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May 9, 2008
Lisa Stevens' dancing heart
Choreographer's latest endeavor brings her back to Vancouver.
OLGA LIVSHIN
The musical is a fairly new genre compared to tragedy or opera. The first theatrical pieces that answered to the modern definition of musical, which uses music, dance and song to tell a story, appeared in New York in the second half of the 19th century. As a young, demanding genre, musicals often attract daring and multifaceted creators – dancers, musicians, directors and choreographers. Lisa Stevens is one such creator.
As a choreographer, Stevens embraces the medium and enriches it with her own creative spirit and vitality. The most recent musical she worked on – Disney's High School Musical – is playing in Vancouver, her home town, at the Centre for Performing Arts, until May 11.
Stevens had always wanted to be a dancer. As an elementary school student, she took dance lessons at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver and later studied with Goh Ballet and other dance programs, including Harbor Dance. One of the Harbor Dance founders, Pamela Quick-Rosa, was a strong artistic influence on Stevens. "I admired her," Stevens said.
"Lisa came to us when she was 13," Quick-Rosa recalled. "She was supremely motivated, hungry to learn new techniques, to absorb new styles. She was athletic as a performer, very strong physically, and that trait comes out in her choreography. She always employs very energetic dancers."
While an aspiring dancer herself, Stevens studied every kind of dance: ballet, jazz, tap, hip hop, to name a few. Although she never intended to be a ballerina, gravitating more to modern dance, jazz in particular, she considers ballet a foundation of dance. "It's a vocabulary the body adopts," she said. "You can't be a technically sound dancer unless you studied ballet."
Besides performing, Stevens' versatile talent also encompassed choreographing and teaching. She made up dances and taught them to friends when she was still a teenager. At 19, she opened her own dance studio in Vancouver and taught for nine years. Concerned about her students' professional development, she hired other teachers for her school as well. "The students couldn't grow if they had a single teacher," she explained. "To flourish on stage, young dancers should be exposed to different techniques and different mentors."
Stevens' own road to self-realization was difficult. She juggled her teaching with performing and acting in movies, but dancing opportunities in Vancouver were scarce. "Vancouver gave me a steady foundation for my career," she said, "but I had few chances to express myself." Something had to change – and she has never shied away from challenges and hard decisions. "I enjoy reaching my limitations and jumping over them," she admitted. Quick-Rosa added, "Lisa is an extremely positive person. Even when her life wasn't at its highest, she would always look forward, never back. She always pushed herself."
At the age of 28, Stevens closed up her Vancouver school and moved to London, England. She started over in the Old World, and her brave move proved beneficial. "London broadened my professional horizons," she said. The dancing roles in movies and on stage began piling up. She performed in the West End (London) and on Broadway (New York), danced in the movies Phantom of the Opera and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
Her teaching career also expanded. The geography of her master classes spread from the United States to England, to China, to Israel. She was a guest teacher for Celine Dion's dancers in Las Vegas, taught in Whitehorse, the Yukon and Banff, Alta. Every time she visits Vancouver, Quick-Rosa tries to get her to teach a workshop at Harbor Dance. "Lisa is such an easy person," she said. "She and her students – they have fun together."
During her London years, Stevens' international reputation as a choreographer grew. She staged the show La Belle Epoche for the Norwegian Cruise line, choreographed for Regis & Kelly, Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and the Smash Hit Awards in London. She was a choreographer of The Swinging Nutcracker for CBC in 2001 and collaborated with Michael Shamata on three Vancouver Playhouse musicals: The Music Man (2001), Fiddler on the Roof (2002) and Hello Dolly (2003).
Among her professional influences as a choreographer, Stevens cited Bob Fosse, Michael Bennett and Madonna, who is Stevens' personal example of blending musical talent, acting abilities and business acumen. "I haven't met Madonna yet," Stevens mused, "but I'm sure I will. She is my inspiration."
For the last two years, Stevens has lived and choreographed in New York. Broadway musicals, spontaneous and exciting, seem to be her staple these days. She participated in the New York Theatre Music Festival in 2006, where she received the Award of Excellence for direction and choreography, and choreographed the first national tour of Bombay Dreams in 2006.
Her latest work, Disney's High School Musical, combines light, catchy tunes, an unsophisticated plot and powerful dances that fire up the audience. "It is all about following your heart," Stevens said. That theme resonates with Stevens' own life, as she followed her dancing heart around the world and back again.
Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer.
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