In the spring of 1999 I had to leave the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and find another job. I wanted to add singing and acting to my career, so Broadway was an obvious choice.
The show to be in, as a dancer, was Fosse. I had to go to the non-Equity call for the first national tour of Fosse, but I had no song and no headshot. Now what?
A friend took my headshot for free because she believed in me and I decided on “Sister” from The Color Purple (movie) as my song. I got the sheet music and copied the headshot. I spent two weeks of auditioning almost every day: callbacks, non-Equity calls, open calls, invited calls, agent calls – you name it, I did it. It seemed like I auditioned against all of New York.
I got the job and my Equity card and I've never looked back. I'm a proud member of Actors' Equity.
