My Mum was great, exposing me to a lot of different facets
of the arts, including performances – I loved it! I started performing professionally in my early twenties and at the same time I was really enjoying the creative side of choreography and making up plays and dances. I began teaching which really honed my skills in articulating movement in another person, which has helped me to get to where I am today. In my early 20’s I started doing film and television as an actress and was also dancing in commercials. I got to travel to LA a lot for classes and training I was able to perform with Coolio & Salt‘N’Pepa.  I also danced with the NBA for awhile. At about 28 I moved to England and started working and performing in the West End continuing to work in television, film and commercials and stayed there for 8 years continuing to teach and choreograph. So when an opportunity came up to move to New York in 2003 with the show that I was associate choreographer on (Bombay Dreams) I said “I’ll Go!” New York was always where I wanted to be since I was a child. So I found myself in New York. I performed on Broadway and then moved straight into choreography. So I have been doing just choreography since 2004, and now I am here and High School Musical, Live On Stage has taken up a few years of my life, but I am very grateful because it’s been such a fantastic experience.

So when you were in High School did you perform in your school Musicals?
I did! I performed every year, at first I didn’t know what the heck I was doing, I just did what I was told and I didn’t really get it…you know harmonies, spacing, patterns…. I just went with the flow…. I was LOST! But I loved being on stage. You know the best way to learn is on the job, so I leant quickly and by the time I graduated I thought I was Pro. (laughs)

So how did you get involved in HSM?
I had just finished choreographing for Bombay Dreams the Tour, for Theatre of the Stars, which is a theatre production company in Atlanta, Georgia. They have one of the biggest theatres in the USA. I just finished choreographing that and the producers liked that I had choreographed a fusion of modern, contemporary and Indian dance. So they asked me if I was interested and available to choreograph a little show called High School Musical. At the time I hadn’t heard too much about it because this was way back in 2006 and I wasn’t exposed to it as there wasn’t anyone in my life that had worked on the show.  I was a little confused, I didn’t know if he wanted me to choreograph a musical for a high school or if the show was called High School Musical!

So at that stage you hadn’t even seen the movie?
NO! I hadn’t even heard about it! But you know what, as soon as my eyes were open to it, it was everywhere! It was on storefronts, t-shirts and on commercials and posters so I googled it and there were maybe 1000 pages about HSM…. I thought ”Oh My Gosh!” it was like a miracle because I’d been asked to choreograph the stage show…”I am taking this job!” So I watched the movie and I thought “ok, I can relate to this and it interests me because there are some common themes here”. So I jumped on it once I had done a bit of research.

So when you began choreographing were you asked to stay true to Kenny Ortega’s choreography from the movie or did you have creative freedom?
We had creative freedom! I watched the movie just to get the essence of it, and to see the style. As soon as I saw what that was I switched it off because I didn’t want to be influenced by many of the moves that Kenny had used, and at the same time I wanted to keep the freshness, flavour and edginess of what high school kids use these days. I also wanted to put my own thumbprint on it.

For those who haven’t yet seen the show what styles of dance can we expect to see? Have you choreographed differently for different characters?
Yes I have. For example the characters Sharpay and Ryan are musical theatre buffs so they have seen every MGM movie there is. I imagined that they stayed home on Friday nights and watched Fred Astaire and Ginger, All that Jazz and Pippin. So every time they perform on stage they try and throw all that in so their choreography is a very classic style of musical theatre, fused with little touches of steps from different musicals that have been around for ages, so anyone in the audience who is musical theatre savvy will recognize them because they are iconic.

For the rest of the cast there are characters like boarders whose choreography is more Hip Hop and Street Jazz, ‘Brainiacs’ whose choreography comes from a place that it is very inward, uptight and internalised, and arty Thespians who are very expressive. But for the most part the movement is very now and very youth driven.

How easy/hard was it to cast the Australian production, looking for the qualities you need for each character?
Now that we have done the show a few times we are more specific with what we are looking for, so on one hand it’s harder to find people because we have narrowed the parameters right down, but on the other hand it has allowed us to get through the process quicker because we know exactly what we want. In March there were so many people who turned up to audition, we were so impressed with the interest, and because of that we could hand pick this cast. We are very happy with every single person in the show. I can say that this is probably our best cast because not only do they represent the types of people we were looking for, but they also have the youth that we were missing in other companies because they are young! No one needs to teach them how to play ‘18 years old’ because they are all around that age.

How did you approach choreographing so many numbers?
Well, just like any other show you try not to look at the whole too much because it can be very overwhelming (laughs) and that can make you panic! So what I do is I spend a lot of time with the director and go through scene by scene and the story. We then we sit with the musical director and go through the music to figure out together where it dances and when it just moves and when it’s a production number and when it’s just story. Looking at one piece scene by scene makes it less daunting than looking at the entire musical as a whole, so some scenes were tougher than others. When it’s all finished you look back and think “Wow, that’s a lot of work.”

Do you have a favourite scene in the show?
I love Head in the Game and I love the Finale.

How was the rehearsal process different with the Australian cast?
Well because this was a young cast and for a lot of them this was their first show many of them were not aware of certain terms and didn’t have the experience yet of seasoned actors. So we spent some time teaching the rudiments of theatre or sometimes even of dance or acting. But because this cast were quite talented they took that on board and applied it so we were able to take them and mould them into what we wanted them to be as actors, dancers and singers. In some ways it was easier because we didn’t have to break them out of any bad habits.

So in the end did that make the process easier?
Yes and I know several of them panicked. I was told they were overwhelmed at the huge undertaking that it was to learn this show because so much information was thrown at them at one time. To be able to retain it all and to start performing it at the level that is expected of you is very difficult. So some people felt that they had gotten in over their head, but the lesson for them was that through focus, commitment and repetition it gets easier and now that they have leaned what the process is they’ll be able to go into their next show and know what to expect.

The musical is really about living your dreams. Can you say so far that you have lived your dreams?
Absolutely for me! Yeah this is why I related to the show so much because being in show business is very difficult. A lot of people that care about you in your life frown upon it because it is difficult to make a living, the success rate is very low. But it was something I personally always wanted to do. It always appealed to me and I had a love of the arts and performing, and learning about them. There’s one line in the show, ‘Follow your dreams and go go go!’ and that’s what I’ve been doing all my life. Baby steps, but slowly but surely. I feel very blessed that I have stayed on this path all my life. It’s challenging at times but it has been the right thing for me and I am glad I didn’t step off it because I did follow my dreams and I am very happy where I am now.

What are you doing when you leave Australia?
I am choreographing First Wives Club on Broadway. I am also doing Dirty Rotten Scoundrels in Canada and then a production of HSM 2 in the UK. I am pretty busy this year but I am very grateful.

What advice would you offer to young Australians wanting to pursue a career in musical theatre?
Be a sponge!! Take as many classes as you can, expose yourself to the arts by any means necessary – that’s another line from the show that Darbus says. Its so good to lighten up (laughs)  go and see plays, see the good ones and the bad ones, jump in with two feet and have fun. It’s all about enjoying what you do. As long as you can enjoy it and move forward, things will most likely work out for you. You have to be dedicated!!!