Spring 2016 BC Beat Choreographer Team
MARY ANN LAMB and LISA GAJDA

Lamb and I met in 1997 while doing the Broadway musical FOSSE. She was already well-respected in the Broadway theater community and I was dancing in my first big show. We hit it off immediately!

Over the years, as we ran in the same circles and danced for the same creators, our friendship grew — and so did our artistic aspirations to collaborate. Lamb started choreographing before I did, and enlisted me to be her associate on several exciting endeavors.

We also collaborated over the years, choreographing for our laboratory company Lab 405, a gathering of professional directors, choreographers, actors, and writers.

As we got to know each other artistically, we found that we had some important things in common. For example, we have the work ethic of two obsessed lifetime dancer types; we love to do our research and our priority is clear storytelling.

We agree that working with the talent that we have in front of us is far more interesting and produces much better work than sticking an idea on an artist without any regard for their authenticity, natural strengths, and potentially useful weaknesses.

Lamb and I have had wide-ranging dance careers. From KISS ME KATE to JEROME ROBBIN'S BROADWAY to MOVIN’ OUT to SEUSSICAL, our exposure to many different masters and styles has given us an incredibly broad vocabulary with a diverse set of tools.

Lamb and I are a team: first and foremost we collaborate.  But why choreograph together? Because we’ve spent much of our adult lives dancing with others, creating with others, and collaborating talents to make projects better.  So why not keep a good thing going.  We’re surprised more people don’t choreograph together.  Two heads solving problems.  Two bodies getting twice the amount of work done in one room at the same time.  So if you like working with people who like working with people, you’ll like us.

By the way, with regard to the two of us being the “one of us” we are not more expensive than a singleton.  There are creative reasons for us working as a team, primarily that the work realizes its finest potential in the most efficient way.  Along the way, we have a fun, harmonious, effective, and clear process. Yes, two for the price of one!