Exclusive Chat with award winning choreographer Sarah Kawahara

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Exclusive Chat with...….

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SarahKawahara

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Canadian figure skater turned choreographer, started her career out in Ice Capades at the young age of 17. Now Sarah is a two time Emmy winner and has been inducted intothe world U.S. and Canada Figure Skating Halls of Fame for her notable work in the skating community. Creating unforgettable pieces and TV specials, choreographing for shows all over the globe as well as taking her talent to film with Blades of Glory and more recently I, Tonya. Sarah has produced incredible work and has worked with thebiggest names in skating like: Michelle Kwan, Nancy Kerrigan, Torvill and Dean, Surya Bonaly, Robin Cousins, Kristi Yamaguchi and so many more.

I was lucky enough to get to speak to Sarah about her work in skating and upcoming work she has .

Y ly w g c r o th n

hat was your time with Ice Capades like?

was fresh out of high school and I auditioned for this show, I was like “do I go to college? Do I join a how? What do I want to do?” I really loved to skate and I found when I was portraying a character I ould do anything. When I competed I would get really nervous, so it would be hard for me to do what I o, and do all the technical side. I discovered, as a senior in high school, that if I portrayed a character hat I could do anything! I didn’t translate that into continuing competitively. I decided “maybe show fe?” I was very fortunate, I auditioned, I got a spot, but I also got a position and do some understudy ork which was also valuable to me, little did I know how much I would use all that experience in the uture. I spent 8 years in the show and loved every minute of it. Igot to grow and explore all different tyles of movement. I got to travel all across North America with the Ice Capades, it was a great training round for me

as it a big risk just finishing high school and going straight into shows back then?

t was really, considering the time, but my dad said to me as long as I give 200% not a hundred that I ould do well, and he gave me his blessing, I went and I never looked back, it was the best decision of my fe, my young life.

o you think it was your experience in Ice Capades that gave you the inspiration to go into horeographing? es I do, I really do. I always worked very closely with my coach Osborne Colson who realbrought me up from when I was six as a skater. I went back to him every summer and e worked on my new programs for the show and he continued to push me and he also ave me greater reign every year. Every year he gave me more freedom to be part of the reation of what I did and I think that was paramount to my development. Also going to ehearsal, we use to do eight weeks of rehearsals and you sit there and they had four choregraphers and I would sit and watch all the rehearsals because I was just fascinated with e process, and I learnt so much from just watching the process. Even if I wasn’t in that umber, or watching how a production number would go together, it was a marvellous aining ground for me.

When first getting into Choreographing did you ever imagine becoming so successful in your career with all the skaters you’ve worked with and your two Emmy’s?

I had no idea that it would ever amount this much, this is truly beyond my wildest dreams and I just loved what I did so much , I was a very passionate performer. I had built a reputation as an artistic performer, and all I knew I couldn’t perform forever. I really wanted to find a way to keep developing, and perhaps going into the other side of production. Bob Turk, the producer of Ice Capades wanted me to continue to stay as a performer with the show ,but I thought my future would be if I could get into the choreographic side. He felt my style was so unique I wouldn’t be able to translate that onto other people and I felt I was good at teaching it, so I found people who could be my muse and emulate my thoughts, and that is how I was able to get into choreography.

Was it a big transition from skating to choreography or was it gradual?

It was quite gradual, but I was very lucky because my first big break was from Peggy Fleming, she had seen me perform in my last year of the Ice Capades and was looking for a new choreographer. She thought our styles would line up. I was more modern than her ,whereas she was more classic in style, but we met and she took a chance on me. She asked me to do one number for her guest spot in the Ice Capades, so I did and it was very successful. Then she asked me to choreograph for her nightclub show for Harrah’s Lake Tahoe. That’s where I met Willy Bietak who is a producer that I have now worked with for over 30 years. That was the beginning of our relationship and his wife Cathy (nee Steele, former figure skater and Ice Capades star) Bietak was choreographing the production,. I was brought in to choreograph for Peggy, that’s how we all met. It was gradual yet it was quick in some ways, one thing lead to another and I was just really eager and willing to step through the doors that opened.

Oh wow, Peggy Fleming is such a big name.

I know, it’s amazing. I just saw her recently in my US hall of fame induction. I was inductedat the national competition in San Jose this year, and she was there! It was sowild, because she was my beginning of my professional career as a choreographer, sothat was really neat

Sarah and Peggy Fleming

Margot Robbie wasn’t a figure skater . Is it difficult doing choreography whilst trying to coach someone?

Yes it is, I did Blades of Glory and I didn’t have all their time and focus with them having other important projects, but not Margot, she really wanted to learn. I had her full attention, she would go away and watch videos of what she had to learn and bring them back to me. She really wanted to do well and put everything into it, she was such a hard worker a pleasure to work with.

What was your biggest achievement whilst you were figure skating?

Well I think my biggest achievement while performing was being the strawberry queen in Toller Cranston’s Strawberry Ice. iI’s a very old CBC TV special but it was ground-breaking in its day because that’s when they used what they called “chroma key blue” and now its “chroma key green “. Just from a fantasy point of view, they could

Sarah on the set of Blades of Glory

put you into different environments and do these different dreamsequences through the filmmaking of it. It was Toller’s vision, I will never forget he invited me over to his house and he had these boards with black and white photos and he said “I want to do a TV special, I’ve went to CBC and I showed them my storyboard and he took me through the whole show”. Then he said “I want you to be my muse, I

2002 opening ceremony piece Sarahput together

want you to be my strawberry queen, the whole purpose of thethrust of the story is “who is the strawberry queen, what face belongsinto the strawberry queen?” I just couldn’t believe he was telling methis story so I said, “sure! I’d do that” so I got the pleasure of doingsomething that was truly iconic in the world of skating even today.

What piece are you most proud of creating?

The largest most intricate piece I’ve ever done is for the 2002 opening ceremony of the Olympics in Salt Lake. The fire within piece which was the first opening piece. It had over 1000 performers in it, only 50 pros the rest were from the community, I’d never worked with a volunteer community before in skating, it was such an amazing experience. One that I will never forget, I’m very proud of that, how it turned out and the fact it was a one off. You only do it once, its filmed once! In front of billions of people across the globe and then 60,000 in the stadium. It was probably the most tremendous experience creating something new of my life.

How does your work differ when doing something like that then doing shows and films?

The mediums are different in how they’re looked at. When you are working with camera you have to really be successful. You have to take in to account the angles and from which point of view it’s being seen from. When you are doing live work it really depends whether it’s 360 or on a stage and it’s one sided or if it’s three sided like an arena show, then I would have to walk around the venue. I would look work as I was creating it to see if it was interesting from all different sides. When I’m working with camera I know where the cameras are going to be positioned in, and what the movement of the cameras going to be, because that’s the thing with cameras, it has its own movement on top of your movement. So ,it’s not like when you’re in an audience you’re in one place, I just take out where everyone is looking from my work from.

Was it complicated getting to grips with that, coming from shows?

It was complicated, but something I was really interested in, so it wasn’t that complicated because I really wanted to know. I wanted to know what the camera would do, also I think in my own mind ,I had my own idea as to how it should be shot and how I wanted it to be seen. Working with a technical director that could help realise my vision ,as well as their vision has been the real education in how I’ve gotten better at what I do.

Who has been you’re favourite skater to work with?

They’re all my favourite! It would be very difficult but to choose one I would choose Scott Hamilton because I worked with him for 18 years and I have never had the privilege of working for that long with any singular talent. When you work that long with someone, you really get inside each other’s skin and you’re able to really create huge body of work. We had a very wide, diverse body of work that I am very proud of.

With I, Tonya being a film about real events and your other films being fiction make a difference in the way you worked?

Absolutely, with I, Tonya it was very important for me to bring her (Tonya Harding) skating to the screen. The calibre of her skating, the things that she did and the way that she did them. They had bought her life rights, everything we had access to. So as far as choreography, I’ve tried to stay as close as possible to the original, within reason, because I had to work with Margot (Robbie) and see what worked for her body. It was really important for a successful performance choreographer to find what works for the performers body, for example; Margot wanted to kick with her right foot and Tonya kicked with her left foot, with the high kick, I made the small concessions that way. Overall, as far as technically speaking, it was really important for me to get great doubles that could do the triples up to lutz, then the (triple) axel had to be done through a camera trick, but I had great doubles who could truly do all the triples on the dime, which is so important when you’re shooting on a tight schedule.

The comparison videos that shows the original performances and the film performances are really well matched.

I did a lot of prep work and I had the doubles study Tonya Harding’s videos, so everyone was on the same page, and we were all working towards the same end.

Is there anything you are currently working on you can speak about?

Right now I have just opened a new show for Royal Caribbean’s Symphony of the Sea it’s called 1977. It’s touring, they are in the Mediterranean right now, then in November they come to the states down to the Caribbean, that will be an important event. It’s a great show with a high calibre of skaters. Only a cast of 14 skaters, so they’re working really hard. Then also I have a brand new show coming out in December, it’s an opera icalled Opera Festival on Ice and that will have five opera singers, a 48 piece orchestra and 14 skaters. That will be a Willy Bietak Production, it will be at the Royal Opera house in Oman, so it will be very exciting to put together.

Festival on Ice—during Sarah’s show skating days

Sarah with Margot Robbie on the set of I,Tonya

Sarah’s more recent venture with new show for Royal Caribbean’s Symphony of the Sea