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Well do some arm chops to that!
How did you first fall into Davids orbit?It was way back in 2009.
I also worked onContemporary Color,his color guard project, but as a dancer.
Never as a singer.
It was a little bit of a crapshoot in the best way.
We really finished the show on the road.
We rehearsed a total of three weeks before we actually started gigging in 2018.
By the time we got to Broadway, it was gravy.
We built this incredible family and it was a natural progression for us.
Among everyone, we were the only ones who had performed Annie-Bs choreography before.
Shes interested in all those tiny details the breath, the eye gaze.
To invite a new understanding of what dance can be.
So much of our culture is, So you think youcandance.
Theres so much more nuance to that art form.
This jot down of movement often gets left out of peoples understanding of dance.
So much of her work was taken from his natural movement.
Hes such an incredible choreographer even though he doesnt think that.
Its funny, because Davidhas said multiple timesthat he doesnt consider himself to be a dancer.
Whats your read on that opinion?I could answer that in two ways.
In the context of Broadway, hes definitely a dancer.
HesChicago.HesSouth Pacific.But if Im thinking in a removed, downtown theater context, Id say everything is choreography.
So everything is dance.
Everythingisdance.Ill give you one sassy, gossipy sound bite.
We had incredible reception from folks who are deep in the Broadway industry throughout the shows run.
But added,Well, at least the dancing wasnt that hard.And I graciously took it in and curtsied.
Maybe the fact that youre not noticing the difficulty is actually an indication of how difficult it is.
For us, every single breath and sip of water was choreography.
I want to constantly shout that out, because its so impressive.
Theres one particular set of movements in Dont Worry About the Government thats an accumulation.
Its a numerical pattern of several moves that Tendayi and I have to perform while singing.
Its a convoluted harmony part, for one, and we also do a great vocal flip as well.
I think thats the most difficult movement in the show.
If that looks easy, we did a very good job.
The movement is so wonderful because its purposely very naive.
Its one of the best songs ever written.
Its the dance steps of what I was doing.
Its a great reminder of how active and mobile I can be.
Im also a drag queen, and thats part of my identity.
I wholeheartedly believe that glamour is resistance.
Spike Lee saw the show at least 20 times, maybe more.
I hadnt met him up until a week before we were scheduled to film.
I went up to him to introduce myself and we chatted for a bit.
I want bright-red lips and the nails to match!That floored me.
More importantly, in addition to Spikes acceptance and allyship, he wasright.The red worked so much better.
I still dont have words.
Ive never felt so taken care of by someone whos captured my image before.
Were a weird art family we lived on a bus together for a year traveling all over the world.
She wrote about how respected she felt by Spikes eye.
She had never experienced that from a collaborator before, who had valued dance as being important.
Its amazing that she talked about that with you before it even happened, and it came true.
I felt that exact same thing when I watched the performance.
I feel a personal pride about it.
It was like,Oh, cool, another challenge, lets do it!
Eric Garners mother was there, and earlier in the week, Sean Bells family was also in attendance.
There was a ton of hyping and pep talking by Spike, too.
But his inclusion of those mothers was the most inspiring thing.
That song is a super-cathartic moment not just for performers but for the audience.
We invite the audience to state the names of the people who have been killed.
The act of saying a name is a kind of immediate accountability.
You cant unsay a name once youve said it.
Thats such a powerful rig.
It elevated the song to its highest potential of catharsis.
Listen, performing Hell You Talmbout taught us a lot about audiences.
We had a lot of people walk out during that song.
One audience member, during the Broadway run, repeatedly yelled out,But what about the police!
These people say it taints his art and that he succumbed to the liberal media.
These people feel personally attacked by an artist who suddenly becomes political or continues a personal progress of growth.
If you had a misconception about David and what he stood for, thats on you.
David didnt pull a fast one on you.
You were just missing the boat.
Now youre aware of it and if you dont like it, sorry, thats on you.
