When the Dancer is the Music
Coralissa Gines Delaforce, the Rehearsal Director for "Stomp Out Loud," is charged with a dual task. It's not enough for her to teach the choreography and then turn the novice loose to make each movement his own, to interpret the music as he chooses. In "Stomp Out Loud," the dancer must also be the music and Coralissa, in addition to teaching basic choreography, must make him a musical instrument.
Each dancer must learn complicated, syncopated rhythms and also focus on the "tone" his rhythm produces in the whole musical picture. When the dancer is also the music, the concentration level goes way up. Not only does he depend on other performers to know where he is in the "music," but everyone else also depends on him.
Fortunately, Coralissa is uniquely qualified to take on the Rehearsal Director role since her background is filled with both music and dance. She said, "I was basically dancing when I figured out I could walk. I started with ballet."
However, as a child with diverse interests, she temporarily dropped the ballet in favor of music. "I think after I stopped taking ballet and my mom pushed me into piano - not pushed me, because my older sister was doing it and that's what I wanted to do - I'm so glad to have that experience." It taught her to read music, something that comes in handy because "Stomp Out Loud's" choreography is written down in musical notations and diagrams.
In between piano lessons and "Stomp Out Loud," Coralissa found her way back to dance. It started with her high school dance team and progressed to choreography for the school's plays. It served to reinforce her love of movement and from there, at 18 years old, she landed a scholarship to the Tremaine Dance School. When the scholarship program ended four years later, she immediately auditioned for "Stomp," the first of the genre.
She loved the style but found rehearsals challenging. She said, "I cried every day at rehearsals because I can dance, but to make the music I'm dancing to? That was such a challenge...At first I was counting everything in eight but when they'd say, 'Take it from bar thirty-two,' I was lost."
Then add a requisite mastery of props: push brooms, garbage bags, plastic tubes, trash can lids, newspapers and cigarette lighters. "The tubes are the hardest as a company because you're in charge of one or two notes in the melody so if you're off, everything suffers. If you only have one note in the music, if you miss it, it's really obvious."
Nevertheless, the style and energy of the show ended up fitting her like a glove. "Stomp' is a drug." In fact, it was ten years of touring the world with "Stomp" before another show came along to lure her away and that was "Stomp Out Loud." "I could not pass up the opportunity to do a brand new show."
But now the challenge was not only learning a new show, but as the Rehearsal Director, figuring out the best way to teach that style to dancers who'd never been exposed to it before. Coralissa said the process starts by checking out a dancer's feel for syncopation and his ear for when his part of the "music" is on or off. "There's triplets and how to make music out of your feet and your hands...We start with triplets. Then we show hands and feet. Then we do some things with brooms. We don't start with the individual's particular role. We see where their strength lies."
"Stomp Out Loud" has room for all kinds of strengths: tap, drumming, acrobatics, even comedy. It's a high-energy, high-concentration show that rocks the theatre every night, every show, every bar of self-made "music." "There's definitely movements of control. When you're doing something like Zippo's in the dark, you have to focus," but there are also times Coralissa described as "raw moments when you want to burn the house down with your energy." Apparently that never gets tiring because, she said, "Most of 'Stomp Out Loud's' dancers have been doing this show eight, nine, ten years."
"I feel like although I definitely am a dancer, my life is completely consumed by 'Stomp out Loud.' I feel removed from the traditional dance world...'Stomp' is a family." It's a family where she intends to stay put.
Come see the "family." "Stomp Out Loud" debuted at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas in April. If the run of the original, "Stomp," is any indication, "Stomp Out Loud" will be around for awhile.