Choreography

A scene from Go West (Australian production)

Ross Coleman’s vast experience in dance, stretching back to the late 60s, made him ideally suited to a show where the styles range from disco (of course!), to Lido showgirl, rap, go-go, contemporary, hip-hop and Aussie line dancing. Because there was very little actual choreography in the film, Coleman began with a clean slate for each number. He nevertheless wanted the film’s overall personality to be reflected in the choreography: “We needed that element of it looking stylistically like three guys from The Footy Show. So I didn’t over-polish the choreography; I left rough ends everywhere. It’s not slick, it’s not Broadway. It’s Aussie charm.”

Choreography for Priscilla threw up two obvious challenges for Coleman and the hardworking ensemble - working around the star of the show, Priscilla the bus, and the outlandish costumes! The latter however provided Coleman with much of his inspiration and direction. “The designers invited ultimate campness,” says Coleman, “I haven’t had a chance to be this camp since choreographing drag shows in Sydney in the 80s. Only in Australia would you go this far.”

Coleman gives an insight into the creation of some of the show’s numbers:

Downtown is based on the characters on the streets of Kings Cross or Darlinghurst in Sydney. The Goths, the gays, the drunks, the addicts all seeming to move to music because it’s blaring out of every bar and dress shop in the street. All I had to do was theatricalise that.

I Love The Nightlife is boganville. It had to look like Australian yobbos in a musical theatre production but tricked up. I snuck in a whole lot of hip-hop and rap movement so it made the pedestrian, yobbo quality more palatable.

Colour My World I thought the designers had gone mad when I saw the ensemble were actually going to be paintbrushes! I thought it had to have a Hawaiian hula quality to it - Bora Bora. The only problem was to keep the bristles away from the bus’s emergency freeze sensors on the mudguard.

A Fine Romance is, of course, dedicated to Carlotta and Les Girls in Sydney. I adored doing that. It was heavy psychological training, not just dance training, getting guys being sultry seductive women in high heels. It’s going right inside the psyche of a woman. How she flicks her hair. How a woman does what she does. This is the one number that had to be slick. Hot Stuff is the one I’m proudest of stylistically. Here are Australian rednecks in drizabones doing pure locking and popping rap technique with a little hip-hop. I wanted it to look like they were improvising.

MacArthur Park is dedicated to the cups and saucers at Luna Park. A very Alice in Wonderland / Disney-esque thing where they all spin and go in different directions.

Boogie Wonderland is dedicated to the very passionate, loud suburban poker players who make love to their machines. So we made love to ours. It has specific poker machine movements: the stretching of the knuckles, rubbing the hands together, kissing the machine. It’s a very theatrical Broadway style number in the Australian genre.

Finally is really just a big fashion show. I dedicated it to those big shopping centre fashion shows where they dance too much. It touched my heart because my favourite flower is the flannel flower and that’s one of the costumes. It’s joyous to be an Australian and to be able to breathe so deeply and clearly with inspiration that was on your doorstep. You don’t get that opportunity very often.

Coleman acknowledges that he’s often used humour in his choreography, but kept it subtle. Not this time. “With Priscilla it’s an open invitation to be that Aussie larrikin. I’m the last person to consider myself an Aussie larrikin, but I’ve discovered I am.”

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