hi I'm Garen Scribner, I'm a former soloist with the San Francisco Ballet
and Netherlands Dance Theatre One, and this is Playbill's From Ballet to Broadway
Garen Scribner, a former soloist with the San Francisco Ballet and Netherlands Dance Theatre One
made his Broadway debut in the 2015 production of An American in Paris
directed and choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon
the opportunity to come to Broadway came about through Chris Wheeldon so I was in
the San Francisco Ballet and I was in many of Chris Wheeldon's works there
I think he made ten new works while I was in the company, and when the show came
about, An American in Paris, that he was developing, he got in touch with me and
we talked about the possibility of me coming and auditioning and then I sent a
tape and that kind of snowballed into a year and a half later coming and doing
the original company on Broadway and then doing the national tour of an American in Paris
in some ways ballet is the same, like performing the ballet is
the same as performing a musical theater piece, in other ways it's entirely different
so it's a different approach when the ballet dancers are known for not speaking
we communicate through our bodies, through our movement
and we're taught to tell story that way
it's more that we're telling a story through our form and our practice
our practice our bodies are molded by the years and years of training
one of the things that's not really focused on is using our voice
the challenges that I faced, personally, when I left a dance company was that I needed
to sing and speak on stage and the role that I was doing, you have to carry this whole show
so the words that you speak are not just, you know, incidental lines
this is kind of it
I became more confident and each performance got better and felt more enjoyable
transitioning from the world of dance to Broadway posed its own unique challenges
which Garen was happy to embrace
learning how to do a show eight times a week is its own separate beast because
you can do something once or twice really great, put all your energy into it, really blow it out of the water
and then you need a few days off, you don't get that on Broadway
you gotta wake up the next day and do it again and again and again and again
it's so rigorous, it's fun, but it just sort of happens
culturally ballet can be an incredible family environment
which I experienced at the San Francisco Ballet and then later at Netherlands Dance Theatre
with that said, there's also this sense of we don't really reach out of the company, it's all very contained and insular
it's also competitive, I mean there are only so many roles for doing three or four works
putting it in a mixed bill program there are only so many people
who can be in the front and there are 75 80 dancers in the company
I'm really grateful for the chance in musical theater to be able to do things many
many times and to become and have it become part of me
in a way that wasn't possible in ballet
the work of Broadway and ballet legend Jerome Robbins
continues to influence dancers across all genres
a role that helped me prepare for An American in Paris while I was in the ballet,
was playing Tony in West Side Story
and Riff, because we did West Side Story Suite version, which was
taken from Jerome Robbins Broadway, the 1989 Broadway show, and
the West Side Story Suite tells the whole West Side Story in about 45-50 minutes
we all had auditioned to sing, to see if we could do any of these roles, and then
I ended up playing Tony and then Riff on the other nights
that really put a fire under me and I thought, 'this is good, I could do this, I like this, this is fun, this is challenging'
I really, I felt more free being able to speak and sing and dance
you know if I could do it all again or if I were to recommend to a
student who wants to Broadway and also is a ballet person
that from a young age, take music classes, play an instrument, sing, join the chorus
I sort of train in all different elements because it always comes in handy
even if you don't choose to perform, it those disciplines all work together to create a well-rounded artist