How Jacob Brent went from small town roller rink to choreographer for discorific ‘Xanadu’
LET’S ROLL! | Being in ‘Starlight Express’ gave Jacob Brent the basis for choreographing the skating scenes in ‘Xanadu’ — but growing up at a roller rink didn’t hurt. (Photo courtesy Kelsey Ervi)
ARNOLD WAYNE JONES | Life+Style Editor
When a choreographer works on a show, he’s usually looking for actors who can dance. But when Jacob Brent was tapped to work on WaterTower Theatre’s production of Xanadu, the requirements weren’t that simple. Not only do the actors need to act, sing and dance, most of them also need to be able to roller-skate. And act, sing and dance while doing so.
Not easy.
Brent may very well be Xanadu’s secret weapon. He not only has substantial cred as a choreographer, he has been skating for years — and secretly working on Xanadu since he was a kid.
“I’m from a really small town in North Carolina,” Brent explains. “Really small — like, one-stop light and tobacco fields. But we had a roller rink and a movie theater, so Friday nights, we went roller-skating and Saturday, went to the movies.”
Little did Brent realize that weekend Friday adventure would serve him even after he studied ballet.
“I moved to New York to do ballet — well, that’s what my parents thought,” he laughs. “But I knew I wanted to be on Broadway. Luckily there was this role that required some ballet.”
That role was Mr. Mistoffelees in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats, which he performed for a staggering eight years. (“By now, I can play Old Deuteronomy,” Brent jokes.) Cats led eventually to another Webber show, the Las Vegas production of Starlight Express, in which the main characters are all choo-choo trains. And that’s the first time those Friday nights at the rink came in handy.
Being in Starlight helped Brent combine his skills at dance with his enjoyment of skating, though he had been long-brewing the idea of dancing to the music.
“The first record that I ever owned was Xanadu, the movie soundtrack,” he says. “I had a cassette tape of that and used our garage as roller rink. I knew that show inside and out. Little did I know that would influence me years later.” When he had WaterTower was looking for a choreographer, he threw his hat into the ring. “This show I got,” he says. He came to North Texas from his home in New York specifically to work on this show — his first foray into Texas.
Not all of Brent’s moves he worked on as a teenager make it into the stage production, however.
“The story has changed a little from the movie,” he says. For instance, in the film the song ‘I’m Alive’ is known for the skater becoming a bolt of light. “Trying to take that and find a way to put it on a stage has been challenging — it’s a different kind of theatrical idea.”
But because the show takes place in 1980, Brent is having a ball putting in some great classic styles.
“It was this great dance era, when we still had disco and were coming into Thriller and Madonna.
Researching the show was awesome — my job was to watch Paula Abdul videos. What’s wrong with that? Nothing.”
Brent was part of the audition process, and actually took auditioners to a rink to see how well they skated. He was immediately struck by the all-around talent in the Dallas pool of performers.
“They have to be good singers, good dancers, good actors but also good skaters. And everyone [in the cast] is local — that was really refreshing,” he says.
He’s especially excited by the actress who plays Kira, the muse sent to earth to help inspire a dopey So Cal skater achieve his dream of opening a roller disco.
“Kira is on her skates the whole time, so we are so fortunate we got Britney Daniel,” Brent says. “She was like a junior world figure skating champion — she’s doing more amazing things than any other Kira I’ve seen. She does things even I can’t do! I see her [pull her leg above her head] and will say, ‘Let’s put that in the show!’”
For the rest of the cast, getting the skating aspect down is a process.
“I kind of layer it — it’s a little daunting if you throw everything at someone at once,” he says. “We learn the music, then we skate without putting the two together.
Then we add the music and the movement. Hopefully they think of it as easy, but it is not an easy process. One guy has to tap — Oh, P.S., can you tap as well? — and musically there’s an Andrews Sisters section, there’s disco, some classic jazz, some Debbie Allen.”
In other words, a total hodgepodge. Which any choreographer will tell you is what’s fun about dance.
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This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition July 26, 2013.