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So who is Hinton Battle? Well, he's this guy that lives in LA, he has a great dog named Tama, and he loves to dance and teach. OH, you mean the other stuff? He starred in DreamGirls, The Wiz, Tap Dance Kid, Sophisticated Ladies and more on Broadway, danced for Dance Theatre Harlem, he sings, he records, he produces, he does music videos, he teaches. Jazz, Tap, Ballet, and we are just getting warmed up! And Hinton is just getting started...

Click to ShoutOut! Trouble with Cookies?	Hey, guess what!! Hinton is here on a regular basis, answering your questions. No kidding!

JEREMY - What would you like to talk about?

HINTON - I dunno.

Hinton didn't seem to have much to say at the start of the interview so I decided to try the psychological approach and talk to him through a puppet which might set him at ease. Having no puppet handy, I decided to talk to his black labrador, Tama, while Hinton answered for her. Or did he?

JEREMY - Tama, how would you say Hinton is as a master?

TAMA - good.

JEREMY - does he feed you well?

TAMA - Excellent.

JEREMY - How would you feel about company? A cat maybe?

TAMA - I like cats, they taste like chicken.

JEREMY - How old are you?

TAMA - Two, three... I don't pay much attention.

JEREMY - How is the race factor - being a black labrador as opposed to a caucasian labrador? Do you think there's a difference between being a black dog versus an asian dog or mottled or mixed dog?

TAMA - As long as you have a Black owner, you're fine.

JEREMY - How's the food here?

TAMA - I told you it's great.

JEREMY - Tell me about your day.

TAMA - I get up with Hinton in the morning then as soon as Hinton's out of the bed, I jump in the bed when he's out of the room, but he'll never notice it. Then when he comes home, I crawl in the corner and hide in the basement. So that's my day.

JEREMY - Do you have any questions for us?

TAMA - Yeh - when are you gonna feed me?

JEREMY - Eventually. Thank you, Tama Battle.

TAMA - Whatever.


JEREMY - Ok Hinton, let's see, where to start?

HINTON - Don't ask me how old I am!

JEREMY - So Hinton, how old are you?

HINTON - Old enough to be your mother.

JEREMY - What does the G. stand for in Hinton G. Battle?

HINTON - (Laughing cuz I've been asking him that for many years) - It stands for 'G.'

JEREMY - Here's my first real question for you... you've starred in back to back broadway smashes for over a decade, you've choreographed the oscars, been featured on the oscars, you've become the only living man on earth with three Antoinette Perry (Tony) Awards, you've been featured in....

HINTON - Blah blah blah, what's the question already?

One of several Hirschfeld's of Mr. Battle

JEREMY - Don't interrupt! You've choreographed many music videos, dance troupes, you were a protege of Balanchine - (he gives me a look like he's going to kill me) ... HINTON - SHUT UP! JEREMY - Whatcha working on these days? HINTON - Working now on a one man show, shopping it around, working on taking it to broadway. HBO bought the rights to ten minutes of it from the Colorado Springs Comedy Fest. JEREMY - You're working on some smaller projects while you're shopping the bigger stuff around? HINTON - I am? Oh yeh! Feeding my dog, washing the kitchen floor, that sorta stuff? JEREMY - You were just working on something on the computer, no? HINTON - I can't talk about that right now. I could but... JEREMY - I know, you'd have to kill me and everyone who reads it afterwards. What can you talk about? OK, what's your favorite show you've ever done?

HINTON - DREAMGIRLS. I did it for about three months. I liked the show, it was a good show, I liked working with Michael Bennett. He was cool. I liked the show, I like everything about it - the music, Michael, I liked the character I played: James Thunder Early. I liked the cast, it was a young cast which is nice, everyone's around the same age. Normally there are a lotta older people or younger people or only two of you are around the same age.

JEREMY - Did you ever work with Michael Bennett again after that? Before that?

HINTON - No, it was the only thing we ever worked on together.

JEREMY - Do you think you liked it because you were only on it briefly so it didn't have a chance to become routine or stale?

HINTON - No, I liked it because I liked the role. It was a great role, it was the kind of role that was just wild. When they were doing the Los Angeles version of the show, they held auditions and I went in to audition for the role. They offered me the show but they offered me another part. They didn't see me as that wild, womanizing, sex driving, gospel sorta sounding, James Brown, Michael Jackson kind of character.

JEREMY - So they offered you the role of the window washer instead?

HINTON - They offered me the role of... what was it? Ummm... I think it was CC, the brother to Effie. Just wasn't my cup of tea so I didn't take it. Took another job which was a lot more fun.

JEREMY - Least favorite job?

HINTON - "Tap Dance Kid." It was a struggle all the way. Just a big ol struggle all the way. They were gonna close the show up and I went to everybody and said "look, let's all take a pay cut and make the show run cuz either we run or we have no jobs" so I convinced em all to take pay cuts and we ran for awhile but then it was just one long haul after another, that's all. But some good things came out of it and I've since retired from tap dancing.

The show ran for a few years on broadway and won three or four tony awards.

JEREMY - Started and ended your tap dancing career?

HINTON - I said yeah, enuf of this! Good things came out of it though, Alfonso, Barbara Montgomery, Savion, Dawn Lewis, Gayle, she tours a lot, all those people are working, doing tv shows, touring a lot.

JEREMY - Between tv shows, movies, choreography, dancing, singing... do you have a particular thing you like doing? Do you like doing em ALL in one show?

HINTON - That's a tough one.

JEREMY - Depends on the situation?

HINTON - Lemmee put it this way: every show I've ever done that I didn't write/produce, whatever, has been someone else's dream and vision of something... it's other people's ideas and you're slotted in a slot and it's fun, and I'd give it a 110 percent, but it was never really coming from me. But now what I've been doing with the one man show and "the jazz bakery" and more club dates is I'm doing what I want to do, singing the music I want to sing. It's what I want to do, I'm not saying what I was doing before wasn't great or not fun, but I enjoy what I'm doing now a lot more. I worked with some great people and I enjoyed working with them but you're still fulfilling someone else's dreams. You may be starring in a nice role on broadway and you're getting a nice check every week but ultimately it's not your creation, it's not your baby.

Long pause, I can't think of anything to ask, he's petting his dog.

JEREMY - Who are the greatest dancers out there? Who was your favorite to dance with or that you would've liked to have danced with? I remember you saying that Baryshnikov wasn't that great, that he was just a big star.

HINTON - I said that?!

More Hinton? Link to the Kennedy Center to read a bit more about his remarkable career. Still More? Just Email'm at askHinton@danceart.com and we'll post his answers right here! (special tip from DanceArt.com: Funny and Interesting emails get noticed!!)

JEREMY - You did! HINTON - I.... naw... JEREMY - You once said that there's a big difference between the greatest talents out there and the ones who are the most well known which I believe is very true. HINTON - That IS true. JEREMY - And thusly you bagged on Mick-Ale. HINTON - Baryshnikov is good, he's real good. He's excellent. I said that? JEREMY - We were watching a tape or a show he was on and I was going "MAN he's amazing, that stuff's not possible." You said "he's not that great." HINTON - I was just jealous. We crack up for awhile.

HINTON - I was just jealous he was doing it and I wasn't.

JEREMY - I believed you cuz you used to do all the same stuff, I figured you knew the deal. You used to do gran jetes over my head and I'm 5'8'' (that's a leaping split to anyone who doesn't know and probably misspelled to those who do).

HINTON - Nope. Jealous.

JEREMY - Long boring story break.

HINTON - Here we go.

JEREMY - Do you remember when you, Delo (actor/dancer Michael Delorenzo) and I went to the Chinese Mann Theatre to see that movie with Mick-Ale (Baryshnikov) and Greg (Gregory Hines)?

HINTON - Yeah, White Knights?

JEREMY - That's it...

HINTON - And you told those gang members to shut up cuz they were talking too loud?

JEREMY - ........ Yeah. That's another story. Anyway, there was a scene where Gregory and Mick-ale (I'm pronouncing it that way just to [bug] Hinton) have a bet that Baryshnikov can't do eleven turns. After the movie when we're walking out I was going on about how it looked as if it wasn't cut and that he really pulled off 11 clean turns and stepped out of it. I was buggin cuz the most I ever pulled off in my life... when the stars were aligned and the wind was blowing the right was maybe six, probably 5... and a quarter... then fell on my head afterward. So I'm making a big deal out of all these turns he did and this is turning into a really long, boring story, isn't it?

HINTON - (Patiently) Go ahead...

JEREMY - So 11 clean turns, not cut, I'm goin' on about it and you and Delo look at each other like what's the big deal and Delo says something about what's the big deal, he was in dance shoes on a wood floor? I said I suppose he could do eleven turns and he said to you "you wanna do em or should I?" You said to him "you" and he gets in position and whips off 11 turns in high top sneakers on concrete in the middle of the crowds leaving the theatre.

HINTON - Yeah.

JEREMY - I suppose there's no response to that. Just a long boring story.

HINTON - Mmmmm Hm.

We bust up.

JEREMY - Michael Jackson.

HINTON - What about him?

JEREMY - Didn't you do your first broadway show with him?

HINTON - no!

JEREMY - The Wiz?

HINTON - No, he did the movie, I played the scarecrow in the broadway show.

JEREMY - I'm gonna haveta fire my research people. Who did you do the wiz with?

HINTON - Ted Ross, Didi Bridgewater, Trevor Haynes, Arthur Dushields, who else... ummmm Stephanie Mills....

JEREMY - what'd you do after the wiz?

HINTON - I danced with dzryduhahlum, I had a bad injury...

JEREMY - Wait, say names slowly so I get em right .

HINTON - Spell em?

JEREMY - Just say em slowly.

HINTON - Ok - Daaaaaaance Theeeeaaaatrrrre of Harrrrrrrrleeeeeem.

JEREMY - I thought you said Desiree DuHarlem.

HINTON - They should change the name, that sounds good - Desiree Du Harlem, it has a ring. So I danced with Dance Theatre of Harlem for awhile, solo ballet, I was a soloist then left and worked with Bob Fosse in Dancin' - that was cool.

JEREMY - I'm trying to think of questions that up and coming dancers, young kids, those inspired sort of people would want me to ask. Those who find this interview might wanna know about people like Bob Fosse, Balanchine and all.

HINTON - Like in what context?

JEREMY - I dunno, picture twelve year old girls in Ohio who's life is dance, they're hoping to get to NY one day and they wanna know about those old legends, Michael Peters... He was a sweetheart, wasn't he?

HINTON - Michael Peters? He was tough.

JEREMY - He really was that character in the Beat It video? (he was the choreographer and lead dancer in the white leathers and sunglasses).

HINTON - Yeah, he was tough, he'd pull a knife out on you. He was really tough. My advice is learn it all, learn everything a dancer can learn - you won't be able to do it all, but you've gotta try cuz the wind blows different directions and who knows what direction it's gonna blow next and if you're not ready to go that direction you're gonna get lost in the wind.

JEREMY - And learn to use a computer in case you ever have a bad injury.

HINTON - Right and get a bachelor's degree in fine arts in something.

JEREMY - How would you rate me as a roommate? (we shared a couple of apartments together).

HINTON - You were fine, you were great, it was cool. All we did was eat and go to the gym!

Hinton discovered Price Club!

JEREMY - We were young and fit and had lots of hair. HINTON - You were fit, I was starting to pork it out there. I think I'm getting pretty thin now. JEREMY - You're doing three spin classes in one day! One is a enuf for a month and you're doing two - three a day (spin classes are aerobics classes you do while on a new high tech exercise bicycle so in addition to the aerobic movements, you're dying from the bicycle - they're a killer!) HINTON - Good, I just did enough for three months.

JEREMY - OK, even when that Battle-Mania thing was going on, every cab we ever got into in NY the cab driver was asking for your autograph, people on the street... even in l.a. people were asking for your autograph (which is unusual for broadway stars), you never had that big attitude, ego thing goin' on. Why not?

HINTON - Well what is that? What is that big ego stuff? If you've gotta get such a big head to inflate your ego that much you better find a good psychiatrist and do some homework on yourself.

JEREMY - Did you ever get to a point where you ever stopped and said "why am I acting this way?" Ever have to do a check and say I'm acting like a big ego? Or did you never get there?

HINTON - I think it's healthy to have some ego, but some people you meet, work with, whatever you gotta just stop and go Whhhhoooooaaaa......

JEREMY - OK, tell everyone the story of you before the show [Tap Dance Kid]- it's all tap dancing, you won a tony for it, you got rave reviews for your tap dancing, exactly how many years had you been tapping before the show?

HINTON - How many years? Ummmm let me think.... was it five? Maybe ten..... no... it was NONE.

JEREMY - But they didn't know that you didn't know, did they?

HINTON - No. I called an old friend up and she taught me this easy little step and I made it look goooood.

JEREMY - They assumed cuz you had done so much dance, were so established - that you were THE HINTON BATTLE and done so many shows that naturally you could tap.

HINTON - It was that old black thang. He MUST be able to tap.

JEREMY - And they asked you to audition and you did...

HINTON - I did, I had to audition with Danny Daniels, the choreographer on the show...

JEREMY - He still alive?

HINTON - I don't know. It was just him and me in a room for about three hours.

JEREMY - How did you learn to tap so quickly for the show?

HINTON - Cuz I knew every week I would get a check.

JEREMY - That's quite an incentive

HINTON - It is, it works every time.

-- We talk about dogs for awhile --

JEREMY - So, you've won a lot of awards, what was it like winning your first Tony? Was it like - oh, great, no big deal?

HINTON - I didn't expect to win it.

JEREMY - Do you remember who you were up against?

HINTON - 42nd street, pirates of penzance... another one and something else...

JEREMY - No wonder you won. It was for Sophisticated Ladies, right?

HINTON - Yeah.

Hinton featured in G.Q. and Jeremy with lots of hair

JEREMY - I remember being a kid in NY and walking through the theatre district, seeing the posters for dancin' and looking at the names and seeing Hinton Battle and wondering if it was a real name. What a strange thing we'd end up best friends for almost half my life. HINTON - When will it be half? JEREMY - Hmmmm.... next year? Next year we'll have been friends for 17 years and I'll be 35. JEREMY - What do you see for your retirement years? Your old age? HINTON - getting older. JEREMY - So you're now 24, what do you see for the next ten years (he's actually in his mid-late 30's)? HINTON - Getting older. Doing my own projects, producing and directing more.

We have to take a break for a few cuz Tama came over and starting french kissing him so Hinton's wiping his tongue off on a napkin and then Tama did it again.

JEREMY - This might be interesting, maybe not.

HINTON - What?

JEREMY - I'll try to make it clear - when someone is truly outstanding at something, most people are truly great at one thing at least - me, the only thing I was truly extraordinary at was rolling skating, one of the best in ny at the central park slalom course which might mean I was one of the best in the world at my peak - with you it's dance. The question relates to the fact that people don't usually ask questions like - how does it feel knowing you're one of the best in the world at something. Do you take pride in it or is it just work... do you ever think stuff like "man, I'm the only person on the entire planet with three tony awards for performing on broadway?" Does it ever wig you out?

HINTON - No.

JEREMY - next question....

We laugh for awhile and he tries to throw his dog at me.

HINTON - This is gonna sound horrible!!!

JEREMY - Really, I know people don't ask you stuff that way. Maybe it takes a friend to ask embarrassing stuff like this. I feel awkward asking, do you want to answer it?

HINTON - I'll try, take it out if it sounds stupid though.

JEREMY - Deal.

HINTON - I'm.... uhhh, I'm, uhhhh... I'm, I'm .... I'm ....

JEREMY - That didn't sound stupid at all. OK, next question: how long have you been dancing?

HINTON - I'm flattered, I'm honored. I mean, that I have em, it's great - to be recognized for the work I did on those shows, it's not just the Tonys, it's the NAACP award, the Fred Astaire awards, all of em, they're like a stamp, a stamp of theatrical approval I guess. It's like recognition of those productions and my contribution...

JEREMY - Were you aware of it when you won the third one -were you thinking that if you won you'd be only the second man in history and the only living man with three? I don't mean to make a big deal out of the question, but it is a pretty big deal.

HINTON - Yeah, actually I was aware of it but only because someone mentioned it to me on the way to the show.

JEREMY - The cab driver?

HINTON - The limo driver, actually. No, it was a drunk homeless man - he said "if uuuuuuuu win that mmmmmmmmmm mmmister badoo - if you winnn daaaaaat thing thing thing..... threeeeeeeeeee MIIIIISSSSTERRRRR BADDOOOOO, THREEEEEEEE THREEEEEEE AAAANTOINETTE. THREEEEE!!!!!!"

JEREMY - I'm gonna start taking sound bites off these interviews so people can click and hear you - that's what I'm going to put off yours. So do you use the tonys for bricks - bricks and board shelves for your records and eight track tapes?

HINTON - No, they're in a box in storage somewhere in NY. When I tell people that they freak, tell me I gotta get em out here and put em in a glass case.

JEREMY - Other awards you were as jazzed to get?

HINTON - Any of em - anytime someone takes the time to look at your work and say you deserve this thing, it an honor. NAACP, Fred Astaire, they're all great, cuz you know... they don't have to. They can check you out and go "we saw you in that.... ummmm, no." Granted each one has it's own level of how people relate to them, but to be the recipient of any of em... it's great.


JEREMY - People are prolly gonna bag on me for not talking more about the greats who aren't around anymore - Michael Peters?

HINTON - Peters, Peters, He used to cus me out all the time "YA LAZY! WHAT AREYA DOING?! YA LAZY!" Peters. Man. Michael Peters. Bob Fosse... the worst story about Fosse was that I'd just done Tap Dance Kid and I was pretty burnt out from the show - it was a real hell, hellish experience, Tap Dance Kid, and Bob called me up about doing a show called "Big Deal" and ummmm, I told him I couldn't do it cuz I was just too burnt out and it was going into rehearsals in two weeks so I passed on it, all I wanted to do was rest, I was thinking I won't be any good, thinking I don't wanna do ANYTHING.

JEREMY - You wanted to go spend all your money.

HINTON - I just wanted to go away for awhile and recuperate and I always regretted it cuz that was the last show he ever did. Always regretted it.

JEREMY - Michael Peters. You keep saying he was tough, how so?

HINTON - He'd cuss you out in a minute. That was the great thing about Michael. You knew if you were cutting it. It was good cuz you knew you wouldn't go onstage looking like a giant grape or something. I appreciated that, it wasn't always easy to take, but I appreciated it cuz you knew where you stood. If he ever said you was kickin' it, you knew you was kickin' it, you were reeeeally doin' it! If you were ok, you knew it was ok, but if you was suckin' it, you KNEW you sucked. Flat out, he told you. But you always knew you could trust him. Cuz of that I really looooved working with him. We came in and redid Dreamgirls, we rechoreographed it, made it a lot more dancy, more dancing, back bends and splits and holding onto the mike and doing splits, we did all that. That man tried to KILL ME! He put my pelvis in a new position! He had it on TOP of my head!

JEREMY - Most people across the US who don't see a lot of broadway shows know him best from the Beat It video, what else would they know him from? HINTON - He did a lot of music videos, Lional Ritchie, he did everybody's music videos, after Dreamgirls he came to Hollywood and started doing commercials and stuff, he directed the commercial for Tap Dance Kid, did you know that? JEREMY - No, I didn't. JEREMY - Great moments in broadway shows you've done? HINTON - Dancin' was great - non-stop dancing, it was work. Oxygen on both wings for the dancers. Did it on broadway then toured it, then here in l.a. I did that tour for a long time! JEREMY - If anyone has any bootlegs of it, I wanna see it.

More Hinton? Link to the Kennedy Center to read a bit more about his remarkable career. Or email'm!

JEREMY - How many soundtrack albums have you sung on?

HINTON - Whoa... Miss Saigon, Tap Dance Kid, the Wiz, Sophisticated Ladies... only four.

JEREMY - Do you like the way you sound on them or do you think "oh, Broadway showtunes?"

HINTON - "Oh, broadway showtunes."

JEREMY - You had a seven record deal with Quest (Quincy Jones' old record label) and unfortunately Quincy Jones sold to Warner who only kept the big names, did I get that right?

HINTON - Yeah.

JEREMY - it's a shame - Louise says you have one the best voices she's ever heard.

HINTON - Reaaaally? That's cool.

JEREMY - She can't understand why you're not presently doing the same movies as Denzel Washington and have albums all over the place cuz she thinks you're incredibly handsome, talented...

HINTON - (Laughing) She HAS a boyfriend. I've been in NY, I've been doing theatre so I haven't really been out here trying to do the whole Hollywood thing. So I just moved out here what, maybe two or three years ago and I'm just starting with that whole thing, we'll see how it goes.


JEREMY - What do you think of the desert or joshua tree in particular?

HINTON - People actually live out there?

JEREMY - So I've heard.

HINTON - It's beautiful, it's beautiful... it takes a minute to get used to it if you're from the city but you definitely feel as though you're in with something that's intangible.

JEREMY - You were actually thinking of buying a house out here.

HINTON - I still am.

JEREMY - Cuz why?

HINTON - Cuz it's a good place to chill.

JEREMY - How much chilling do you think is good for a person.

HINTON - Until the quiet becomes too loud.

JEREMY - That happens very quickly sometimes...

HINTON - Then it's time to leave.

JEREMY - When do you think of coming to the desert? Is it when the city gets too much...

HINTON - When I wanna be able to look up and see the sky. You just want to get away from people and tons of cars and telephone poles.

JEREMY - We have lots of telephone poles...

HINTON - I guess you don't notice them cuz there's too much air and space.

JEREMY - I find it hard to believe that people actually live in LA in an apartment on a busy intersection and never leave the city - they don't even know the open space of the desert is a few hours away... have you turned other people onto the magic of our area?

HINTON - Yeah, absolutely. and my dog loves it.

JEREMY - Where should we end this interview?

HINTON - About two miles back. Isn't that tape about to run out? It looked awhile ago as if th...

The tape ran out.

Click to ShoutOut! Trouble with Cookies?	Hey, guess what!! Hinton is here on a regular basis, answering your questions. No kidding!

Interview conducted by Jeremy Baumann of Joshua Tree, California. Opinions and views
expressed in this feature are not necessarily those of DanceArt.com or its staff.

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