Choreographer Bitten by Acting Bug!

Debbie Allen, Paula Abdul, Gene Kelly and Michael Kidd have nothing on Vincent Paterson. In addition to his work on such films as Evita and The Birdcage, he choreographed Madonna's "Blonde Ambition" tour and Michael Jackson's "Bad" tour, as well as the Tony-nominated Kiss of the Spider Woman for Harold Prince. Now, Paterson has stepped into that rare inner circle of choreographer/actors with an appearance in director Lars von Trier's stunning new feature, Dancer in the Dark. The film, chosen to open the thirty-eighth New York Film Festival September 22, stars the international pop singer Bjork as Selma, a single mother in rural America whose only salvation is her passion for the all-singing-all-dancing numbers found in classic Hollywood musicals. Paterson, originally hired as choreographer for this prize-winning entry in the Cannes Film Festival, arrived in Copenhagen, Denmark, last winter to begin pre-production with director von Trier and the challenge of casting more than 400 dancers. (Casting alone would challenge any choreographer worth his salt!) Paterson didn't realize that within days, even greater challenges would be dropped into his lap.

GD: Why were you attracted to this film?

VP: The opportunity to collaborate with the man who directed Breaking the Waves [the 1996 film that earned a best-actress Oscar nomination for Emily Watson] was irresistible. Lars's films always break new ground. The way he and I use dance in this film to heighten the drama of Selma's life is an experience I won't soon forget.

GD: How did the "acting" assignment happen?

VP: When we began pre-production with my skeleton crew of dancers, we discussed the role of Samuel, a man who runs the town's community theater where he's staging a production of The Sound of Music. I was scheduled to work with this character (Samuel) in about a week and I said to Lars, "I need to see who's playing this character." And he said, "Vincent, we've got him!" I said, "You do? Where is he?" And he said, "He's here." I said, "Oh, you mean he's in Copenhagen?" "No, Vincent, he's here." "Well, when am I going to meet him?" He said, "You're going to meet him right now, Vincent." He put his arm around my shoulders and walked me over to the mirror and said, "Here he is!" I looked at myself and said, "Lars, get the hell out of here. I'm not acting in this movie!" He said, "I've been watching you for four days and you're perfect for this role." I said, "This is an 80-year-old Jewish guy!" He said, "Well, that was my first idea, but I see it differently now that you're doing it. It's so natural. You have the qualities that Samuel should possess." So, there I was, resisting the opportunity, remembering my actor friends back in L.A. who fight and scream to get one line on Murphy Brown, and here I am with one of the hottest directors in the world asking me to play this really fantastic role and I'm ambivalent about it. So, I figured, why not enjoy one more experience of collaboration with this incredible director and his company of actors and have a totally creative experience being dance director, choreographer and an actor with a pivotal role in the film ...?

GD: You've always enjoyed a good challenge, Vincent.

VP: It's true.

GD: What style of acting did you have to do?

VP: It was so interesting. Lars asked us not to memorize our lines, just to understand them. The script was totally written, every line was there, but he just wanted us to get a general gist of the scene. Like the opening scene of the film, for instance. It started with me staging "My Favorite Things" with the cast. So it was Catherine Deneuve, Bjork and myself and maybe ten other people. We walked onto the set and Lars has his camera on his shoulder and he says, "OK, go! Start!" And you sort of stand there for a moment in a quandary and have no idea what to do, and then you just start doing some lines and it kind of goes from there.

GD: Interesting ...

VP: Sometimes he would twist it up and ask you to do each other's lines: Vincent do Bjork's, Catherine do Vincent's ... see where that took us. So it became this very interesting cross between a real scripted film and very organic improvisation. On one take, for instance, there was a whole prop table there that I had assembled: stuffed geese, strudel pies and all these kind of cheesy, handmade props. Lars said, "OK, Vincent, just begin with the prop table and start to tell everybody what the props are about and then somehow go into the scene from there." So we just began, and the more we did these real-life things, the more we found our characters as we were exploring them. My God, it was unbelievable!

GD: How do you come off?

VP: I'm pretty good, that's the scary thing. I look at myself in the film and think I'm OK. I had nothing to prove to myself doing it, or anybody else. I wasn't trying to be sure I got a role in another film in the future, so it's just throw it all away and be honest and be in the moment. That happened to most of us because this was the first improvisational bit of acting Catherine had ever done in her life. Bjork had never acted before ... she's a singer and an international video artist. She won the Palme d'Or [at Cannes] for best actress, because her performance as Selma is so raw and honest that, in a way, it's the quintessential performance. There's nothing actressy or contrived about it. So it was this eclectic mixture of David Morse, Joel Grey, Catherine, Bjork, myself. Just this wild group of players. And that was the cool thing, Grover, about the film. It was like we were this band of artists who got together for this wild experience. We ate together, worked together and partied together. Our work and our lives were inseparable. There were no Hollywood impresarios or producers looking over our shoulders. Sometimes, these blessings just drop into our lives. We're encouraged to realize the potential we've got inside us. Aren't we lucky?

Grover Dale, a Dance Magazine contributor, is senior editor of Dance & Fitness Magazine, a Tony Award recipient and the creator and adviser behind "Answers 4 Dancers," on page 76 as well as online at dancemagazine.com and answers4dancers.com