Simply Keen
Nathan Keen has already performed on Broadway, acted with theatrical touring companies, won numerous dance competitions and just finished his reign as Mr. Dance of America. With all this success, we can only wonder what lies ahead for this incredibly talented young man now that he's turned 18 and has graduated high school. Dancer sat down with Nathan in Daytona, Florida, where he was performing in group competitions at the ShowBiz National Competition finals.
Question by Alan Klopman: How did you get into dance?
Answer by Nathan Keen: There was this little dance studio near where I live (Birmingham, MI) when I was very little. One night, my parents took me to see the "Nutcracker" at the Fox Theatre (in Detroit, MI). I watched the performance and then announced to my parents, "I wanna do that." So my parents signed me up at this dance studio; I think I was three. I took a few years of beginner ballet, jazz and tap there.
Q: And how did you progress from there?
A: The newspapers in Detroit were advertising auditions for a local boy to play Chip in "Beauty and The Beast" while the play was in Detroit. I think it was 1997, and people were saying to my parents, "Nathan should go out for this; he should try out for this." So my parents asked me and I said, "Yeah, I would try for it; it looks like fun." I went and did the audition, and I got the role, which was really cool.
Q: How many kids tried out for the role?
A: Maybe 50 or more.
Q: Did you think you could get the role?
A: Yes, I wasn't that smart enough then to worry about competition.
Q: Did you get paid for that?
A: Yes, it helped make my car/college fund be very healthy. While I was in that play one of the people in that company introduced me to a woman who later became my agent in NY, and she got me an audition for "Les Mis," and I went on tour for 9 months. I did those auditions in NY. We went all over with the touring company....Hawaii, Philadelphia, and we actually got to do six weeks on Broadway, which was sweet. That was in 1998. I turned 10 that year.
Q: When you toured, did they provide you with a tutor to keep up your education?
A: Yes, I had tutored classes. They gave me 6 months of work to do, but I got it done in 3 months. But then my parents give me more material that they thought I should study. They were very glad I could complete my other work early. So I would do my tutor work, and then I would do what my parents assigned (they are both educators). They'd assign world history, geography, all that fun stuff. After I finished "Le Mis," I came off for a little while. Then I did what seemed to be a million and a half auditions for "Rag Time," and I wound up with the role of the little boy, Gaberouch, for the tour cast and stayed with that until it closed 14 months later.
Q: Tell me about the roles that you had in those plays...
A: Chip had headography, all you ever saw what with head until the last 5 minutes of the show. There was a decent amount of dialogue and quite a bit of singing, which was cool. Gaberouch was a much larger role, all singing in that show, except for one line. No real dance, a lot of movement, a lot of climbing around the barricade. The little boy for Rag Time was a very very large role with lots of signing, a little bit of movement. Not too much dance though.
Q: What did all this early success do for you?
A: I had a certain limited view of it since it was what all I knew then, I just didn't know how different it was from what an average 9 or 10 year old was doing. It definitely did give me confidence, for a while...at least until voice change (laughs). And then, suddenly, it was like "Ok, I did all that stuff a lifetime ago (laughs). Now it's time to re-invent, re-create." When I was at Rag Time before I left, one of the dance captains said "Nathan, you are very talented. But you need to dance.". When I got home, my sister had already started dancing at Julianna's (dance studio in Madison Heights, MI) while I was out on the road. I went to see one of their recitals (I don't remember this probably because it is embarrassing, but my mother tells this story), and I sat in the back of the auditorium and cried as I saw Miss Julie's guys dancing on stage. I kept saying to myself, "I wanna do that, I wanna do that, I want to dance like that!" And my parents told me it would take a lot of work, and I said " I don't care, I will do it.". So 7 years later and a lot of hard work, it's finally paid off.
Q: Nathan, I have seen kids that have dancing straight through since they were 3, and they haven't nearly achieved your success. You took some years off from your beginnings in dance and then came back to have great success. To what do you attribute your achievements?
A: I am stubborn. I knew what I wanted. I set a goal for myself as to "this is how I want to dance". I realized there was so much more to it. So I constantly say to myself "I can be better, I am as good as I want at this moment but I can be better." It's always been a push. Never, never in dance have I settled for the status quo. This is my little story: When I came off the tour I could have given the Pillsbury Dough Boy a run for his money. They tell you when you are performing to eat lots of carbs because you need lots of energy. When you are 10 years old and you eat a lot of carbs and you do a lot of schoolwork and then you sit around waiting to do your performance in a show, it doesn't go well for the figure. Part of the urge to dance for me was to get back in shape and look how I wanted to look. I practiced dance 5 years, 24 hours a week. My friend and I have these shirts that say "I don't lift weights, I lift women". I actually go to the gym more now. I started just to cross train a little and have fun, and to refine muscles in places. Also, dance has been my anti-trouble, when I am at the studio all the time I don't have time to go out and get into trouble.
Q: You are 18, you mean you never get into any trouble?
A: I have a mischievous streak 6 miles long. But I never wanted to do really anything stupid because I have worked so much to get my body to where it is now,... to get my mind and get myself to where is now.
Q: What got you into the Mr. Dance of America competition?
A: That happened way back when Miss Julie (at Julianna's Dance Studio), told me about Dance Masters of Michigan for their Junior Mr. title.
Q: Tell us a little bit about the competition...
A: It is pretty much the same thing each year for each age group. There are four dance categories for you audition classes, you have to do at least two, then you have to do an interview as well.
Q: Tell us about the interview...
A: In the younger categories it's 3 minutes of nail biting nerves. When you are older it's 5 minutes. Interviews are scary, you sit alone in a room with five judges, who are holding slips of paper and grading you on your answers. It is a two part thing, you have the Michigan competition and then Dance Masters of America. I won the Michigan competition at age 12, and how they work that is that you have your year of reign and then you take a year off. When I won the Michigan Junior and then competed in the Nationals, I think I ended up in the top 6 finalists, which was amazing, because it was my first major year competing. Then when I did Teen again, I won the title in Michigan, and went to Nationals and I was fourth runner up. Then I went back and won the Senior title for Michigan. I wound up being Mr. Dance of Michigan and Mr. Dance of America.
Q: All right, you've done the title of Mr. Dance of America, you have been in staged plays in Broadway and now you are graduating High School. What's next?
A: Now I will be going to college, I am going to Otterbein college in Westerville, Ohio.
Q: Why that school?
A: When I looked, I found out Otterbein had one of the top five music theatre programs in the country, and my major will be "Music Theatre dance" with a dance concentration.
Q: Oh, you play instruments too?
A: I dabble in piano and bass guitar. I used to dabble in clarinet but kinda I gave that up. I used to play the violin too, but then it got difficult. One day, I got frustrated and threw the violin across the room towards a bay window but my mom caught it and that was the end of my violin playing (laughs).
Q: You have had a very busy young life. Is Otterbein a four year program that will give you summers off?
A: Well, during the summer vacations they do summer stuff, which are shows that can potentially help you get your equity card. The equity card, of course, is the actor's union.
Q: You are only 18, but it seems you already thought through all of those things you want do in life...
A: Well, performance is definitely in my future. I definitely plan to go into theatre, but I know as a dancer and a performer, there will come a time, hopefully a long long time away where my body will say "you have to slow down you can't do this anymore." My body is going to give up, my knees are gonna give, something is going to happen that will tell me I can't do this anymore. When I was a freshman in High School I got bug for cinematography and I have this passion for film-making, directing, cinematography and screen writing. Eventually I would like to go back to graduate school for directing and screen writing.