In 2006, I choreographed two short ballets on promising, Plano, Texas teenagers at Kathy Chamberlain Ballet, a company with which I was a guest artist in college and for several years thereafter. Both quartets were beautifully danced, extraordinarily well-received and heartfelt to experience at a Gala in Dallas that still stands out as one of the happiest nights of my professional life.
Turns out that one of the young ladies in the modern piece has grown into an even more stunning young lady than I imagined. She was a beautiful chocolate 12-year-old when I met her, a teenager on the cusp of self-discovery when I made "The Troubled Spaces in Between," and a highlight recruited to the Broadway production of "Hairspray" before her teens were over. Three Broadway contracts later, she is wowing everyone over at the gigantic, certifiable hit, "The Book of Mormon."
When I saw her recently at a mutual friend's birthday party (yes, frighteningly, she is now old enough to have worked in shows with some of my colleagues), she confessed that she has never seen the ballet, which utilized the fabric of my Facebook profile shot before I entangled myself in it.Watching it again and seeing the other young ladies - I hired the lithe, long-legged Kimberly Van Woesik for a Blue Man Group flash mob I choreographed last year - moved me enough to post it. In this age of digitized memories, some are criminal not to share.