Paula Abdul reflects on dance, offers advice to up-and-comers
Oct 20th, 2018
By Jim Radenhausen, Pocono Record Writer
EDITOR'S NOTE: Paula Abdul's show, originally set for Oct. 23, will now take place Nov. 23.
With a three-decade-plus career as a dancer, choreographer and singer, Paula Abdul undoubtedly will perform some dazzling steps — old and new —when she brings her “Straight Up Paula!” show to the Sands Bethlehem Event Center on Tuesday.
During an interview with the Pocono Record, Abdul reflected on the changes she's seen in the art of dance through the years.
“Contemporary dancing has become the universal dance,” she said. “It's freedom of expression and movement. I always say, even people who say they can't dance can really shine to contemporary dance because it's an emotional art form. It's not a stickler for certain lines so rigid in ballet, training for ballet or jazz or tap. It's more of a freeform. It's beautiful to see people do that. Contemporary dance has really taken over.
“Back at the height of my choreography career, contemporary dance was more or less modern dance,” Abdul continued. “It was a beautiful art form, but it wasn't mainstream, popular as much as jazz, ballet and tap were. Now that hip-hop and contemporary dance has really made its mark, come into it, it's a major art form and opens up a whole new way of choreographing different rhythms and beats.”
Young dancers, Abdul noted, should know “the foundation is always ballet. I was born premature with several hip displacements, collapsed lungs, a broken wind pipe. I was like 2.8 pounds. I couldn't breathe. The key to dance has turned out to be in the hips. How do you breathe, let alone sing, if you don't have any proper foundation? I was a tenacious little bug. Passion drove me. The foundation for dance with ballet never worked in my favor because of my problems being premature. I say to dancers, if you can be well-rounded students, if you really want to make it as a dancer and have a long career in dance, be that student that's disciplined in all different dance forms.”
One area Abdul would like to see young dancers improve? Studying the masters.
“I think about when I was a dancer growing up, when I became a choreographer — we didn't have the internet,” she said. “It's the best tool ever, to study the pioneers that forged the path for all these young inspiring dancers, singers, actors. Study the work other people have done. I find out a lot of people don't study that. They are all about what is popular right now. You draw inspiration upon history and the greats before you.”
Abdul, no stranger to studying greats that preceded her, cited the steamy 1989 video for “Cold Hearted” — it “was extremely important to pay homage to Bob Fosse” — as one of the most challenging works to choreograph, along with her Emmy-winning opening number, performing “(It's Just) The Way That You Love Me,” at the 1990 American Music Awards.
“Those two pieces are in the ‘dancers' almanac,’” she said with pride. “I also choreographed the Academy Awards, which was extremely challenging and great. There have been a lot of challenges. I would have to go to libraries and look at periodicals to draw inspiration.”
Filed under: Dance