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Dancers learn to 'humanize' horses

By Michael Kuchwara | January 4, 2009, Sunday | Print Edition

EVEN horses need to rehearse, especially those played by humans.

It's 30 minutes before the audience begins filing into New York's Broadhurst Theatre for a Tuesday night performance of "Equus." Actors in street clothes pace and leap across the stage and in the center of all the activity stands Daniel Radcliffe, star of the "Harry Potter" film series, wearing jeans and a number 10 Eli Manning New York Giants jersey. He, too, is in constant motion.

The performers' movements are under the watchful eye of Spencer Liff, dance captain for the Broadway revival of Peter Shaffer's play about a young man (portrayed by Radcliffe) who blinds six horses and a psychiatrist (Richard Griffiths) who wants to find out why.

It's a group warm-up after a day off for Radcliffe and the young men who portray the horses and who, during the show, wear masks made of tubular aluminum and high, platform hoofs.

Liff will not be going on tonight as one of the steeds. Instead, he will be observing the performance along with the paying customers. Understudy Kevin Boseman will take Liff's place. And the 23-year-old Liff will be giving notes on the movement, just as if "Equus" were a musical and he was critiquing the dancing.

"But you can't really call it choreography because without music it's hard to have choreography," Liff said.

The performer should know. He's a Broadway dance baby, touring in "The Will Rogers Follies" at age six and making his Broadway debut at nine in "Big." He has also danced in such recent musicals as "The Wedding Singer" and "Cry-Baby" as well as in the films "Across the Universe" and "Hairspray."

"I definitely think that what we do on stage is not dancing," Liff said. "But I still hold the job as dance captain, which is normal for a musical to have, because we do have six guys on stage. We need to be together. We need to stay tight. And we need rehearsals, just as dancers do."

The movement was devised by Fin Walker, who also worked on the London production of the show, which also starred Radcliffe and Griffiths. But the rest of the cast, many with modern dance backgrounds, is new, hired for New York.

The one non-dancer is Lorenzo Pisoni, who plays a horseman in "Equus" as well as the lead horse, Nugget, the animal that gets most of the young man's attention.

"I've never danced in a musical," said the 31-year-old Pisoni, a one-time circus performer who has made the transition to full-time acting.

"I think Fin was very good at making each of the horses our own. (Their movements) came from each individual.

"Because of his persona and dance background, Spencer's movement manifests itself in a different type of movement than mine."

But not many dancers have to wear heavy masks or those high shoes, which weigh nearly 3 kilograms each, that serve as hoofs. When rehearsals started last August, a lot of time was spent getting used to the shoes. The "Equus" horses went to Greenwich, Connecticut, for a day to visit a horse farm owned by one of the show's producers.

The actors watched professionals groom the animals and then took turns grooming the horses themselves.

They are now more aware of animals they occasionally see on the streets of Manhattan, particularly those ridden by police officers in the theater district.

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