Kicking It Up a Notch
Kicking It Up a Notch
John Crutchman, dancer/choreographer and co-founder of West Coast Dance Explosion, is a consummate professional who will tell you straight up that a successful career takes more than stunning technique. It takes an eye toward the big picture.
John Crutchman // Photo: Jerry Metellus
“I’ve done my dance competition for 12 years, so I’ve seen from day one to now that there’s been a huge change in the dance industry…They’re doing amazing things on stage but it’s things that, I hate to say this to them, but they are things that they’re never going to use again. When they get into the real dance world, when they go to Broadway and they audition for ‘Hairspray,’ they audition for ‘Legally Blonde,’ you know, you’re doing kick ball change, kick ball change. Period. Very musical beat, easy, almost like junior material, but you’ve gotta do it because it pays the bills. You’re not going to get out there and do fouetté, fouetté, fouetté, grab your leg, turn around, split, come back up. That’s why they have to learn to do everything.”
Crutchman adds, “A lot of kids don’t understand that you have to start somewhere. They want to go from high school to a Janet Jackson tour. It’s all about they want the top prize right then and there, rather than go audition, cut, audition, cut, audition, cut. ‘You could do this. It’s a three week job. It’s only four hundred dollars a week. Do you want to do it? You get to work with a great choreographer and you get to have your name on their list if they do anything else.’ You know, if you do a good job, it’s a domino effect. They might know another choreographer and say, ‘Do you know a blonde who’s five-foot-six?’ ‘Yeah, I just worked with her and she’s great.’ Bing, you get a phone call. But kids don’t understand that. Everything leads to something else, rather than they turn down things because they want that one job that might never happen - that ninety percent of the time, won’t happen. Meantime, they’ve turned down stuff they should’ve taken.”
“These kids today, they want to move to New York but they don’t understand that you just can’t dance. And you can’t dance just one way. They don’t understand that you have to do everything. Someone might look at you and go, ‘You know, we’re looking for someone who does a side aerial or does gymnastics.’ They might like you to death and you might be the one for the job and then they go, ‘Can you…?’ Just take everything. Just learn.”
“When I first went to New York, I had a full scholarship with Joffrey.” But, he adds, “I didn’t want to do ballet as a nine-to-five job. It’s very hard to survive.”
Photo: C Event Photography
So Crutchman started his way up the ladder with a show in Atlantic City, gaining valuable experience before heading back to New York to audition for “Cats.” “I remember going back eight times. Singing, dancing; singing, dancing; singing; dancing, and then they called me to do the show.” He followed with “La Cage aux Folles” and then “A Chorus Line,” before deciding to move to L.A.
Los Angeles brought him professional credits in commercials, award shows and industrials. “And then I hooked up with Debbie Allen. I was doing a Reebok industrial and during this time, they had auditions for the Academy Awards. So I auditioned for the Academy Awards and she pulled me up front. I did the first Academy Awards with her and then the four after that, I assisted her.”
He went on to a show (“Abracadabra”) in Las Vegas and a television competition called “Star Search” where he won the $100,000 prize. Shortly thereafter, with partner Alan Sherfield, he began West Coast Dance Explosion (www.westcoastdanceexplosion.com) and set out to teach the versatility and professionalism he had learned over the years. He makes sure the kids learn the value of a varied education early on by having them compete for scholarships. “The older level,16 and up, which is the older kids, who are like, juniors in high school, when they walk into the room, they don’t know what they’re going to get. So it might be musical theatre one week. It might be hip-hop. It might be jazz. It might be ballroom. And we’re the only convention that really does that.”
John Crutchman has an enviable résumé that entitles him to offer advice on show business longevity. As he tells it, you can kick your career up a notch by making strategic moves every step of the way. First and foremost, keep your eye on the big picture.