Video: Ben Is Pinball Wizard with Choreo from THE WHO'S TOMMY
Jun 11, 2024
In this video, watch as Ben breaks down Lorin Latarro choreography for Broadway's The Who's Tommy with the help of dance captain Dee Tomasetta. Can you keep up?
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Hello, you big beautiful Broadway world. It's me, your Broadway buddy, Ben Cameron
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Back again with yet another electrifying episode of Dance Captain Dance Attack
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All right, I'm going to level with you. This is a big deal to me. As you can see by the t-shirt, I am fortunate enough to be wearing
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Today, I'm learning choreography from the current hip revival of The Who's Tommy, which I very recently saw, and it melted my face right off my body
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I think it's maybe my favorite thing I've seen in a very, very long time
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And I love the show. I'm a big Tommy nerd, so help me keep my composure during this because I'm just going to geek out
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To learn the steps from this incredible show, I brought the dance captain from the Who's Tommy on
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Broadway D Tomasetta! Yay! Hi! Oh my gosh, congratulations on the show
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I can't overstate it enough how much I loved it. I am obviously way too excited. I'm about to lose my mind
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So are you ready to join me having a... Should we like leap into this
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Dance, tap. All right. Shall we do it? Let's do it. Let's do it
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So this is Pinball Wizard. This is our big dance fray. Frank, we just dance an entire number
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The first little sequence is kind of like this, but we're gonna get through it together
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We got this. So we're gonna go, Charleston, one, a two, a three, a four, a five, a six
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Okay, upper body, you're gonna go. One, a two, a three, a four
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five, a six. Okay, flip, so, so, so, so. One, a two, a three, a four, a five, a six
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It's a little quicker, but let's, we'll go up a hair. Six, seven, eight, all, one, all two, three
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a four, a five, oh six, work. Yeah. One more time faster
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Oh, it's faster. It's faster. Good Lord. Six seven eight oh a two a three a four a five a six perfect That was it You ready to be put in the shell You going to jump from here Seven eight
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Nice big volleyball jump. Yeah, seven, eight. From there, you're going to dive
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One, two. One, two, there you go. And then we're going to run three, four
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Three, four. This is a pun already. Yay. One, two, three. Four. Yeah
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From here, it's more of a feeling. We call these a zacks. You're gonna go, a zap, zack, zapp, whatever you want
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So three, four, a five, a six. Ooh, okay. Zzzzzz. One, go, go
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Yeah, perfect. Yeah, that was it. So we jump three, four, a zap, zap, zap
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And I think for the last one, and neutral, the next moment's gonna be a shockup. Okay
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A three, four, a five, a six. We're gonna shock from our heels up
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A seven. Seven. Yep. Eight. One more jump, I lied. One, two
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So we just jumped one, lose our focus. Two, we're gonna go back, back, punch
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Yeah. Oh, cool. And you should feel like a transform. Almost. Yeah
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One, two, a three, and four. Nice. From there, you're gonna lose your focus
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Focus, five, laser beam, six and eight. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
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Okay, from here, we have one more little jumping section. She's springing it on me
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Sprang the springs on me, Dee. Okay, so six and eight. You're gonna actually use that leg to come up
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and we're gonna go back on the diagonal. Great. So we go, five, six, and
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And you're gonna jump and one and two. Oh my gosh. You got it
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Easy for you a second. And one and two. Yes, you don't have to say that. Woo
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It's right, one, one. You got it, you got it. From there, in one and two
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you're gonna do a little barrel turn and then this is like the combo, so just no, it's a grand finale. Okay
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A one a two you gonna barrel Three of four Okay three of four This is kind of like halloo moment Five Five Six a
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Six, uh. Seven. Seven. Down eight. Eight. Then you're gonna pancake and flip on the one
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And then we go into like, just like, total like slow-mo, surrendering
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Tommy Walker comes down on the, in slow motion, the ensemble, separate
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and Tom comes down on the big hero pinball machine. And we're like, we're never gonna be as good as you, Tommy
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You are, I'm fine. And that's a good. That's fun. That is the jumpiest dance captain dance set combo I've ever done
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We're honored. We're honored to share it. We're honored to hold that distinction
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of the jumpiest combo your animal series. All right, let's do a little chat
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Show me your favorite warm up stretch. Oh, my favorite warm up stretch? Yeah
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Did I already a little chat about big dance? Okay. What's my favorite warm-up
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I don't know. I like to do like a little yoga for. Oh, fantastic, let's yoga
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Okay, let's take a breath. Let's breathe. So, Dee, this is your first time
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any times dance cap today? This is my third time. Third time? Yeah
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Okay, great. And what is it about your temperament, your skill set, your personality
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your training that you think benefited you in kind of tackling a task this enormous. And let's talk in ourselves
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it's enormous. Okay, not me trying to like move and answer the question at the same time
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Yeah. Through my history, what I think has been helpful? Yeah, or what is it about you? Like, what do you focus on a value that makes you an effective
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dance captain? Obviously you're great at it, they want you to do it. I think that I, I think my like strengths as
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a dance captain as like an associate is that I'm able to make sure that the intention and what
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the choreographer director wants and creative team wants that's like the especially for tommy
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like the storytelling is so important. And so for me it's my job to make sure that that is like
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that here It not about like jumping high It not about shaking your face Not about all the turns Like our show is so special and I think I do a really good job at making sure that it always about what the message And like through our movement and our singing
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and our dancing and our acting, like that is like the most important
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So like, yeah, as a dance actor. This is structured in a way that no other musicals
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is structured in that there is not stopped for book scene. It is musically driven from the downbeat to the last chord. Totally
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So all of that storytelling is done through movement. Yes. So tell us about creating and figuring out using the ensemble outside of, yes, we're the
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storytelling chorus here, but then also utilizing this kind of space age situation that
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move the set around. It's all very manual. Yeah. So we have the option to use automation
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And our creative team was like, no, like we want Tommy now in 2024 to be reimagined
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that like, we. are creating Tommy World. We are creating every single time a set pieces on and is moved by actors
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And so I think it's pretty special that like not only we're like you know dancing and seeing our faces off
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but we're also like a very big part of like the atmosphere that we're creating in the show
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All right. Shall we do it? Shall we have a dance counter, dance a time
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Come! And now you have a dance captain dance attack
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My friends, give it up for Dee Thomas Seda, dance captain for the Hoots Tommy
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It's unbelievable. Get a ticket, you won't be disappointed. Now you can learn the steps. Learn along with us. Post yourself on the interwebs
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Hashtag DCDA at a social Broadway world. I'm at Bend does Broadway
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You want to put your socials? I don't know. Go for it. At DTon Set up
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Yeah. So doing the supermarket, out in the field, and the lunch line
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Rock on because you just like me a pinballress. Yeah! Yeah
#Performing Arts
#Dance
#Broadway & Musical Theater


