Coming Full Circle and Dancing In My Fifties, Thank You Mary Poppins, It Was a Hell of a Ride

For a lot of you who have read my blog with any kind of consistency, you will have noticed that I have been absent from this medium for quite some time. There is a reason for that. You see I had a goal, and I wanted my next blog post to reflect my attaining that goal. Now for some who are close to me, I probably had told you this, but it was not a goal that I had announced to the world. My goal was simple, to be able to dance well, and hard, with a good command of technique that I had trained very hard to acquire, as a fifty year old. My preference was to be able to do this on stage, as well as the studio, and to be able to dance side by side, keeping up with any twenty something, or thirty something, that I happened to be sharing the space with. Well, I'm happy to say, I did it. I reached that goal and then some. Now this may sound like a vanity project, and in some ways it was. But on the other side of the coin, I've always had that competitive nature with myself, and had always felt that for as long as I'm going to dance, I'm going to do it to the very best of my abilities.

Citadel Theatre Step In Time with Keith Savage, Joseph, and Stephen Findlay

I feel extremely grateful that on my fiftieth birthday, I was able to dance and sing in a beautifully crafted production of Mary Poppins, along side of some of the most wonderful talent this country has to offer, at the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton Alberta. To a degree, I feel as if it was almost serendipitous to do so. You see, I got the bulk of my training in Edmonton. I have strong roots there as far as my ballet and jazz training goes, and in fact had my very first professional job there and and it was there, that Ihad started my teaching career. When I left, twenty five years previous, I had never done musical theatre. It felt great to be able to return and re connect with my past and with many of those who were responsible for helping me get to where I am today.

After our initial run in Edmonton, we moved to another wonderful theatre, Theatre Calgary. It was in Calgary, a place I had also lived for a short time, that I was able to spend a lot of time with my sister, and re connect with my brother. For reasons I will not go in to, my brother and I had been estranged for approximately twenty five years. That was the greatest gift of all, being able to re connect, and to have my brother see me on stage, for the very first time, as an adult.

When auditions first came up for this production, my only real hope was that if I was to get an audition, that they'd look at me for my ability, and what I could bring to the stage, not my age and the ever greying hair I've earned along the way. To be fair,  certain productions do warrant your typical twenty/thirty something chorus dancers, and many directors and choreographers in this business have a hard time wrapping their heads around a fifty year old dancer, mostly because there aren't a lot of us, especially in Canada.  Lucky for me, this was not the case. I had the good fortune to work with both a director, (Michael Shamata), and a choreographer, (Lisa Stevens), who were open, generous, and non judgemental when it came to age and what this production required. In fact, judging from our cast, I'd venture to say, that they welcomed the diversity. We were definitely an all ages, all sizes cast, and what that did was make the production that much more interesting. Trust me when I tell you, when we stepped on that stage for "Step In Time", (which is the big dance feature in act two), you just felt that something wonderful was about to happen...and it did.

Upon completion of this run, I then had the good fortune to be a member of another company of Mary Poppins in beautiful Port Hope. This was a very different experience from the previous company, but no less rewarding. In fact, the rewards for me personally were abundant. There's something very special about being able to perform in a very intimate space. Once again, our cast, crew and creative team was diverse, interesting, and generous to a fault. I felt especially fortunate as I was cast in a couple of small featured roles, for this production. I've always felt it an honour to dance in any ensemble, but being able to branch out these last two years, (first with Oliver and then with Mary Poppins), being given the opportunity to act in a few featured character roles,  has been a most welcome challenge. Coincidentally, Mary Poppins proved to be the most successful show for the Port Hope Festival Theatre in eleven years.

As Northbrook Port Hope Festival Theatre

I've been working in this industry now for thirty one years. In that time, I've heard it all...you're too wholesome, too fit, too pretty to be funny, you need to watch your weight, you're a wonderful dancer, you're not the choreographer's vision, you're pitchy, you have a beautiful voice, you dance with explosive energy, you're too old, you'll never be a ballet dancer because of your feet, (maybe consider getting them broken,but they may not heal well), you're a wonderful performer,
you're inspiring, and of course my all time favourite "I hope I dance as well as you do when I'm your age." That one always makes me smile. You see, there's no secret to what I do. Yes, I do have a certain amount of talent, but really, I just work very hard. Trust me when I tell you, dancing at this age, I need to not only keep working hard, but I must work smarter. I can't execute everything like I could when I was in my twenties and thirties, but I can still keep up with the best of them. That's because I've learnt to dance smart.
If you stay in this industry for as long as I have, there will be absolutes that you can definitely count on. Here are just a few of those things;
1-You will get injured
2-Your physicality will matter. Whether you're an ensemble dancer or character actor, it will come in to play.
4- Looks matter. So look after yourself.
3- People will form strong opinions of what your abilities are. If you want to change those opinions, that's you're responsibility.
5-You will have fantastic auditions and not book the job.
6- You will have horrible auditions, (they're usually never as bad as you perceive them to be), and you will book the job.
7-It's not all about your talent. Type does come in to play.
8-No matter how "right" you may feel you are for a role, there are twenty other people in that audition who feel the same way.
9-Casting is out of your control.
10- Being kind matters. Being known as a good company member can go a long way.
11- You will work with amazingly talented people. Learn everything you can from them.
12-You will work with difficult, unkind, whiny people. Do not get caught up in their drama. It will only bring you down.
13-Nepotism does exist in our business, so foster good, solid relationships.
14-You will be told you're too something... too old, young, wholesome, preppy, pretty, muscular, heavy, thin, tall, short, pitchy, loud, shy, obnoxious, aggressive, sexy...pick an adjective, any adjective...From this list alone, I've been told four of these things. Take the note, be honest with yourself as to whether it applies, and if need be, adjust.
15- You will work with wonderfully talented people, in beautifully crafted productions, that prove to be extremely artistically satisfying.
16-You will work in dinner theatre. Get over it. Once you let go of ego, you're going to have a blast.
17-You will work a "Joe Job", be it Starbucks, Lulu Lemon, catering, the list is endless. During this time, you'll be wishing you were back working in Dinner Theatre again.
18-Summer stock, much like summer camp, will be some of the best times you'll ever spend in the theatre.
19-Every time a contract finishes, you'll wonder if you'll ever work again.
20-You will question your chosen career, multiple times throughout your life.
21-You will meet some of the most interesting, generous, and brilliantly talented people, who are just everyday, working artists, like yourself.
I could go on, but I think if you've had the tenacity to read this far, you get the idea.

This is what fifty looks like after doing Step In Time, eight times a week, for four months

Oddly enough, somehow, when I first heard of the Mary Poppins auditions for The Citadel/Theatre Calgary, I knew I was going to book it, even before I went in to the room. I just had this feeling that it was meant to be...that for reasons unknown to me then, I was supposed to go back and do these shows. It all makes perfect sense to me now, and this part of my career has most certainly come full circle. So...what's next, what's the next goal? I can honestly say, I'm not sure. I guess, for right now, to just keep going. Ten years ago I had retired from musical theatre, four years later I was back on stage with Mirvish Productions' The Sound of Music. From there I thought my natural progression was to dance captain and choreograph. Well, I have in fact done both those things, but have also continued to train and perform. If anyone would have told me twenty years ago that I'd be dancing at fifty, I would have said you were out of your mind, nuts, totally off your rocker. Yet here I am, in my fifty first year of life, not only dancing, but singing and acting as well. So for now, I guess my goal is to just keep going, to keep training, and to see what the next ten years brings my way. One thing that has changed for sure, is that every job I get offered, no matter how big or small, I am extremely grateful. This is a hard business, and given my age, and my particular strengths, I am a very specific hire, so I take no job for granted.

So I want to thank all of you...my teachers, students, colleagues, directors, choreographers, musical directors, agents, employers, and mentors, all of you have played a part in this very cool, interesting life I've been able to lead. To be totally honest, this was not the life I had planned for myself. At eighteen I was going to dance in Les Grand Ballet Canadien, and at twenty two, all I wanted to do was dance for Paula Abdul and Janet Jackson. Well, needless to say, those things didn't happen, but I've had many other very cool experiences. You know what they say, If you want to make God laugh, go ahead and plan your life. So who cares if life doesn't turn out as exactly as planned...sometimes, it's even better!
Yours Truly Stephen Findlay
A.K.A. The Oldest Male Chorus Dancer in Toronto