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So
far we have two interviews with troupe members of the terrific new Irish dance
show Dance of Desire, thanks to Ann
Keller. This is our feature on Lisa Anderson,
and to read the one on Angela Burns, click
here. For a previous interview with Ella
Haluk and Alan Whelan,
click here. Click
on the following for our other coverage of the show: Main
focus, with review Interview
with Eric Cunningham Troupe
page, with photos • • • Lisa
Anderson Interview Lisa, you were born in Glasgow in Scotland.
How did you come to take up Irish Dancing? Do you have an Irish background?
My great-grandparents are from Donegal. My mother didn’t know anything
about Irish dance, but when I was young – I was about four when I started
Irish dancing. My next-door neighbour had a girl a couple of years older than
me. She must have been about seven, and I just followed her around everywhere
during the summer holidays; so she started Irish dancing, I started Irish dancing,
and it just started developing from there. Do you have brothers and
sisters? I have an older brother. Did he dance? He
started to dance – (he’ll hate me for this!) He started figure dancing,
but I think his friends kind of got onto him about that, and in the end he stopped.
I think it was the girls that started him – he was a bit older – but
he didn’t keep it up. When did you first have the opportunity to
do show dancing? Did you always want to be in shows? Well, obviously
when I was four years old there weren’t any Irish dancing productions around
at the time. I did a couple of show dances for my dancing class – I danced
with the Ellen Lapan School of Irish Dancing in Scotland – St. Patrick’s
night concerts went around the small communities and stuff like that, so that
was my first taste of being on stage. It was when Lord of the Dance started
– I was about fourteen years old – seeing it, I was there just going,
“Oh, I’d give anything to be up on that stage!” Was To
Dance on the Moon your first big stage production? Yes, it was. And
how did you get into that? I saw the audition ad. In Irish Dancing Magazine
actually, and I went along with my CV and all, and I was very, very delighted
to get the leading part in it. I got that straight away. I was the original lead
dancer in To Dance on the Moon, and I kept that position for the past three years. And
now you’re in Dance of Desire. How often do you get to go home now, to Scotland? Well
actually I haven’t been home since January this year [almost six months].
It’s been very busy this year so far, and even when I was in To Dance on
the Moon I’d go home maybe once, twice every six months, and I’d be
home for maybe a weekend, a week or two weeks at the most. Did you get
homesick at first? At first, yes, but my mother came out to Germany,
the first German tour I did, so I’ve always had my Mum around. She would
come every couple of months to see me, so it’s obviously not as bad as for
some people who live in Hungary or Australia. Have you ever gone over
to Hungary? I was planning on it, but unfortunately it was round about
New Year time and we couldn’t make it, so… Hungary is very hot during
the summer so I don’t think I’ll be able to survive! I’ll either
go in the autumn or the winter. Dancing the role of Queen Aoife in Dance
of Desire must be a very different experience. How did you feel about it when
you first got the part? Obviously I was very pleased – having danced
the role of Niamh in To Dance on the Moon, as a ‘good girl’, it was
good to be able to do something different with Irish dancing. I was a good girl
and now I’m a bad girl! But I was also a little bit apprehensive, in that
“Will I be able to do this?” Having been the ‘good girl’ for
the past four years I was doing something completely different, and I was very
nervous. There is a lot of acting involved in your portrayal. How did
you develop that? Do you have acting experience? No, I’ve actually
got no acting experience whatsoever. When I began I sat down and read the storyline,
what happened scene by scene. And just looking at it I felt, imagined, what Aoife
would be doing, and I’d imagine her facial expressions as she would do it.
And I would just try and ‘be’ Aoife. I know it’s not Lisa Anderson
that’s up on stage, it’s Queen Aoife. You use your whole body
a lot in your interpretation of the role. Are you trained in other forms of dance?
None whatsoever, just Irish dance. Yet it’s a huge change from
traditional Irish dance. Yes, I know. I think what it is is being off
school for the summer holidays and watching MTV religiously, just all the dancing
in the background – all the funky dance moves were really interesting for
me and I got into it. How involved were you with the choreography of
the part? I was very involved. I would listen to the music, and I would
look at what the scene had to do. I would go away and work with myself and I would
come back and they would say, “Right, this needs to be changed, that needs
to be changed.” If it was a sexy number I would ask some of the girls, “What
do you think of it?” And it was group effort really, but the sexy dance moves
are all my own. So you largely made the dance parts yourself and they
were critiqued, as it were? Yes; it was a whole team effort, but I would
work away on my own, and come back. Is that something you’ve always
done, working on your own choreography? Oh yes, even in To Dance on
the Moon, in my slip-jig solo; it was changed nearly every night, something was
different. To keep it fresh? Yes.
The part is obviously
very demanding physically, and your costumes require you to be in peak condition!
Do you use a special fitness routine? What type of exercise do you like? Well
I actually don’t go to the gym or anything, I find Irish dancing keeps you
fit enough. I’m a dancer – I dance with my stomach, so I don’t
know if it’s the way I hold my body or something, that keeps the look. You
must also have learned how to breathe, and do a lot of stretching beforehand? Yes,
of course. We usually do about half an hour, forty-five minutes’ stretching
before and after the show. It’s very, very important to do that, even your
upper body as well; in show dancing, it’s much more important to do your
upper body as well as legs, as you’re moving your hands and everything too.
If you’re not used to moving your hands then they’re going to get injured
in some way, so you have to warm up your whole body, from tip to toe. How
do you like to spend your spare time? – when you have any! Well
I love going to the movies and I’m a DVD fanatic! Me and my boyfriend bought
a Playstation last year, and when we’re on tour we always have the Playstation
on. And I just finished the fifth Harry Potter book this morning! Brilliant!
Did you go out at midnight on launch day to buy it? (laughing) Yes,
I went out on Friday night and bought it. It was such fun, all the children were
dressed up in robes and Harry Potter things – I dragged Zoltan along for
the ride! The atmosphere was so good, and they had the music blaring and …
I finished the book this morning and it was very good! I became a Harry
Potter fan on tour last year – because I can’t sleep on the bus, I had
to have something to read. I saw the first movie and I thought I’d give the
second book a try, and I was hooked from the opening page! What are
your ambitions for the future, either on stage or beyond? To be honest
I’m considering a number of different careers on stage. I’d love to
perform on the Broadway stage one day. But with the acting … I don’t
know, maybe I’ve got a natural ability for it; we’ll have to stay tuned
and look out for me in the future!
Interview and Photos:
Ann Keller
Editing: Louise
Owen
Feature: Bernadette
Price
Original Web Design: Alexander
Servas
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