`A New Day': a new opportunity for choreographer Mia Michaels.

Mia Michaels has been making dance on a cast of fifty dancers in a small town near Brussels, Belgium, since June 2002. Known as a hard-driving, high-energy contemporary choreographer with a spiritual edge (see "Mia Michaels: Blonde Ambition," DANCE MAGAZINE, August 1998, page 58), Michaels, with Franco Dragone, the now almost legendary co-founder of Cirque du Soleil, has been choreographing more than sixty musicians and artists of all stripes-dance, aerial, vocal, percussion, acrobatic, and theatrical. The individuals, well known in their various disciplines, hail from spots all over the globe. They were chosen from among thousands who auditioned in Montreal, London, Paris, Amsterdam, New York, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Chicago, and La Louviere, Belgium. Among those sixty assembling and rehearsing the show--and yes, dancing--is the singing star Celine Dion. They are making A New Day....

Dion is the centerpiece of the newest Las Vegas theatrical presentation directed by Dragone, who created the enormously successful Alegria, Quidam, Mystere, and O. The colossal spectacle, backed with what is currently the largest indoor LED screen in North America, is meant to be a balance of dance, song, theater, and multimedia, in which the audience is brought into a virtual world. Each song, each dance, is designed to evoke a different experience and transfix the viewer.

"At the heart of the illustration is a mouth--lips formed by the suggested pulse of a heartbeat, vocal cords, the vibrations of an instrument," explains designer Marie-Josee Gravel of TRIPLEX Communications. At the opening, Gravel continues, "we discover an image of Celine [as a storyteller] that is grand and pure in its simplicity. Her silhouette evokes a force, a passion, a fragility. She emerges from amongst the brilliant lights of Las Vegas."

"For me," Dion said at a press preview, "this image represents the moment in music when all instruments are in harmony-a strong and intense moment.... I see my old self to the left, the new to the right. This show marks a turning point in my personal journey ... a guide to self-discovery, to push the limits of performance...."

A New Day ... has a new, specifically constructed 4,000-seat theater at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, under its owners since December 1999, Park Place Entertainment Corporation. The theater has been designed to resemble the Roman Colosseum in its heyday, but inside, audiences are seated more in a horseshoe shape rather than a circular arena. Every seat has a clear view of the stage and screen.

The production of A New Day ... is scheduled to run for a minimum of three years with Dion in an exclusive, extended engagement beginning March 25, 2003. She has moved her family to Las Vegas so that she can remain close to her husband, Rene, and her 2-year-old son during the run of the show. This may indeed be a new day in Las Vegas bookings, since historically most 9f the big-voice solo celebrities have been male-Wayne Newton, Engelbert Humperdinck, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., and Elvis Presley, for example.

"Our goal with this project is to create a spectacle like no other-a fusion of song, theater, dance, and technical innovation," Dragone, who is working with a new creative team for this venture, told a recent press gathering. "I see Celine as a satellite who captures images. She will use the stage to create her own universe and share it intimately with the audience. [I] will expose Celine's immense talent in a new art form. We hope to heighten and intensify the senses so that each spectator leaves the show `seeing' more than they did the day before," he added.

MIA MUSINGS

"I've never been so happy," admits Mia Michaels while she awaits the opening of her first choreographic credit of a Las Vegas spectacular. "I feel like I have found my creative family.

"Franco Dragone is the most brilliant stage director. In five months in La Louviere, I created eight hours of choreography. I would make something, then give it to Franco; he would work his magic and then give it back to me. It was like a zigzag staircase--so evolved, so many layers of Franco and Mia. I feel so blessed, so happy. I think I could work with him forever.

"My journey has not always been easy," says Michaels. Although she has known remarkable choreographic success on very different stages--everything from Melissa Hough's contemporary piece for the 2002 International Ballet Competition in Jackson, Mississippi, to Madonna's World Tour 2001, a Ricky Martin music video, and the American Music Awards TV show--nothing was ever completely comfortable. "It feels so great not to have to edit my choreography. Before, [I was always told that] I was too artsy for commercial work and too `out there' for concert work. But here the chemistry is like family. We share the same vision."

A New Day ... 's east of fifty dancers worked in Dragone's hometown in Belgium for five months before moving to [,as Vegas in November 2002, then into the new theater the first week of December to put the finishing touches on the show, which is scheduled to open March 25, 2003. "Franco wanted them to look like a representation of people you would see on a city street, in the world. So the dancers are all shapes and colors and they are all professionals, but they come from different styles, different techniques. So when I ask them to showy me something, they really show me a lot of things! It was hard for some of them who live in cities to come to a small town, but I thought it was good that there wasn't too much else to do. In New York there are so many distractions. They were all cast before I was. At first it was a challenge for them to dance as a unit in my style, but we've used every bit of that five months for them to understand my work. Now when I ask them to dance together they can, but they can also go back to their own styles when we want to see the diversity.

"There are so many of them [unlike her own small company, Mia Michaels R.A.W.] that I can't choreograph a piece on my own or my assistants' bodies. I have to dream my choreography more now. There are so many different elements.

"Celine isn't a trained dancer, but she is a natural mover--and she is so quick. I gave her a minute or so of choreography, and she had it in-an hour. She is a great person, so open--and fun. She really does dance in the show.

"This is a great job for dancers. Five shows a week for ninety minutes. And benefits. One home base and an expected run for three years.

"As choreographer I'll be here a month or so after the opening, then I'm off to my next adventure. It's amazing, though. After most big jobs you feel drained, but not this one. I'm feeling enormously energized--and blessed."

DANCE MAGAZINE spoke to choreographer Mia Michaels in December 2002