From star to swing: following the work means heading up to "the Heights.".

In the real world, you train in your field, you get an entry-level job, then you start climbing the career ladder. But Broadway isn't the real world--it's where last season's leading player is this season's understudy. It's where you can go from star to swing in the space of a few months.

"It's a reality of being a professional in this business," says Michael Balderrama, who spent seven years on Broadway working his way up to a lead role--as Anthony, the hard-charging choreographer in last season's Hot Feet--only to find himself this year working in the background, and not even on Broadway. "If you really want to be successful," he says, "the first thing you have to do is open your eyes to the broad spectrum of work."

With his good looks, sharp dancing, and intense presence, he was sure to do well when he landed in New York in 1999, especially given his work ethic. But all that stage pizzazz is under wraps in his current job with In the Heights, the sleeper off-Broadway musical that has charmed critics with its dynamic, merengue-flavored songs and dances about Hispanic life in New York.

The show, conceived and composed by Lin-Manuel Miranda, zooms in on a hot Fourth of July weekend in Manhattan's Washington Heights, where Dominicans, Cubans, Puerto Ricans, and other Spanish-speaking immigrants have created a vibrant working-class neighborhood. The son of a Mexican father and a Mexican-American mother, Balderrama was thrilled when Andy Blankenbuehler, his old ensemblemate from his first Broadway show, Saturday Night Fever, and now the In the Heights choregrapher, called to ask if he wanted to be involved. "With my roots, the fact that it was a Latin-based musical was very important," he says. "And I love the show."

He signed on to be the dance captain and a swing. The night I saw In the Heights, his "track" called for him to play a livery driver and someone who buys a "piragua" from the shaved ice vendor, and to be on hand, of course, for the hip hop, salsa, and samba dance numbers that erupt regularly on the sidewalks. But when everything goes well, he isn't on the stage at all.

"It takes an adjustment," he says. "People get into this business because they love to perform. You need to develop the strength to accept not being on the stage." Becoming the dance captain was a no-brainer for him--he wanted experience "on the other side of the table," he says. Swinging came a little harder. "For a performer," he says, "life as a swing is definitely an acquired taste." Happily for him, the show opened (at 37 Arts, the new theater complex in Hell's Kitchen) in the middle of flu season, so early in the run, he was going on a lot.

"The focus of my job now is not about shining on the stage," he says. "It's making sure the show looks as good as it possibly can." He's been a dance captain before, and he says it changes the way you see. "Your eyes become more keyed in to the canvas that's in front of you, and to the idea of trying to get the picture correct. When you're doing eight shows a week, things develop, people get comfortable. You have to be able to maintain that initial vision. And you get your satisfaction from knowing you're doing your job."

Balderrama, 33, has done many. His dance biography begins in Illinois (he was born in Texas), not with lessons or school shows but with outings with his friends, entering local dance competitions in clubs. His first formal training came when he heard that Teddi Burgess' Forest Hills Dance Academy in nearby Loves Park needed some guys to help prepare for a competition. Burgess quickly recognized his professional potential and invited him to take classes on scholarship. "To this day," he says, "on my breaks in between shows I go home and teach at the studio."

He quickly started getting jobs in Chicago, and then, he says, "I just followed the work" to Reno, Las Vegas, Miami. "Every single job developed my dancing, because I started so late. I pride myself on being a sponge for information." Lots of that information, he says, came from Twyla Tharp.

After Movin' Out opened, company class was open to everyone on Broadway. Balderrama was dancing in Saturday Night Fever--he and Natalie Willes were the Latin couple in the dance contest-and he went often. "One day, Twyla came in," he says. "I was dancing barefoot. She said, 'Where are your ballet slippers? You can't work without the right tools.' "And she gave him money and sent him off to Capezio to buy a pair. Later, when he went into the show as a replacement, he learned more. "She doesn't tell you what she wants you to do. She guides you so you can settle into finding it yourself."

As for his next job after In the Heights, it could be anything. He's danced on the Oscars, in videos, trade shows, and Las Vegas hotel shows. He's danced on both coasts and in Europe. He's been an assistant choreographer on a soap. He's even done a tour with a company, Ballet Hispanico. But he has friends at top dance companies, and he knows they get restless. "There are times when you need to spread your wings and try different things whatever the risk," he says. "That's where longevity in this business comes from."

Sylviane Gold has written on theater for Newsday and The New York Times.