It’s a hot day in summer and the dance cast of King Kong is assembled in the large Expo Hall in the Melbourne showgrounds. The venue is pleasant and vaguely art-deco in design, which is appropriate given the period in which the musical is set, and lit by tacky-looking chandeliers. About 20 men and women, all with fantastic legs, are putting together the opening number. Choreographer John O’Connell, dressed for business in baggy blue shorts, a white-and-blue short-sleeved shirt and lace-up shoes, stands in front.
The music blares suddenly, the dancers leap into frenetic movement for about five seconds, are stopped. There’s a burst of animated discussion, they regroup, begin again, are stopped after the same few bars of music. O’Connell is trying to work out how to get the lead actor, Esther Hannaford, from the side of the stage into the middle of the melee. Hannaford has landed the Naomi Watts/Jessica Lang/Faye Ray role of Ann, the gorilla’s “love interest”.
The Expo Hall is air-conditioned, but nonetheless it’s still warm. Some dancers wear shorts, but a surprising number are sweating it out in long pants and with their long hair loose. They are lucky to be in this cooler hall, O’Connell tells me. Usually they rehearse in a another larger hall, and on hot days you can barely see for the steam. He takes me into the larger hall to show me the set-up – it’s divided into three sections: a dance floor for the dancers, trampolines for the acrobats, and a huge scaffolding for King Kong, who at this stage is being stood in for by a parkour artist.
Back in the Expo Hall, the dancers repeat the same section, but this time advance a few seconds further, and add in lifts. The women are turned upside down and scissor their legs. They are just getting up some rhythm when they are stopped again. There’s a general groan of frustration. O’Connell weaves among the dancers, talking and figuring things out.
When O’Connell was first approached to create the dance for this brand new musical, he admits he was a little mystified at what it might involve. But he was soon convinced of the potential. The story has many opportunities for dance numbers – it is set on Broadway in the 1930s, an era of vaudeville, circus, early Hollywood and Busby Berkeley…
This is an extract from an interview with John O’Connell, choreographer of ‘King Kong’, by Karen van Ulzen. Read the full article in the current issue (June/July) of Dance Australia.