Canada ballet dancers add "West Side Story" songs

By Naomi Kim

TORONTO (Reuters Life!) - A production of "West Side Story Suite" has offered new challenges to some of Canada's ballet dancers, forcing them to add song to their dance routines and study a whole new type of performance arts.

The show, which opened in Toronto this month, is part of the National Ballet of Canada's three-piece tribute to choreographer Jerome Robbins, incorporating dance numbers from the famed musical with vocal performances for songs such as "America" and "Cool."

It's made possible in part with help from Elaine Overholt, the singing coach who worked with the leads of the film version of "Chicago," who admitted the dancers at first seemed afraid of bursting into song.

"What I find is, oddly enough, dancers who are used to using their legs all the time, as soon as they start to sing, they stop using their whole body. They go into that sort of choir-like hands-clasped-in-front-of-them pose to deal, and they forget to just be themselves and use their body in the way that they would speak," she said.

"Getting over the fear is the biggest hassle."

Principal dancer Guillaume Cote, one of two performers with a solo singing role, remembered that initial trepidation.

"We're all performers and we're all at a certain level, and let's face it, we all have egos," said Cote, a Quebec-native who has studied music and is himself a composer.

"So it was a little bit funny to walk in and leave the ego at the door and go, okay, I'm a really good dancer, but whoa, that voice is not pretty."