As soon as my flight landed at Port Columbus at noon, the best roommate ever picked me up, and we headed downtown to the Palace to see Billy Elliot: The Musical. I was running on about 30 minutes of sleep, which had only occurred on and off on the plane. (For some reason, I rarely ever sleep on the eve of any trip… Note to self: Fix that!) The idea that I could easily fall sleep in the cool, dark theater actually crossed my mind. Fortunately, as soon as the first musical number ended, I could rest assured that I wouldn’t have to worry about that.
All of the show’s songs were phenomenal, but what really kept me awake and alert were the dance sequences. I think that most dancers can’t help but watch others’ dancing with a somewhat critical eye. It’s not that I can’t sit and enjoy a dance with the rest of the audience, but I often catch myself focusing on dancers’ technique and searching for mistakes. Why? Probably because I receive some sort of useless satisfaction simply in knowing that my years of training allow me to catch the tiniest of errors that most people would never notice. Also, spotting someone else’s areas of improvement reaffirms that I can distinguish the difference between whether or not something is done well. When it came to the young boy who played Billy, I expected to make negative judgments in my mind about his dancing. But I was very much surprised by how talented he actually was.
In Billy’s most significant dance number, he explains with his song and shows with his movements how dance makes him feel. First of all, I thought the song, “Electricity,” perfectly captured what dancing feels like and means to a dancer–that dance is complicated and confusing and dancers must struggle with internal pressures and physical pains, but that all of the anxiety and agony is worth the simultaneous feelings of comfort and energy that only dancing can bring. Secondly, the boy who played Billy brought the song to life with his amazing dance skills. Even though he was only around eleven or twelve years old, he danced with a maturity that is very rare at such a young age. He had great control in his movements, which were equally fluid and powerful. I could’ve watched him dance for hours. Another indication of the boy’s talent was his tap dancing. The sounds of his taps were crisp, clear, and consistently even with the music’s tempo. I was truly impressed by how much he’d mastered at his age and was inspired by his overall performance.
