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Behind the Scenes of Latin Madness with Addie-Tude!
Addie Diaz and several members of the
Addie-Tude
Dance Co. were part of mambo's First Off-Broadway Musical: Latin Madness.
It was an awesome experience to perform on stage with other teams, to
collaborate with other talented dancers and to showcase our newest number
(Hustler) in the NYC
area. It prove to be an experience of a lifetime which we
were all proud to
be a part of. Here are some behind the scene "Addie-Tude"
moments we
like to share with you.
Rehearsals at Side Street Kids Academy ("Soneros"
Finale)
During the first 3 weekends in
April before the actual show dates of April 27th, 28th & 29th, our Addie-Tude
Dance Co. members joined members of The Santo Rico Dance Co., Descarga
Latina Dance Co., The Mambo Mamas and the Papa, The Abakua Dancers and Jai &
Candy. The rehearsals were held over at the Side Street Kids Academy in the
Bronx. After the order of the numbers for the show had been established, we
began to work on material which weren't familiar with. For example, we spent
several days learning and rehearsing our parts for the "Soneros"
finale which involved the entire Latin Madness Co.
Here Addie Diaz and Gina
Cancetti (Right side of page) are working alongside members of Abakua and Descarga Latina during their entrance for the "Soneros" number.
Addie-Tude member Manny
Blackett takes a breather during rehearsals.
Manny Blackett
working on his "Soneros" floorwork.
Manny Blackett
(Left) working in conjunction with members of Descarga Latina as they rehearse the beginning of the men's open floor work.
Rehearsals at Heckscher Theater
The weekend before the show, we
rehearsed along with the rest of the Latin Madness cast, over at the Hechscher
Theater (5th Ave. & 104th Street) in Spanish Harlem. It was a grueling
weekend since we rehearsed on Friday night, did a double rehearsal on Saturday
and had another rehearsal at the theater on Sunday. This is where we got the
"feel" for the stage, worked on hitting our marks and ironed out any
kinks we had with costume changes, stage entrances and stage exists.
Addie just walking in
backstage for the first time.
First thing up was stretching and Addie
wasted no time to find a spot to loosen up.
You can never get enough stretching.....right Addie?
Manny Blackett
had another idea when it comes to stretching. Here he is with some of the Abakua
female dancers working on his straddle stretch.
The comedic "drag" number in the show
used Addie's "Love for Sale" choreography.
Here she is helping the Guys.... I mean "Girls" going over their part
of their choreography on stage. In the background we see (L-R) Mario Gonzalez
(Mambo Mamas & The Papa), Juan Matos (Santo Rico) and Nelson Flores (Descarga
Latina)
People had come from places like Washington DC, Connecticut,
Canada, London and Japan to see the show. Here Addie
takes a moment with London Mambo Instructor Robert White before the Sunday,
April 29th show. Robert and his wife Jean, had stayed to see all three shows.
A couple of Mannys rehearsing the "Shining
Knight" Cha-Cha number. Addie-Tude Members (L-R) Manny
Blackett and Manny Siverio rehearse the
cool zoot suit cha-cha number "Shining Knight" which was choreographed
by Addie Diaz. We taught the number to fellow dancers
Sammy Irizarry (Descarga Latina) & Jai Catalana (Jai & Candy). The two
did a great job. It was really fun to work with them.
Backstage during the Sunday 29th performance
Part of the thrill of
performing on stage is to work in front of a live audience. I'm proud to say
that the entire cast pull through like the professionals we are. At the end of
our very first night we got a standing ovation from the sold out crowd present
at the theater. The show was so well received that we managed to extend the show
for one more day than originally expected. By Sunday, we had proved beyond a
shadow of a doubt that we NY/NJ mambo dancers could work together and put on a
show worthy of a "Broadway Production". We might be
"Off-Broadway" now (actually 5th Ave. to be exact). But we are
definitely one step closer to getting the real thing done. Latin Madness was the
show that finally crossed the borough of the Salsa (The Bronx) and inched its
way closer to making our form of dance "an authentic stage performing
art". The Addie-Tude Dance Co. is proud to have been a part of it.
Manny Siverio
(L) and Addie Diaz (R) take a second before the Latin
Madness opening scene (the classroom scene) to pose with the man of the hour Herbie Quinones whose wit helped make the dance performances naturally flow from
one number to the next.
Manny Siverio
(L) and Addie Diaz (R) take a moment to pose with
Singer and Special Latin Madness Guest Ray Sepulveda (Center) before the doors
open for the audience to enter the theater.
The Addie-Tude Mannys (Blackett/left
and Siverio/right) take a moment to pose
together during intermission right before the opening scene in Act II (The
"Side Street Club" scene).
During intermission, Manny
Siverio slaps fellow dancer Jai Catalano (Jai & Candy) on his sun burnt
shoulder. Jai was portraying the sunburned dancer in the "Side Street
Club" scene.
Addie and Manny
take a second to pose seconds before the curtains come up after intermission.
A tighter shot of Addie
and Manny before the curtain rises......places
everyone.
Sammy Irizarry (Descarga Latina) posing backstage
with Manny Siverio moments before he went out
to do their "Cuban Fantasy" number. I guess we were comparing hats at
the moment. Sammy had to do a "Speedy Gonzalez" act to get changed and
join Manny Blackett, Jai Catalano and myself
for Addie's "Shinning Knight" Cha-Cha number.
Manny Blackett
(Center) poses with Cesar Taveras (Left-Abakua Dancer) and Cindy Carrion (Right-Descarga
Latina) backstage. Cesar was waiting for his cue to go on stage in drag for Addie's
"Love For Sale" choreography.
I guess that Ceasar Taveras (Center-Abakua Dancer)
needed the support of two Manny's (Siverio/Left
& Blackett/Right) right before he went on
stage.
Manny Blackett (L)
and Manny Siverio (R) taking a second to pose
before they go out to perform the Addie-Tude new
number "Hustler". It was the first time we had perform this
choreography before the NY Mambo community. We were very happy to be the closing
number before the cast finale. "Hustler's" next big stop..... the 2001
LA West Coast Congress.
After the show, we got together to take group and
individual photos. Here is Manny Siverio
standing with (L-R) Mario Gonzalez (Mambo Mamas and the Papa), Robert White
(from London and co-web author of Mambocity in the UK), Nelson Flores (Descarga
Latina), Manny & Jean White (Robert's wife, UK mambo instructor and co-web
author of Mambocity).
After Party At China Club
The Semi-Official Latin Madness
After Party was held over at NY's China Club. It was nice to see everybody one
more time before we all went our separate ways. Like we said, Latin Madness was
an awesome experience to live. The cast had proven that it was possible to put
together a professional mambo show and that people would be willing to pay to
see it. With that in mind, we all agreed that this wasn't the end of Latin Madness, only the beginning.
Addie Diaz (R) takes
some time to chat with Latin Madness Special Guest Ray Sepulveda and his wife
Maggie.
New!
Addie-tude Ladies Styling
Video out now!
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