24: A Year of New Beginnings
Hi readers! Please forgive me for not posting as frequently has I had promised. I have been very busy out here on the road but am determined to do more blogging!
I’ve recently celebrated my birthday! Two weeks ago I turned 24 years ‘mature’, as I like to say. Birthdays and New Years Eve are two very sentimental days for me, filled with lots of reflection, prayer of thanksgiving for life and all of its obstacles, moments to rejoice and blessings while also praying with thanksgiving for the future. I had the wonderful opportunity of being able to celebrate my “Year of New Beginnings” (as I’ve been calling this year as a 24 year old) with close friends in New York City in-between tour stops. Thinking about all of the wonderful and also challenging obstacles I’ve had to overcome in the past year, I can’t help but think of where I was just one year prior. On my 23rd Birthday I was still having issues overcoming an ankle injury I had sustained earlier that year, was unemployed and broke. Emotionally, I was in a rough place, especially because on that very day, only one year prior (my 22nd Birthday), I had just graduated from college and was headed to start my professional life, performing in Susan Stroman’s Contact with North Shore Musical Theater in MA. At the time, it was hard to reflect on how different the two Birthdays had been experienced.
McQueen as a child
Within my first year out of college I had basically jumped from job to job, back to back. I was truly living the life as what we call in theater, a Gypsy! I performed in Contact, took a mini vacation at home in California and went straight into working with a ballet company in Texas as a guest artist. While finishing up my job in Texas, I found out I was offered another job traveling to Germany dancing for Panasonic Electronics, which started literally weeks after the Texas gig. Then, while in rehearsals for the job I was just about to do in Germany, the day before I departed for Germany, I received a phone call informing me that I had been hired to dance on tour with the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. Rehearsals began literally weeks after I returned from Germany. It doesn’t end there! Once I was back from the Christmas season on tour, I went to one audition and booked it! In about a month of my returning from being on tour I was back out on the road again performing in a regional production of Disney’s High School Musical. Looking at it on paper, I worked consistently for 10 months with very few breaks. I was thrilled that my hard work and perseverance was paying off but I knew it wouldn’t last always. In any event, I proceeded to “hustle” my way through auditions (as I like to call it) while on short breaks or just before leaving to start the jobs. I was looking everywhere for potential opportunities for work and build my career not only as a performer but also as a choreographer and keep myself busy. I must say, I auditioned like no other to get my face out there, going to as many auditions I could a week, but in the end, I truly felt like things were all falling into place. In a sense, the hard work and lack of rest was paying off. I was “on a roll” so to speak and the more I rolled…the more I kept trying to keep that ball rolling and the harder I pushed and worked, often not getting enough sleep at night.
On my 23rd Birthday I had not been onstage in what felt like forever (which was actually only a couple months) and was itching for something to do. I was having the hardest time getting a job. I would go into tons of auditions and come out feeling great, but none of them resorted in a job offer. I had fully been a part of what I like to call the “Roller Coaster Complex”. This is where you have stints of just doing really well, getting job offers after job offers in a row and always being busy, and then all of the sudden are left anxiously wondering what’s going to happen next and having difficulty even getting a callback. You know that feeling when your stomach drops from beneath you as you are coming down from a roller coaster really fast? The one where you’re left feeling uneasy, apprehensive, scared and vulnerable as if the ride is going to break? This Roller Coaster Complex, which hit me hard on my birthday last year and left me with much anxiety as I felt I was coming down the hill really fast. I knew in my heart that I just needed to remain faithful and focused that my situation wouldn’t be like the way it was, forever. I was off to a bumpy start of my 23rd year of life but I knew that I had to just continue keeping myself disciplined and continue “hustling” at auditions and the right opportunities that were meant for me would at some point appear. For the first three months of my year as a 23 year-old, I had a lot of time to really think and reflect on life and what it meant to me and what I hoped to obtain out of it. Through this unemployment slump, I was able to really reflect on my mission in life and focused a lot of my attention on volunteer work and giving back. In my heart, as much as I didn’t want to accept it at the time, I knew this was a time in my life that I knew I needed to have to a one-on-one conversation with myself about my life and my goals. Not to mention, I really needed the rest and time to rejuvenate my spirit. Through this period of reflection, I was able to discover whom Jeremy McQueen is and how he wants to leave his mark on the world.
McQueen (second from right) as a Flying Monkey in Wicked!
Fast forward to the preset day, only a year later, I cannot believe how much my life has changed. I have had so many wonderful blessings in such a short period of time! I finally got my “Equity” card touring with the 1st National Tour of The Color Purple, performed onstage at Radio City Music Hall, continued to make progress as a choreographer and now I am employed (On my Birthday!), performing in another Broadway national tour in a show that I’ve longed to do for so long, I am forever grateful for all of the challenges and moments of reflection I have had and will continue to have at points in my life. I truly believe that those moments help not only enhance your character but also prepare you for the challenges and blessings that lie ahead.
As I look forward to embracing whatever the universe has in store for me this “Year of New Beginnings” I have promised myself to be more faithful. I’ve devoted myself to really embracing my favorite quote that “Everything happens for a reason”. Even though we may not know how things will transform in our lives, I’ve dedicated myself to be more relaxed this year knowing that what is meant to be for me will be for me, when the timing is right. Until then, I will continue to be diligent in honing my craft and enjoying every little bump, fall, twist, curve, dip and climb that the roller coaster of life has to offer.
The Power of Passion and Perseverance
I auditioned for my current role in Wicked about 9 or 10 times. Honestly, I lost count after about the 8th time. But it was over the course of a few years. I was first introduced to Wicked during my senior year of high school when it first opened on Broadway. I had seen clips on You Tube and heard about the production, but it wasn’t until the end of my sophomore year of college that I decided to audition. I will never forget my first audition. I went into the waiting room and there were about 100 other guys practicing some strange combination.
My program inserts!
In my head I was thinking to myself that there was no way that these guys already knew the combination. To my surprise, they did know it, because the combination that you dance at the audition never changes. So they had all done their homework. I walked into the room and attempted to learn the ballet/modern based choreography but just couldn’t get it. The combination was counted so weirdly with a combination of 5, 6 and 7 counts. It all had my head spinning. I quickly was cut, but I had the best time of my life. The great thing about the Wicked audition is that they have a live drummer in the room. That was my first experience with that type of audition but having a drummer just makes it feel more like a performance and you sort of let your inhibitions go a little more and just really relish in the fact that you’re getting to dance this awesome choreography to some really rocking music.
Well, I got cut and walked out of the audition a little sad but determined to do my homework and go in there and NOT get cut the next time. I went home that night and videotaped myself doing the choreography so I would be able to remember it and reference it before the next required open call for the show in 6 months and I had also seen the show for the first time and became even more hooked and obsessed with working hard to make my dream become a reality. The next audition I went in with greater knowledge about the show and it’s style and gave it my all. This time I managed to get kept around to learn the second combination. I was so ecstatic but I still didn’t have the job in the bag. I was just happy to have made it a little further!
McQueen in costume from the OzDust Ballroom scene from Wicked
Over the course of the next three years the casting directors got to know me better, I grew as a dancer, young adult and artist and they called me in to be seen for the ‘track’ that I play in the show on several different occasions. Although I would often make it down to the final cut, I was not offered the role, but I didn’t get discouraged. I believed and stayed faithful that it just wasn’t my time and continued pressing forward in my pursuits of not only dancing in Wicked, but other shows as well. Eventually, after college, I started working and only went in to audition if it happened that I was not working on another show that conflicted with the audition.
Overall, the audition was a little intense the first few times but after a while you just get the hang of it. You dance about two or three different sections of a long combination and do some partnering with either the female dance captains or sometimes the female auditioners. Then the last thing you do is sing for the artistic team. The last time I went in to be seen for the part was just before Thanksgiving and I declared that if this job was truly for me, then I would be offered the role. If not, I couldn’t let it get me down and just had to keep working on other projects and finding other shows/parts that I am right for.
The Ensemble of the 1st National Tour of Wicked!
I choose to believe that if I am not cast in a particular show, it’s not a reflection on my talent or potential as a dancer, but rather, the casting directors and artistic team didn’t feel I was ready or just didn’t think I was ‘right’ for their show. At the end of the day, being cast in Broadway productions is a waiting game. You just have to keep working hard, be consistent with who you are and represent that fully each time you go into the audition room. It is our jobs as young artists to do out best to just enjoy the experiences of auditioning and not take things personally. After each of those nine auditions, I walked out of the audition room each time with my head held high believing that I had done my best and represented myself to the fullest. At the end of the day, that’s all you can do and that is all that matters.
Tonight, I will celebrate my 150th performance in the national touring company of Wicked! Each performance continues to be a surreal experience.
Dream big! Dreams do come true!
-Jeremy McQueen
Introducing Jeremy McQueen
One warm summer day in San Diego, my Mom took me to the San Diego Civic Theater to see a touring production of the Broadway hit, The Phantom of the Opera. At the young age of 8, I knew nothing about musical theater besides the Disney movie musicals I had seen on television and the few acting classes I had taken with a local children’s theater group. As we entered the grand theater with thousands of plush red seats, I was enthralled with the beauty and festiveness of this new experience. Everyone was dressed eloquently in semi-formal attire, including me in my Sunday suit. My Mom and I made our way to our seats on the last row of the balcony in the 3,000-seat theater, with my binoculars in hand. I had no idea what was in store for me that evening, but was very excited. As the curtain rose revealing a very large candle lit chandelier, with the sounds of blood curdling organ music and elaborate costumes filling the stage, I quickly found myself caught in a trace. Over the course of the next 3 hours, I sat on the edge of my seat, staring through my binoculars, never bli-
Photograph from the Broadway production of The Phantom of the Opera.
nking once so not to risk missing a single moment of the action. From that single experience, I decided that I wanted to be a performer. I wanted to be in a production of that caliber and perform on regal stages across the globe. From that moment on, my Mom nurtured my passionate desire as I disciplined and immersed myself in everything related to theater.
The Phantom of the Opera left a lasting impression in my life. Being exposed to the arts at such a young age introduced me to the magnificent world of live theater and helped provide me with focus for the rest of my childhood. The moment the curtain fell at the closing of the performance, I begged my parents to put me in acting, singing and dance classes and I worked my hardest each day to become the strongest ‘triple threat’ I could become. I would often save up my allowance during high school just so that I could afford to buy a ticket to see whatever national touring show was coming to town that month.
16 years later, I’m still out here working hard and achieving my goals, one step at a time. I am currently a featured dancer in the 1st Broadway National Tour of Wicked! Over the next couple of months, I will introduce you to my evolution as an artist, the life of a touring Broadway performer and all that comes with it. Join me every couple of days as I take you on a behind the scenes journey of my life as a performer, choreographer and teacher.
-Jeremy McQueen
Chronos Project
Photo by: Bennyroyce Royon, Dancer: Erik Wagner
Hello Wingers,
Just wanted to share with you something I have been working on for the past month. I am producing a show called “Chronos Project” which is a shared evening of choreographic works between me, Nilas Martins, Monique Meunier, and Brian Gibbs. There are THREE evening performances (7:30pm) in April (22, 23, 24) at the intimate Speyer Hall at University Settlement on the Lower East Side (184 Eldridge Street).
The project will serve the creative needs of the Lower East Side community (Manhattan) by providing a high caliber contemporary dance performances, offer a job & performance opportunity to a group of talented and wonderful freelance dance artists, and support the creative needs of four emerging choreographers to cultivate their artistic voices.
I will post more information as time comes along. But please do keep in touch on Twitter, Facebook, my YouTube page! You can search me on all of these networks by typing “Bennyroyce Royon.” Also, please go to my website: www.bennyroyce.com.
Watch this one minute teaser video: Chronos Project Teaser Video
Enjoy!
“King of all Nutcrackers”?
I’m running errands about town and happened to chance upon this.
According to its inscription:
“This Nutcracker is believed to be the King of all Nutcrackers. Found in Saragosa during the 17th century, it is the oldest Nutcracker ever discovered.”
(Marquis Lorenzo Leonard)
So functional, non?
Working in Washington
So I am in my third week with the Washington Ballet and my third week as a professional dancer. I arrived in DC a week or so before my contract started to get settled in and take the company’s optional “get-in-shape” classes. Taking class with out a dress-code and getting paid weekly are two things I am really liking about the company life. Everyone I have met has been so nice and the other dancers have been very welcoming and helpful while I adjust to my new life. Right now we are working on Don Quixote (staged by Anna-Marie Holmes) and a few light rehearsals for the world premier of Septime Webre’s “The Great Gatsby”. Being in a smaller sized company compared to SFB has given me 0ppurtunites to learn many parts in one ballet so I have had my brain full learning 4 different roles in Don Quixote. I have never really been around another company besides SFB so it is interesting to see how a “ensemble” or “non-ranking” company like The Washington Ballet works. In some rehearsals dancers will be doing a principle part then in the next rehearsal be in a corps spot while someone else gets there chance at a soloist role. It creates a atmosphere where everyone feels equal and part of a team.
The website of The Washington Ballet has been re-designed and launched last week. The new site is really great and has some cool videos and photo galleries to check out (….as well as my bio and headshot). Pretty soon we will start rehearsals for ballets in programs after Don Quixote in October.
To summarize the 09-10 season:
Don Quixote (October)
The Nutcracker (chor: Septime Webre, December)
The Great Gatsby (chor: Septime Webre, February)
Bolero(+) (with Nicolo Fonte’s Bolero, Karol Armitage World Premier and Edwaard Liang’s Wunderland)
Genius3 (with Twyla Tharp’s Push Comes to Shove, Mark Morris’ Pacific, Nacho Duato’s Cor Perdutand George Balanchine’s The Four Temperaments)
I hope to keep you updated soon on how everything is and what is going on. Until next time!
[Enter stage left]
Stage Door to Yale's University Theatre.
Well, not quite. After a full year of working behind the scenes and being tucked away from the world in a corner full of theories, case studies, histories, visions, ideas and concepts, however, I am definitely feeling somewhat … exposed.
As a second-year management student at YSD, I was presented with the opportunity to spend a term away from the School and at a professional setting (determined by the faculty). The motivation behind this–the Arts Management Fellowship–is that, in the performing arts, theoretical knowledge alone cannot, and does not, suffice; it must be applied and practised upon before it can be of use.
Michael Kaiser expressed a similar thought in his most recent article, published Tuesday in The Huffington Post:
Arts management is a young field. While wonderful impresarios have operated for centuries, serious codification of the rules of arts management began less than fifty years ago. And while we have a number of academic programs offered by universities across the nation, there are simply not enough of them, and several are too academic in their approach. Arts management, after all, is a practical field, like medicine, and must be taught through real-time, real world experiences.
And, thus do I find myself back on the Pacific Coast, this time in Seattle, Washington.
View of the Seattle Center and the Space Needle from the apartment.
I’ve just completed the first week of my Fellowship at Seattle Repertory Theatre, where I will be working closely under the guidance and mentorship of the managing director (a theatre’s counterpart to a dance company’s executive director). I’m very much looking forward to learning how Seattle Rep manoeuvres around the challenges presented by the economic downturn as well as to studying how the Theatre uses the attributes unique to itself to further its defining vision. It’s only been four days, but I am already impressed by the consistent deference made to the art. (In many, though not all, of my past situations, I sadly witnessed the opposite–the art was compromised before all else.)
Of course, the other wonderful thing about being in Seattle for Fellowship is that I am wonderfully close to PNB, which is located on the same block as the Theatre. I’m looking forward to progressing my recuperation from inside the studio as well as enjoying firsthand what promises to be a great season for PNB.
It was raining when I arrived in Seattle last weekend. (Surprise!) As I drove in from the airport, this rather large building housing a business called 1-800-WATER-DAMAGE did not go unnoticed.
Vail Round 3
I am about to take off for Vail… for my third time.
I was a wee one when I first came to Vail. 16 years old to be exact and studying at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy for a months time. I remember fondly watching Damian Woetzel in the “Stars Gala” dance Balanchine’s Stars and Stripes with Alexandra Ansanelli. It was a memorable summer.
A young Hallberg in training on the Ford Theatre stage circa 1998 (age 16)
Fast forward 8 years later and I made my return to Vail, now dancing in the “Stars Gala”. It was surreal… to be back as a professional and to be dancing in the program that I watched on the other side of the stage.
Fast forward 3 years after that and I am back… dancing with some great dancers.
Carla Korbes, ballerina with Pacific Northwest Ballet and Ashley Bouder, ballerina with New York City Ballet. The rep includes George Balanchine’’s Apollo and Black Swan Pas de Deux, respectively.
The divine Ms. Korbes (aka Terpsichore) fellow Wingerer.
Ms. Bouder in her powerful glory…
It is always great to come back to a gala more than once. And now with Damian holding the reigns tight, Im happy to return.
A Glimpse of My Year
I can hardly believe it… it’s been a whole year, and then some! As you can see, in my previous posts, it’s been so hard to keep you tuned in with all the changes in my life. I don’t think I will ever be able to catch you all up with everything that has happened in the past year, but hopefully giving you a glimpse will suffice.
The first tour for les Ballets de Monte-Carlo was to Ljubliana, Slovenia with Jean-Christophe’s, La Belle (Sleeping Beauty). When I think back on the tour, I felt like I was going to the first day of school after summer vacation. EVERY situation was new. New people, new places, new ballets, new teachers, new system, and a new way of working – everything was new, new, new!!! The change was scary and exhilarating all at once! The only comfort was knowing that others were going through the same thing with me. With every tour and new experience after the first, came the realization that change was inevitable, and it WAS the thing that sparked my move to BMC in the first place. I, of course, made comparisons from my past life to my new one, but eventually came to the understanding that in a change, nothing is better or worse – it’s just different. And that thought alone has opened up my life!
I guess if I were to talk about an initial hardship, it would be the language barrier. Simple everyday tasks like going to the grocery store or bank turned into a guessing game. I found myself (and still find myself at times) freezing up, and then asking, Parlez-vous anglais? Thankfully, a lot of people in the south of France and Monaco are english speaking, but in the long run it will not help me learn the language faster. I guess in the course of a year I can say that I understand French pretty well, but I don’t speak it - and this will take years!
In terms of company life, things are amazing! Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo is remarkable. The work, the creativity, the people, the places… the list is endless. Jean-Christophe is a definitive artist. I could say a whole lot more, but feel I don’t need to. I just know BMC is a good fit for me!
On a whole different note - Those of you who are close to me know that I am an avid believer in “The Secret”, and for the last two or so years I have been using its principles to shape my life. Now, I am not here to preach it, but I will say that I believe in it whole-heartedly. The power of positive thinking and knowing how the laws of attraction work have forced me to look at my life (and future) with a fine-toothed comb. And in return, have made this past season, and also my future endeavors, quite clear. I guess my point in even bringing this all up, is that it has made my transition into this les Ballets de Monte-Carlo pretty seamless. If you haven’t heard of it, I highly recommend the book or DVD.
I don’t want to make this post too lengthy so I will try to show you through some pictures what I’ve done & seen. The world is definitely your oyster, and life is what you make it. If you crave change or are contemplating something, just do it. The outcome in learning is golden.
This is a picture from the our first tour. It is the set for JC’s La Songe (A Midsummer Night’s Dream). There is a very modern approach to all of the sets of his ballets. I love it. I feel it brings more attention the the dancers and their intentions.
This is a picture from the theater in Bologna, Italy. The picture doesn’t capture the beauty of this enchanting space. This is where we performed JC’s Romeo et Juliette. It was also my first time dancing on a raked stage!!! My turns were never so bad, but by day three I started to get the hang of it.
We traveled to two small cities on the north of France, and along the way (on a free day), a small group of us stopped in Paris for a day. This is my impression of Mary Tyler Moore in front of the Louvre. Oh, yeah, and the Louvre is not pink, haha.. it was a setting that the camera was on!
Earlier this year, I posted pictures of La Belle in Japan. Here is a fun picture from that tour! It was of one of the best tours this season - sometimes I don’t think I will ever grow up!
Me & Nathalie Nordquist before our debut in JC’s Altro Canto. This is one of my favorites of Maillot’s! This was in Valencia, Spain
On our last, and potentially best tour, we had one free day to explore. The dancers took it as an opportunity to go to the Dead Sea & Jerusalem. We packed on black mud from the earth all over our bodies (like a mask), then rinsed it off, and went to literally float in the salty water of Dead Sea. It was UNREAL. I wish that I could post more pictures from this tour - Performing La Songe, and experiencing Israel… la vie est belle!
And now, this is what we are currently doing. JC’s new creation, Men’s Dance for Women. It’s been wonderful to work on a “creation” with Jean-Christophe. The dancers are still fine tuning the choreography in this piece, and we always will be. Jean-Christophe has an intention for every step in this ballet which does two things - one, makes it easier to have an objective so we know why steps are executed in a certain way. And, two makes it a challenge to focus on that objective. It’s great fun!!
Hope you enjoyed my glimpse! Next for me is a small vacation & then a guesting with Ballet Hawaii!!! Very excited! Stay tuned…
Room with a View - Tel Aviv, Israel
We are currently in Tel Aviv, Israel on our last tour of the season. We just got in yesterday, and I have to say I was amazed at our surroundings! I will write more later about what we are dancing here, but in the meantime, here our some pictures from my hotel room. The beach is very reminiscent of Waikiki.
