Like many youngsters swept up in the dream of Broadway stardom, Seán Curran set off for New York in 1980 hoping to be the next Ben Vereen or Joel Grey but quickly found himself in the very different world of modern dance.
“When I went to New York, I burst out of the closet, with a blue mohawk and a punk-rock, queer attitude,” he said of his beginnings at New York University. “So, I wasn’t what the musical theater program was looking for, because they were looking for the all-American boy.
“In the theater department, they said, ‘Maybe you should try modern dance, down the hall, you know, with the weirdos.'”
If Curran, now 46, didn’t quite make it onto a Broadway marquee (he did appear for four years in the original cast of Stomp), the widely respected dancer-turned-choreographer hasn’t landed too far away.
After starting his career in 1984-94 with the acclaimed Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company and founding his own ensemble in 1997, he has become increasingly in demand in the theater, providing movement for everything from Shakespeare in the Park to the Metropolitan Opera.
Director James Robinson chose him as choreographer for a production of John Adams’ dance-intensive opera “Nixon in China,” which debuted in 2004 at the Opera Theatre of St. Louis and will be presented in a version by Opera Colorado beginning Saturday evening.
“Seán and I have worked on three or four shows now, but this was our first collaboration,” Robinson said. “And it was like this lovefest, because he fell in love with the material. He knew exactly what to do.”
Curran has kind of a split choreographic personality. When conceiving works for his company, he describes himself as an “abstract guy,” drawing on what he describes as an “athletic, robust, music-driven brand of dance.”
As much as possible, he avoids telling a story, the very thing that he is called upon to do when he choreographs or more subtlely helps directors shape gestures and body carriages for plays and operas.
“It’s a paradox because it’s two different ways of using your brain, making abstract modern dance or working with a director,” he said.
In the original production of “Nixon in China,” which premiered at the Houston Grand Opera in 1987, choreographer Mark Morris provided the dance elements. Curran acknowleged the challenge of following such a dance giant.
“It’s intimidating, but it was clear from the get-go that we were re-imagining the piece, and it was going to our version, a different version, a new version,” he said.
Curran took greater liberties with his take on the opera’s 20- minute dance sequence in Act 2, based on a social-realist ballet the Nixons actually attended during their groundbreaking trip to China in 1972.
“I thought, well, I’m going to put my eccentric twist on it, take it off of point, try to tell the same story but in a way that was more about movement invention,” he said.
In addition, Robinson wanted movement to run throughout this kinetic production, which meant added dance touches in Act 3 and the invention of a tai-chi sequence as a prelude to the opera.
For Denver’s presentation of the production, Curran is using nine dancers, three more than elsewhere. Four are from New York and the other five were chosen during local auditions in October, including two Colorado Ballet members — Dana Benton and Andrew Skeels.
When Curran took his first tentative steps into modern dance at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, he was sure that he would be overwhelmed by fellow students with far better training than his background in Irish step dancing.
But in keeping with a gender disparity common to dance, there were only 10 or so men at the required audition compared to a couple of hundred female hopefuls, and all the guys secured slots in the program.
“So, I transferred from the theater department to the dance department, and it kind of gave me my life,” he said.
And a fruitful one it has been, both in modern dance and, as it has worked out, in theater, where he had hoped to be in the first place.
Kyle MacMillan: 303-954-1675 or kmacmillan@denverpost.com
“Nixon in China.”
Opera. Ellie Caulkins Opera House, Denver Performing Arts Complex, 14th and Curtis streets. Opera Colorado’s production of John Adams’ groundbreaking opera, which debuted in 1987. 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Tuesday and June 13 and 2 p.m. June 15. 3 hours. $28-$157. 303-357-2787 or .
