Cats, a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber opened on Broadway at the Winter Garden Theater in New York City, 1982. Thirty-one years ago today.
Wow.
I was fortunate enough to see Cats at the Sydney Opera House a year or so later. It ran at the Opera House for over a year. (Of course, I maintain with a straight face that I was a wee small child when I saw it. 🙂 )
I remember thinking at the time that the highly acrobatic dancing they did was amazing when you consider that the stage floor at the Opera House slopes down toward the audience. I would have been freaked I’d miss my footing on some of those landings….
The very interesting trivia about Cats, however, is the early life of the choreographer, Gillian Lynne CBE. She had trouble learning at school and was taken to a doctor to see what was wrong with her. After talking to her, the doctor stepped out of the room to discuss it with her mother, and switched on the radio as he left. Then they both watched Gillian, who immediately got to her feet and started moving. The doctor told her mother there was nothing wrong with her…that she was a dancer.
Gillian’s mother enrolled her in dance school and Gillian has been quoted (in particular by Sir Ken Robinson) as saying it was marvellous, that she had finally found people like her: People who had to move to think.
I know exactly what she means. I have to write things down to know what I’m thinking.
Dancers, like writers, artists and musicians, are an odd breed…
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