne’s 90th birthday in February 2016 for the summer 2016 issue of the SDC Journal. Previously only available to SDC Members and Journal subscribers, SDC is making the complete interview available for all theatre artists and fans, to mark the passing of this vital figure in the US and UK theatre and dance worlds.
The article can be downloaded here: The Art Of Theatre Is Togetherness Dame_GillianLynne