What kind of dancer do you call yourself? (Conversations With Jazz Dancers).

DANCE MAGAZINE asks: You three opened in March in A New Day ... in a Las Vegas show that centers on singer Celine Dion. Choreographer Mia Michaels has definitely brought real contemporary dance to this city. Is it jazz dance? What do you call yourselves?

Kelby Brown (from St. Louis, Missouri): I just call myself a dancer. I think you have to be able to do it all. I grew up in St. Louis and started ballet at 14, then jazz at 19, but I also studied modern, hip-hop, martial arts, whatever it took. Later I trained at the School of American Ballet in New York.

Lance Sherman (age 25, from New York, New York): Kelby and I met in the lunch room there, because SAB shares the cafeteria with Juilliard, where I attended. I think every concert dancer has to be really versatile--able to do several styles really well. I'm 25 now and this is my third show in Vegas. But rehearsing A New Day in Belgium was my first time in Europe, and I traveled around a lot. I think it broadened me as a person and as a performer.

Andrea Ziegler (age 30, from New Hamburg, Ontario, Canada): Yes, I'm a college grad too--Ryerson Polytechnic in Canada. And this is my second show in Vegas. Kelby and I were in Mystere together. I started dancing when I was 3 --ballet and contemporary. Yes, I think we all are versatile and have become even more so with this show, even though we don't use all that we've learned.

DM: LIKE WHAT?

Andrea: Well, aerial work, for one thing. And we trained in how to sing four-part harmony in case we needed to sing backup. But we don't.

Kelby: I've worked Cirque shows, but never been in on the creation of a show before. It's a great feeling of putting some of yourself into it. We're so lucky. In this huge, new 4,000 seat theater, we feed off each audience, and it's different every night.

Andrea: Right, and off each other.

Lance: There's more technical background here. I think we'd just call ourselves artists.

Andrea and Kelby: Yeah.