Today we are talking with Carlos Lopez (AEA/SAG/AFTRA). I first met Carlos in my ballet class at The Broadway Dance Center, and since then he's become a Broadway dynamo, working non-stop with the best directors and performers in town. Besides his performing skills, which include acting-singing-dancing, Carlos plays chess, swims, drives stick, bikes, is good at most sports, does acrobatics, rides horses, cooks, is good with accents, and speaks fluent Spanish. And he still loves to do multiple pirouettes and dances like a demon in ballet class!

Finis: How did you get started performing?

Carlos: When I was 5, my mother couldn't figure out to do with me, so she enrolled me in an acting class.

Finis: What do you mean, she couldn't figure out what to do with you? Were you a problem child?

Carlos: I was pretty shy, but I had a lot of energy, and my mother thought acting would be a good way to get me out of my shell and expend energy at the same time.

Finis: Thank goodness for us. Where were you born?

Carlos: Sunnyvale, California.

Finis: So, the acting took hold, and then what?

Carlos: Throughout my education, I was fortunate to always have teachers involved with the arts, so I continued to study acting and singing.

Finis: I met you first in my ballet class at The Broadway Dance Center in New York City, so when did dancing come into the picture?

Carlos: Well, I was doing a production of BRIGADOON a year after I graduated High School, and the choreographer said I was the worst dancer she had ever seen in her life, and being stubborn, I told her in two years that people would know me as a dancer.

Finis: That sounds typically Carlos!

Carlos: Two years later, I was apprenticing with Oakland Ballet. I took classes three times a day. I wish that choreographer could see me now — I've never seen her since that first show.

Finis: What happened with Oakland Ballet?

Carlos: I became a soloist, and the director of the company was a big influence on me artistically, not just teaching me dance technique, but more than that, he taught me how to be an artist.

Finis: Who was the director who helped you?

Carlos: Ronn Guidi. He really helped me to see that dancing is not just about technique, it unleashes all your emotions — passion, joy, anger, frustration.

Finis: And how do these factors come into play in your performing experiences?

Carlos: When you perform on stage, especially on Broadway, you're called upon to show the human condition. Without real feelings behind the steps, you're just "vanilla."

Finis: What do you mean by "vanilla?"

Carlos: I'll give you the example Ronn Guidi gave me: He said sometimes perfect technique in dancing is like a diamond; beautiful, but it can be very cold. Sometimes an imperfection, or a flaw, or the color of a ruby or an emerald, can be more interesting.

Finis: Since a lot of aspiring performers read this column, can you talk a little bit more about not being vanilla and also not just being perfect like a diamond?

Carlos: I just observed a theater dance class at Broadway Dance Center taught by David Marquez, who had just auditioned dancers for an upcoming show. In the class were both women who had gotten the show, and some who hadn't. I had heard some of the women complain because they didn't get a call-back, and when I saw them all dancing together, I could see why David chose some and not the others.

Finis: And what was the difference between those who got the show and those who didn't?

Carlos: I think the biggest reason the ones who got the show were successful is that they had a "through-line."

Finis: What does that mean?

Carlos: It's as if there is a rubber band between the performer and the audience, there's a constant flow of energy. You never see a lapse in the performance. The women who weren't hired were choppy; sometimes they had too much energy where there should have been less. I think it was Jerome Robbins who said in rehearsal to a certain dancer, "I told you to sell it, not give it away."

Finis: How does a performer learn what's desirable and what's not?

Carlos: I myself studied the films of people I respected: Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Baryshnikov, Nureyev. Dance Films like West Side Story, trying to figure out what made these people special, and different. Studying in this way is as important as taking class, doing tendus and pirouettes.

Finis: Do you mean because you learn to think and develop judgment and taste?

Carlos: Absolutely. It's as important to watch as it is to take. You can learn a lot by watching, even watching class. What can be more important than to use your brain?

Finis: I agree, that's how I developed my teaching. Studying famous dancers in slow motion. And the fact that you use your brain must have something to do with the fact that you've been working almost non-stop since you came to town (NYC).

Carlos: That's true, since I began with WISH YOU WERE HERE in March of 87, I've done A CHORUS LINE (World Tour), PAJAMA GAME (My first Broadway show), CHORUS LINE (Broadway), WEST SIDE STORY (National Tour), GRAND HOTEL (Broadway), GUYS & DOLLS (Broadway), GREASE (Broadway), WONDERFUL TOWN (Broadway), GREASE, then moved to LA for a while and did film and TV, and now I've just come back and done BELLS ARE RINGING in DC (it's coming to Broadway in a year), and will start rehearsals November 2 for ANNIE GET YOUR GUN with Bernadette Peters, which'll open first in DC and then on Broadway in January, 1999.

Finis: I'm breathless. That's a terrific track record, Carlos!

Carlos: Thank you! Thanks for helping me with my technique. I use your sayings all the time, like don't let the tail wag the dog, or if we can send a man to the moon, you can turn around twice on the floor. Can I tell a Finis Jhung story?

Finis: What is it?

Carlos: An example of how people don't pay attention in class. You were teaching jumps in class, using your bow and arrow. There was group of girls, but they weren't paying attention. You shot the arrow into the air, to show how a jump should travel, and, instead of moving out of the way, one of the girls just stood there, and the arrow landed smack in the middle of her forehead. I think you drove the message home.

Finis: I laugh every time I use the bow and arrow. Thank goodness there was a suction cup, and not a real tip. Let's get back to you. Do you have any particular high-point in your career so far?

Carlos: I was doing GUYS & DOLLS on Broadway, and George Russell — he passed away — asked me to do a workshop with and for Jerome Robbins to update WESTSIDE STORY. Mr. Robbins wanted to place the show in an environmental space; he wanted to use the old Oscar Hammerstein Opera House which had burned down. There would be no seats, there was rubble everywhere. Torn curtains, ripped seats, broken pipes. Just like a real slum area. I was playing ARAB, and he didn't like the way BABY JOHN was doing the scene with me, so he decided to play BABY JOHN against my ARAB. Working one on one with this theater legend was a dream come true.

Finis: Lucky you. Is there anything in particular you associate with this experience?

Carlos: To watch Mr. Robbins work with people he respected was very interesting. One day I brought a frisbee to rehearsal, and became intrigued watching him watch the people play a simple game. I saw how he studied all kinds of movement, and how even a simple thing like changing positions while sitting could be so important and meaningful. He investigated all the possibilities to make sure that the steps he came up with were the most effective.

Finis: And here again, it seems that using your intelligence is what makes a difference. Not taking anything for granted, but always trying to find all the possibilities. Isn't that what makes a great artist, doing the right thing at the right time?

Carlos: Yes, it's not that you have to over-intellectualize something, but you have to allow yourself to be affected by the music, the other person, even the audience.

Finis: In other words, you have to know how to work. You need to be open to all the possibilities.

Carlos: Exactly.

Finis: You've told us how you yourself studied great artists on film and video so that you could see what they did when they performed that made them special. Certainly this is something all our readers can do, wherever they are, thanks to TV stations like PBS, BRAVO, A & E.. Also there are library sources, even Blockbuster Video. Let's go back to the women in class who didn't get the job; how can they learn what it is they need to know? Can they learn to be better than they are?

Carlos: If their egos allow them to. No matter how far I get in my career, I'll never allow myself to think I can't be better.

Finis: I think you're absolutely right. Where will these women learn what they need to know? From class? From a teacher? From working a show?

Carlos: There's a quality within a person that is unique, good or bad. Ethel Merman didn't have super-model looks, but she had a quality that made her shine. In her case, it was that voice and tremendous physicality. One thing is that aspiring performers can do is see what makes great performers special and try applying it to themselves to develop their own unique talents. For instance, when I looked at Astaire, Kelly and Baryshnikov I put little pieces of all of them together to make my own unique style. When I first came to NYC I studied ballet with Doug Wassell, and I remember being frustrated because I didn't have a perfect fifth position or great extension. And Doug told me, "that's not you, you're all about energy and accents and powerful movement." That's what makes me special.

Finis: I agree, and that's why everyone always has an extra good time whenever you're in class!

Carlos: I've learned it's OK not to be able to do something; just don't give up, never stop striving. Don't be afraid to fail. I also think it's important, for any kind of career, to have a good acting background. You have to able to come from an acting place.

Finis: Tell us more about this.

Carlos: A teacher teaches you how to get to your acting, or your movement. A teacher can show you things to develop your sense of artistry, but you have to find the actor in you. You have to find the magic in what they're showing you, and then portray it. A good teacher will help you get to the artist in you by showing you techniques that allow you not to get in your own way. For instance, Chris Chadman who directed us in GUYS & DOLLS always insisted that everything we did had to have meaning.

Finis: Yes, I think this all goes back to the "rubber band" idea of the performer connecting with the audience. It seems to be that the bottom line is that whatever it is you are doing, each moment has to be meaningful to you as an artist.

Carlos: I am grateful that I've had wonderful teachers who have guided me, like Fred Kareman, Ronn Guidi, Chris Chadman, Finis Jhung, Pam Drake, and Donna Russell, who was my first acting teacher and kept me in school.

Finis: What do you think future performers should be studying now?

Carlos: They should have a steady diet of ballet. They need some jazz, tap. They need to be able to sing, and to able to act. The one thing I want to emphasize is that performing is not for weak people. It takes courage to be a performer. If you want to be a performer, you have to want it more than everybody else doesn't want you to have it.

Finis: That's great advice. Thanks so much, Carlos. We look forward to your next Broadway appearance!