John Carrafa

STEPPING INTO SUCCESS
New York Times, April 19, 2002, by Jennifer Dunning

John Carrafa settled into a quick breakfast early one recent morning at the sunny Good Enough to Eat restaurant on the Upper West Side, where he often starts his hectic days. Mr. Carrafa, who lives in the same building, once worked as a cook there. Now he is a choreographer who seems to be everywhere at once. To start, he has two musicals on Broadway. ''Into the Woods,'' in previews at the Broadhurst Theater, opens on April 30. The zany hit ''Urinetown'' is two blocks away at the Henry Miller. And there is more.

Mr. Carrafa is creating new choreography for ''The Pajama Game'' for performances next month in the City Center Encores! series. He will soon begin work for the Broadway-bound musical ''Dance of the Vampires.'' He continues to coach actors for dance sequences in film. He is choreographing a revival in July of ''A Little Night Music,'' part of the Sondheim Celebration at the Kennedy Center in Washington. And he will also choreograph ''Amour,'' based on the music of Michel Legrand, which is to open on Broadway in October.

Breakfast finished that day, Mr. Carrafa would grab a taxi and race downtown to the next appointment. In a fifth-floor studio at City Center, musical cuts in ''The Pajama Game'' would be discussed.

That show promises to be one of Mr. Carrafa's most audacious career moves. The musical was choreographed originally by Bob Fosse and contains the sacrosanct ''Steam Heat'' trio. Why take that on? ''I don't mean to be disrespectful,'' Mr. Carrafa said. ''I'm just doing my take on it. My take. It's personal. 'Steam Heat' is a pure theatrical dance. By that, I mean it has the greatest impact while employing the simplest compositions. The goal is to create a powerful theatrical dance with the simplest of tools. No counterpoint, clever spacing or large groups of dancers.''

''No story to tell, except in the simplest thematic way,'' he continued. ''One idea is conveyed using simple unison dance and playing with rhythm and basic steps of three people in a line, creating something that builds and that rocks the audience. I thought if I could define this for myself, I would learn a tremendous amount about what my style is. To create a dance that is only about one idea is the hardest thing.''

After the City Center meeting, it was off to an audition at a West 28th Street casting office for ''Dance of the Vampires.'' ''I went because the whole creative team would be there, and it's hard to get us all together,'' Mr. Carrafa said. ''We all needed to connect. We're entering into an exciting time together. And I wanted to talk to them about a dancer I wanted to use, Heather McFadden.''

East Side, West Side

Ms. McFadden, a member of the preproduction workshop group on which Mr. Carrafa has tried out choreographic ideas for several shows, had another offer. It was essential, he felt, to secure her for ''Vampires.''

After that, Mr. Carrafa had planned to attend a ''Urinetown'' brush-up rehearsal but asked an assistant to take it over so he could arrive at the Broadhurst by 1 p.m. for a run-through of ''Into the Woods.'' ''Across the street from 'The Producers,' is what we say,'' he noted. There, Mr. Carrafa, a former Twyla Tharp dancer, would spend all afternoon and evening fine-tuning his choreography for the revival of this Tony Award-winning musical by Stephen Sondheim.

Still to go was coaching Robert De Niro for dance scenes in the movie ''Analyze That'' (a sequel to ''Analyze This'') and choreography for the revival of ''A Little Night Music.'' ''I've got to tell you,'' Mr. Carrafa said. ''I'm so happy doing what I do.''

His is a cautious happiness, though. ''It's changed so fast for me, since a year ago,'' he said. ''I try to appreciate it, to tell myself I'm so lucky and just be grateful. It's hard not to take it with a grain of salt. Dennis Hopper once said he had had six careers.''

Life on the Fast Track

Mr. Carrafa, known to friends and colleagues simply as Carrafa, has the kind of open, boyish face that looks as if it hasn't changed much since childhood. His age -- ''too old to be a dancer anymore'' is all he will say about it -- is suggested only by a slight scholar's stoop.

That morning at Good Enough to Eat, over a bowl of steaming oatmeal, he slipped easily into banter with Carrie Levin, the proprietor, a former boss whom he described as fairly tough. ''This is his living room,'' Ms. Levin said to a visitor. ''And this is where he learned to be a man.'' Mr. Carrafa smiled. ''From Twyla to Carrie,'' he said.

A waitress, Shannon Lee -- ''my middle name is Hope'' -- came to take Mr. Carrafa's order. He introduced her as ''a brilliant actress,'' and soon the two were in earnest conversation about a dance-class injury she had just sustained.

Once a dancer, always a dancer. Mr. Carrafa doesn't get to the requisite classes much these days, but he has retained his lifelong love for the art. His rich and busy life in show business began simply enough in Waterbury, Conn., when he followed his sister in time-honored fashion to her tap and jazz dance classes and stayed. He performed in high school musicals and at Bates College in Maine, where he was preparing to train as an orthopedist. But dance and theater exerted an irresistible pull, although he hadn't been to any dance concerts and didn't know any dancers. ''It was the 'Billy Elliot' story,'' Mr. Carrafa said.

''I came from an Italian working-class family,'' he said. ''I was the first to go to college. But every year in college I kept thinking, I'm really good at this dance thing. I should go to New York and do it.'' His family wasn't worried about this preoccupation. ''Because I was in college, I think they felt I could probably do anything I wanted,'' he said.

On a summer scholarship to study with Ms. Tharp and her company during a residency at Boston University, Mr. Carrafa suddenly found himself a member of the troupe. He performed with Ms. Tharp from 1978 to 1986, eventually becoming a lead dancer and her assistant. He left with the desire to write and choreograph on his own. Since Ms. Tharp knew everyone, and everyone knew her and her dancers, it was not hard for him to find work soon after, choreographing two big but instantly forgettable 1989 Hollywood dance films, ''Rooftops'' and ''Sing.''

Choreographing a Seduction

Returning to the cloistered life of a dancer did not seem to be an option. Mr. Carrafa did some television choreography and more films, including ''The Thomas Crown Affair,'' where he created Pierce Brosnan's dance-floor seduction of Rene Russo. ''I did anything I could where dance told a story, though I didn't do music videos,'' he recalled. ''My work with actors came about because the only time when dance was used was when lead actors did it.''

Back in New York, he began to pick up assignments in decidedly oddball shows, among them ''Love! Valour! Compassion!,'' ''Dirty Blonde'' and half-time presentations for the National Basketball Association All-Star games. ''I did an S-and-M lesbian comedy, an independent film by Jennie Livingston called 'Who's the Top?' I was the only guy with all these women.''

He choreographed Encores! presentations of ''Out of This World'' and ''On a Clear Day You Can See Forever.'' Then came a turning point with ''Urinetown'' and ''Into the Woods,'' and the commercial theater's brand of instant fame.

In ''Urinetown,'' a musical theater spoof directed by John Rando, Mr. Carrafa found the kind of ''wacky thing'' he relished. There were no set dance pieces originally in the show, just musical staging. Inspired by the hilarity of Mark Hollman's score, Mr. Carrafa said, he told Mr. Rando that he thought the show could have a lot of dance, and the director agreed.
''Urinetown'' is about putting on a musical,'' said Mr. Rando, also the director of the Encores! ''Pajama Game'' production and ''Dance of the Vampires.'' ''We had this great idea of creating 'Urinetown' as a bad musical, a wrong musical. We can't. We are not supposed to. Therefore we should. And it will be naughty and dangerous and fun. We spent a lot of time giggling. It's important to find someone like that.''

Mr. Carrafa had worked on ''Dirty Blonde'' with James Lapine, the director and librettist of ''Into the Woods,'' a bittersweet fable that draws on fairy tales to make its point about the consequences of getting what you wish for. Mr. Carrafa's day ended with the run-through of this musical. As the rehearsal crept along, Mr. Lapine, who will also direct Mr. Carrafa's forthcoming project ''Amour,'' called out cheerful encouragement to the actors. Mr. Carrafa, a slender, quiet presence in businesslike work clothes, stood gazing thoughtfully at the stage from a dark orchestra section filled not with audience members but with long, low tables at which men and a woman worked consoles and headphones to cue the show's complex special effects, lighting and sound.

Windshield Wiper

There were ribbons to be adjusted for the maypole dance. The sequence that Mr. Carrafa has named ''The Windshield Wiper,'' in which the cast sweeps out toward the audience in staggered ranks, was looking good. The actors were obviously tired. But the air vibrated with that sense of privileged community and anticipation peculiar to the theater. ''Like James said,'' Mr. Carrafa observed, ''it's nice to pause and remember how lucky we are to be on Broadway.''

In ''Into the Woods,'' Mr. Carrafa gets to do what he likes best: creating choreography that looks as if it has been made up by the performers on the spur of the moment. ''John has a remarkable talent for turning dancers into actors and actors into dancers,'' Mr. Rando said.

The careful planning for that effect starts with extensive research into period dance styles and other kinds of movement. ''That's the fun for me,'' Mr. Carrafa said. ''Otherwise, every show has the same 10 steps.''
His research assistant Rebecca Katz began work on ''Into the Woods'' by combing through European folk dance compendiums and pictures and videotapes in her own collection and at the dance research division at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. Mr. Carrafa decided on late-17th-century English country dance forms and material from rap videos for a solo for the savvy Witch, who is played by Vanessa Williams.

Mr. Carrafa keeps a pad beside his bed ''mostly to fantasize about what is the most delicious thing for a particular actor in a particular role in a particular show,'' he said. One of the ideas for ''Into the Woods'' that he scribbled out one night was how to have the musical's two wolves pass Red Riding Hood around in a way that would resemble animals' playing with their food.

He was soon scrutinizing a friend's dog and videotapes on wolves and foraging animals. He does much of his best work in the most unlikely places. He suddenly envisioned the structure of ''Steam Heat'' while walking through Times Square one day.

Mr. Carrafa tends to arrive at a show's first rehearsal with 90 percent of his work done, though he says that he sometimes lets performers think that he doesn't know what he's doing so he can watch them fill in the blanks. That way, they often put more of a personal imprint on a step or gesture.

''What is really great about Carrafa is that his choreography is geared to the actors' styles and weaknesses,'' said Lisa Shriver, his assistant on ''Into the Woods'' and a budding choreographer herself. ''He and Susan Stroman focus on what makes the individual special.''

Mr. Carrafa has a similar regard for the individuality of the numbers he creates. ''Every dance is different,'' he said. ''I look at every kind of dance I can. I've gone from being a dancer to being fascinated with dancing. It's partially that I love puzzles. Dance is a particular kind of moving puzzle, and so engrossing. That's why I feel drawn to Sondheim. He's such a puzzlist.'' Mr. Carrafa even has Cinderella's two blind stepsisters dancing in ''Into the Woods.''

It's All in the Weave

''I love intricate, complex little patterns,'' he said. ''Two blind sisters weaving a pattern with a little English country dance. No one sees it. But that kind of stuff makes my day. We have two arms, two legs. The body seems very limited. And yet dance has an endless variety of possibilities. Endless worlds of movement to explore.

''That fascinates me,'' he continued, ''and it's also that I love bringing people together in this physically social way. The cook likes people to enjoy the meal. I love when the actors ride the joy or passion of a dance. It's as important to me that the actors feel it as that the audience enjoys it. It moves me when I see them go crazy and lose themselves in the dance.''

So is this the secret of great choreography? No, Mr. Carrafa said. It was something much less complicated. ''Caffeine,'' he said, laughing.


home news credits broadway film tv music videos commmercials press contact		A COACH FOR THOSE MOMENTS WHEN AN ACTOR MUST DANCE New York Times, December 24, 2000, by Susan Reiter STEPPING INTO SUCCESS New York Times, April 19, 2002, by Jennifer Dunning
		STEPPING INTO SUCCESS New York Times, April 19, 2002, by Jennifer Dunning John Carrafa settled into a quick breakfast early one recent morning at the sunny Good Enough to Eat restaurant on the Upper West Side, where he often starts his hectic days. Mr. Carrafa, who lives in the same building, once worked as a cook there. Now he is a choreographer who seems to be everywhere at once. To start, he has two musicals on Broadway. ''Into the Woods,'' in previews at the Broadhurst Theater, opens on April 30. The zany hit ''Urinetown'' is two blocks away at the Henry Miller. And there is more. Mr. Carrafa is creating new choreography for ''The Pajama Game'' for performances next month in the City Center Encores! series. He will soon begin work for the Broadway-bound musical ''Dance of the Vampires.'' He continues to coach actors for dance sequences in film. He is choreographing a revival in July of ''A Little Night Music,'' part of the Sondheim Celebration at the Kennedy Center in Washington. And he will also choreograph ''Amour,'' based on the music of Michel Legrand, which is to open on Broadway in October. Breakfast finished that day, Mr. Carrafa would grab a taxi and race downtown to the next appointment. In a fifth-floor studio at City Center, musical cuts in ''The Pajama Game'' would be discussed. That show promises to be one of Mr. Carrafa's most audacious career moves. The musical was choreographed originally by Bob Fosse and contains the sacrosanct ''Steam Heat'' trio. Why take that on? ''I don't mean to be disrespectful,'' Mr. Carrafa said. ''I'm just doing my take on it. My take. It's personal. 'Steam Heat' is a pure theatrical dance. By that, I mean it has the greatest impact while employing the simplest compositions. The goal is to create a powerful theatrical dance with the simplest of tools. No counterpoint, clever spacing or large groups of dancers.'' ''No story to tell, except in the simplest thematic way,'' he continued. ''One idea is conveyed using simple unison dance and playing with rhythm and basic steps of three people in a line, creating something that builds and that rocks the audience. I thought if I could define this for myself, I would learn a tremendous amount about what my style is. To create a dance that is only about one idea is the hardest thing.'' After the City Center meeting, it was off to an audition at a West 28th Street casting office for ''Dance of the Vampires.'' ''I went because the whole creative team would be there, and it's hard to get us all together,'' Mr. Carrafa said. ''We all needed to connect. We're entering into an exciting time together. And I wanted to talk to them about a dancer I wanted to use, Heather McFadden.'' East Side, West Side Ms. McFadden, a member of the preproduction workshop group on which Mr. Carrafa has tried out choreographic ideas for several shows, had another offer. It was essential, he felt, to secure her for ''Vampires.'' After that, Mr. Carrafa had planned to attend a ''Urinetown'' brush-up rehearsal but asked an assistant to take it over so he could arrive at the Broadhurst by 1 p.m. for a run-through of ''Into the Woods.'' ''Across the street from 'The Producers,' is what we say,'' he noted. There, Mr. Carrafa, a former Twyla Tharp dancer, would spend all afternoon and evening fine-tuning his choreography for the revival of this Tony Award-winning musical by Stephen Sondheim. Still to go was coaching Robert De Niro for dance scenes in the movie ''Analyze That'' (a sequel to ''Analyze This'') and choreography for the revival of ''A Little Night Music.'' ''I've got to tell you,'' Mr. Carrafa said. ''I'm so happy doing what I do.'' His is a cautious happiness, though. ''It's changed so fast for me, since a year ago,'' he said. ''I try to appreciate it, to tell myself I'm so lucky and just be grateful. It's hard not to take it with a grain of salt. Dennis Hopper once said he had had six careers.'' Life on the Fast Track Mr. Carrafa, known to friends and colleagues simply as Carrafa, has the kind of open, boyish face that looks as if it hasn't changed much since childhood. His age -- ''too old to be a dancer anymore'' is all he will say about it -- is suggested only by a slight scholar's stoop. That morning at Good Enough to Eat, over a bowl of steaming oatmeal, he slipped easily into banter with Carrie Levin, the proprietor, a former boss whom he described as fairly tough. ''This is his living room,'' Ms. Levin said to a visitor. ''And this is where he learned to be a man.'' Mr. Carrafa smiled. ''From Twyla to Carrie,'' he said. A waitress, Shannon Lee -- ''my middle name is Hope'' -- came to take Mr. Carrafa's order. He introduced her as ''a brilliant actress,'' and soon the two were in earnest conversation about a dance-class injury she had just sustained. Once a dancer, always a dancer. Mr. Carrafa doesn't get to the requisite classes much these days, but he has retained his lifelong love for the art. His rich and busy life in show business began simply enough in Waterbury, Conn., when he followed his sister in time-honored fashion to her tap and jazz dance classes and stayed. He performed in high school musicals and at Bates College in Maine, where he was preparing to train as an orthopedist. But dance and theater exerted an irresistible pull, although he hadn't been to any dance concerts and didn't know any dancers. ''It was the 'Billy Elliot' story,'' Mr. Carrafa said. ''I came from an Italian working-class family,'' he said. ''I was the first to go to college. But every year in college I kept thinking, I'm really good at this dance thing. I should go to New York and do it.'' His family wasn't worried about this preoccupation. ''Because I was in college, I think they felt I could probably do anything I wanted,'' he said. On a summer scholarship to study with Ms. Tharp and her company during a residency at Boston University, Mr. Carrafa suddenly found himself a member of the troupe. He performed with Ms. Tharp from 1978 to 1986, eventually becoming a lead dancer and her assistant. He left with the desire to write and choreograph on his own. Since Ms. Tharp knew everyone, and everyone knew her and her dancers, it was not hard for him to find work soon after, choreographing two big but instantly forgettable 1989 Hollywood dance films, ''Rooftops'' and ''Sing.'' Choreographing a Seduction Returning to the cloistered life of a dancer did not seem to be an option. Mr. Carrafa did some television choreography and more films, including ''The Thomas Crown Affair,'' where he created Pierce Brosnan's dance-floor seduction of Rene Russo. ''I did anything I could where dance told a story, though I didn't do music videos,'' he recalled. ''My work with actors came about because the only time when dance was used was when lead actors did it.'' Back in New York, he began to pick up assignments in decidedly oddball shows, among them ''Love! Valour! Compassion!,'' ''Dirty Blonde'' and half-time presentations for the National Basketball Association All-Star games. ''I did an S-and-M lesbian comedy, an independent film by Jennie Livingston called 'Who's the Top?' I was the only guy with all these women.'' He choreographed Encores! presentations of ''Out of This World'' and ''On a Clear Day You Can See Forever.'' Then came a turning point with ''Urinetown'' and ''Into the Woods,'' and the commercial theater's brand of instant fame. In ''Urinetown,'' a musical theater spoof directed by John Rando, Mr. Carrafa found the kind of ''wacky thing'' he relished. There were no set dance pieces originally in the show, just musical staging. Inspired by the hilarity of Mark Hollman's score, Mr. Carrafa said, he told Mr. Rando that he thought the show could have a lot of dance, and the director agreed. ''Urinetown'' is about putting on a musical,'' said Mr. Rando, also the director of the Encores! ''Pajama Game'' production and ''Dance of the Vampires.'' ''We had this great idea of creating 'Urinetown' as a bad musical, a wrong musical. We can't. We are not supposed to. Therefore we should. And it will be naughty and dangerous and fun. We spent a lot of time giggling. It's important to find someone like that.'' Mr. Carrafa had worked on ''Dirty Blonde'' with James Lapine, the director and librettist of ''Into the Woods,'' a bittersweet fable that draws on fairy tales to make its point about the consequences of getting what you wish for. Mr. Carrafa's day ended with the run-through of this musical. As the rehearsal crept along, Mr. Lapine, who will also direct Mr. Carrafa's forthcoming project ''Amour,'' called out cheerful encouragement to the actors. Mr. Carrafa, a slender, quiet presence in businesslike work clothes, stood gazing thoughtfully at the stage from a dark orchestra section filled not with audience members but with long, low tables at which men and a woman worked consoles and headphones to cue the show's complex special effects, lighting and sound. Windshield Wiper There were ribbons to be adjusted for the maypole dance. The sequence that Mr. Carrafa has named ''The Windshield Wiper,'' in which the cast sweeps out toward the audience in staggered ranks, was looking good. The actors were obviously tired. But the air vibrated with that sense of privileged community and anticipation peculiar to the theater. ''Like James said,'' Mr. Carrafa observed, ''it's nice to pause and remember how lucky we are to be on Broadway.'' In ''Into the Woods,'' Mr. Carrafa gets to do what he likes best: creating choreography that looks as if it has been made up by the performers on the spur of the moment. ''John has a remarkable talent for turning dancers into actors and actors into dancers,'' Mr. Rando said. The careful planning for that effect starts with extensive research into period dance styles and other kinds of movement. ''That's the fun for me,'' Mr. Carrafa said. ''Otherwise, every show has the same 10 steps.'' His research assistant Rebecca Katz began work on ''Into the Woods'' by combing through European folk dance compendiums and pictures and videotapes in her own collection and at the dance research division at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. Mr. Carrafa decided on late-17th-century English country dance forms and material from rap videos for a solo for the savvy Witch, who is played by Vanessa Williams. Mr. Carrafa keeps a pad beside his bed ''mostly to fantasize about what is the most delicious thing for a particular actor in a particular role in a particular show,'' he said. One of the ideas for ''Into the Woods'' that he scribbled out one night was how to have the musical's two wolves pass Red Riding Hood around in a way that would resemble animals' playing with their food. He was soon scrutinizing a friend's dog and videotapes on wolves and foraging animals. He does much of his best work in the most unlikely places. He suddenly envisioned the structure of ''Steam Heat'' while walking through Times Square one day. Mr. Carrafa tends to arrive at a show's first rehearsal with 90 percent of his work done, though he says that he sometimes lets performers think that he doesn't know what he's doing so he can watch them fill in the blanks. That way, they often put more of a personal imprint on a step or gesture. ''What is really great about Carrafa is that his choreography is geared to the actors' styles and weaknesses,'' said Lisa Shriver, his assistant on ''Into the Woods'' and a budding choreographer herself. ''He and Susan Stroman focus on what makes the individual special.'' Mr. Carrafa has a similar regard for the individuality of the numbers he creates. ''Every dance is different,'' he said. ''I look at every kind of dance I can. I've gone from being a dancer to being fascinated with dancing. It's partially that I love puzzles. Dance is a particular kind of moving puzzle, and so engrossing. That's why I feel drawn to Sondheim. He's such a puzzlist.'' Mr. Carrafa even has Cinderella's two blind stepsisters dancing in ''Into the Woods.'' It's All in the Weave ''I love intricate, complex little patterns,'' he said. ''Two blind sisters weaving a pattern with a little English country dance. No one sees it. But that kind of stuff makes my day. We have two arms, two legs. The body seems very limited. And yet dance has an endless variety of possibilities. Endless worlds of movement to explore. ''That fascinates me,'' he continued, ''and it's also that I love bringing people together in this physically social way. The cook likes people to enjoy the meal. I love when the actors ride the joy or passion of a dance. It's as important to me that the actors feel it as that the audience enjoys it. It moves me when I see them go crazy and lose themselves in the dance.'' So is this the secret of great choreography? No, Mr. Carrafa said. It was something much less complicated. ''Caffeine,'' he said, laughing.