Teddy Forance goes Hollywood: Local dancer to take the stage during the Academy Awards ceremonies
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HOLLYWOOD - Teddy Forance is ready for his close-up. And, on Sunday, he might just get it.
The Southampton native and professional dancer was tapped earlier this month to perform during the 82nd annual Academy Awards show that will air Sunday at 8 p.m. on ABC. That means he will be appearing in front of the movie industry's biggest stars, producers and directors - including hosts Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin - not to mention millions of television viewers around the globe. He says his whole life has readied him for this moment.
Forance, 22, grew up dancing at the Hackworth School of Performing Arts in Easthampton, a studio owned by his mother, Alison Forance, and his aunt, Lisa Anthony, and has been on the road as a professional dancer since he was 17. In the past five years, he has performed with Cirque du Soleil, toured internationally with Bad Boys of Dance, choreographed music videos, assisted choreographer Mia Michaels on Fox TV's "So You Think You Can Dance" (she called him her "muse" when she accepted an Emmy Award two years ago), danced in a motion-capture sequence for the latest animated "Shrek" movie and toured with Janet Jackson, appearing onstage with her and in her recent music videos.
With his dark good looks and his professional drive, it was probably only a matter of time before Forance landed in Hollywood. While he says he hasn't set his sights on the big screen - yet - he admits he has fantasized about dancing on the Oscars show.
"It's like the Super Bowl of the arts," Forance said. "Being involved in something this grand - I might have thought, 'That would be cool,' but it was one of those far-fetched things. It almost feels impossible."
Ready to go
Forance first heard about the job opportunity earlier this year, when he got a call from his agent in Los Angeles who told him to hightail it out there for an audition with Oscar co-producer Adam Shankman, a Hollywood producer, director of the movie "Hairspray" and a judge on "So You Think You Can Dance."
At the time, Forance was back for a visit to the Southampton home of his parents, Alison and Ted Forance, and was busy at his mother's studio choreographing some pieces.
"I had four days to get to L.A.," Forance said in a phone interview earlier this week from Los Angeles, where he's been rehearsing for the show since Feb. 10. He quickly rearranged his schedule and flew West. After a single day to get acclimated - and take a four-hour private ballet class - Forance showed up at the audition ready to show his stuff.
"I felt great. I walked in, I had good energy," Forance said. "In my heart I felt good." Even so, auditioning can be nerve-racking. Fortunately, that ballet class the day before really paid off.
As the 100 or so male dancers in Forance's group lined up, they were asked to do a double pirouette, pique, arabesque (a basic sequence of ballet steps). Ten minutes later, half the group was out the door. They had failed the first test.
"I was scared," Forance said. "When it's so simple, if you mess it up, it makes you that much more of a loser."
The long wait
But he survived that cut - and the next - making it all the way to the end of the audition process.
"I had a good feeling. I've got it - this is the one," Forance remembers thinking at the time. "I felt really, really confident. "
All that was left to do was go home and wait for a call that he was certain would come. Only five men would be chosen.
And that's when things seemed to fall apart: Shortly after the auditions were completed, the producers released a "holding list" to the talent agencies. The list is a compilation of names designed to let agents know which of their clients are being considered for the job.
Forance's name was not on that list.
He couldn't believe it.
"I called the agency every day and they kept telling me I wasn't on the list," Forance said. "It was scary. I had my heart set on this."
For five "excruciating" days Forance began to hear about others who had made it in; some even had wardrobe fittings, he said. Still, he heard nothing.
He was in shock. "I thought, 'Wow. I did not get the job,' " Forance said.
But, then, less than a week before rehearsals were scheduled to begin, the magical call came from his agent. It turns out, he was told, that the producers had simply forgotten to put his name on the list. He had the job.
Exploding performance
The dance in which Forance will perform - roughly halfway through the show - will accompany the announcement of the 10 Best Picture nominees. It features The League of Extraordinary Dancers - a group of gravity-defying break dancers, krumpers and hip-hop dancers. Forance will perform with contemporary dancers whose job will be to complement the highfliers.
"We're dancing around them - opening up the visuals so they can explode out of nowhere," Forance said. "These guys are doing things you should only do in your dreams or in comic books. It will be an exciting performance."
Although LXD are the featured dancers for the sequence, Forance says, he and the other contemporary dancers - including former SYTYCD contestants Travis Wall, Nick Lazzarini, Jacob Carr and Kupono Aweau - will still get plenty of screen time.
"We definitely get our moments," Forance said. Look for him especially during the segments devoted to "Sherlock Holmes," "Up" and "Avatar."
His first move on camera is jumping off a spiral slide onto a vertical pole on which he is meant to twirl his body several times as he slides his way down - gracefully. Apparently, that's easier said than done. The first time he tried the move in rehearsal, he smacked into the pole in a particularly painful way.
"When I landed on it I hit my nuts and just sank to the floor," Forance said. Needless to say, he had to adjust his approach. "I learned real quick how to do it."
More problematic has been a recurring knee problem, stemming from an injury he got performing with Cirque du Soleil. It has kept him from rehearsing for the past several days, but after a trip to the doctor for X-rays and a cortisone shot, he says, he should be - will be - good to go.
"I'm doing it," he said, flatly. "To get there on the night of the performance, to be on that stage, to see the audience - the people we see in movies - it will be unreal."
Kathleen Mellen can be reached at kmellen@gazettenet.com.
