The Greatest Showman Home Again Dance
Showtime - Ashley Wallen
When Ashley Wallen, a commercial jazz dancer, left Australia to "give London a go" at age 24, he only planned to go for half-dozen months to "see what happened". Fifteen years on he has the near incredible body of choreographic work to his credit, including the Gilt Globe winning movie The Greatest Showman; shows and motion-picture show clips for artists such equally Kylie Minogue, Sugababes and Alesha Dixon; the W Finish/Broadway/Australian productions of Ghost – the Musical; and the reputation for beingness the man behind the moves of T-Mobile'due south famous Liverpool Station wink mob.
Wallen grew up on the Aureate Declension and started dancing around historic period twelve. "I used to dance around the firm non-end," he recalls. "My mum said, 'We should put him into some classes'." Wallen's mother came good on her promise. His teacher/mentor was Robert Sturrock (Industry Dance – then based on the GC) so Wallen gained a fantastic grounding in technical/commercial jazz dance as well as a solid training in partner work.
At age 17 Wallen was bandage in Kylie Minogue's "Intimate and Alive" bout (1998), which took him to the UK. Following that bout he returned to Commonwealth of australia and worked as a freelance commercial dancer, notching up operation credits in Fame – the Musical, Sisterella, Footloose, Moulin Rouge and Scooby Doo. It was during this period that a friend from Fame mentioned Wallen to an upwardly-and-coming commercials/video director, Michael Gracey, who was based in Melbourne at that time and looking for a choreographer for a commercial project. They made a Sugababes video together, which was Wallen'due south "outset big job as a choreographer".
At 24, Wallen moved to the Britain. "My first job in London was a TV commercial with Elton John," he recalls. Other celebrities he danced with over this time included Robbie Williams, Seal, Emma Bunting and Victoria Beckham. As his reputation every bit a choreographer grew, he found himself in demand for tv work, including X Factor, BBC's Dance 10
and Andrew Lloyd Weber's Superstar, too as commercials. His side by side big break was an advertisement for T-mobile. Wallen was the choreographer for the now famous T-mobile launch, staged in Liverpool Railway Station in January, 2011, office of a earth-broad phenomenon – the flash mob. Wallen went on to choreograph the flash-mob scene in the film Friends with Benefits, where a crowd of hundreds in NY's Times Square joins the trend. 2011 gave him his first chance to bring
his work to the musical theatre phase when Ghost – the Musical premiered on the Westward End. A Broadway season followed in 2012 and then the testify came to Commonwealth of australia in 2016. Now Wallen's LA-based Us agent, BLOC, promotes him as the guy who creates "MGM inspired commercials".
This is definitely true of the 2009 entrada for Lipton Ice Tea, which features Hugh Jackman and afforded him and Gracey more opportunities to ally their skills as director and choreographer, creating their brand of theatrical-moving picture-inspired-dance. The success of the collaboration between Jackman, Gracey and Wallen was once again apparent seven years afterward, when The Greatest Showman was finally dark-green-lit past 20th Century Fox.
"Michael and I had shot a large dance commercial with Hugh in 2009 – which Hugh loved – and which pb to us both working on Greatest Showman... I call up [Gracey] would have been very instrumental in getting me on Showman," Wallen reflects. Once again, Gracey directed and Wallen choreographed, and the results in the production sequences of The Greatest Showman indicate that both men have a passion for detail, creating a rich tapestry of motion and theatricality akin to old MGM film musicals.
Wallen and Gracey accept now been working together for 15-odd years and it's a partnership where each inspires the other. "He (Gracey) has such a dearest for trip the light fantastic and actually understands it and he is so involved in the choreography." There have been suggestions that The Greatest Showman could be taken to Broadway, with Jackman in the lead role, which would exist a hazard for Wallen to return to the alive stage. "I dear doing theatre and alive shows but I think my favourite medium is TV/film," he muses. "You get to play with the cameras, which tin can add and so much more to your choreography." And, whilst there are no concrete plans for this to happen he confides, "It would be amazing if The Greatest Showman was on Broadway,"
so jokingly adds, "Just beingness greedy now!"
His electric current project is proof – as his collaborations with Gracey have been – that the relationships yous make when starting out can blossom into astonishing opportunities down the track. He and Minogue have been busy doing promotional work around the release of her new album, Golden, working upwardly a testify for her to have on tour afterwards in the twelvemonth. Wallen'south achievements are amazing only it seems that all the opportunities to work with stars haven't changed this apprehensive Aussie boy much. Asked if his younger self could accept envisaged his career trajectory he answers, "I tin can't believe that from my dancing days on the Gold Coast I would've concluded upwardly doing what I am doing today."
This article was first published in the June/July issue of Dance Australia. Buy your copy from your favourite retail outlet or subscribe hither.
Source: https://www.danceaustralia.com.au/artists/showtime-ashley-wallen
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