Interview with Jan Di Pietro

Brendan Daynes sat down with Jan Di Pietro, the multi-skilled Resident Choreographer of A Christmas Carol, to explore the enchanting world of the beloved production, returning to the stage for its third year. Jan shares his insights on the beloved story that celebrates the spirit of Christmas and the transformative power of kindness. As the production prepares to once again charm audiences, Jan’s passion for bringing this cherished tale to life shines brightly, underscoring its enduring message of hope and redemption during the festive season.

You’ve been involved with A Christmas Carol in various capacities over the years. How has your relationship with this production evolved, and what excites you most about returning as the resident choreographer this season?

In the first iteration I was hired as a Dance Captain/Swing, so I covered a bunch of the tracks. Lizzie G and the other associates came out from England for the whole rehearsal period. The Dance Captain side of the role was really about trying to learn as much as I possibly could about the show. Lizzie tried to impart as much as she possibly could to me, because in that year, there was a bit of crossover for her with some other projects. I was in technical rehearsal in the theatre, and then having to try and hand over some of her words to the cast. In the second year I was thrust more into being more of a presence and leading the movement and choreography in the rehearsal room. The first point of interaction the new cast had with the movement and choreography was with me, as opposed to with Lizzie. I then started to go back to our first iteration of the production in Australia and try and find that version of it again. There’s always an accumulative thing, there’s the American production that had already happened before it came here and the British one. Our version, with our people and our talent is a new thing that has developed. There’s lots of little intricacies around that. The second year was about finding our version and rediscovering that. Then this year, it kind of happens all again. Scrooge is such a big part of that and Scrooge this year, Erik Thomson, is in his first contact with it. So it takes on a whole new life. 

As resident choreographer, how do you approach preserving the integrity of the original movement while also adapting it to the strengths and styles of a new cast?

One of the real strengths of the piece is that it does leave room for that. There’s always going to be hallmarks of the show that you really want to hit, where all the elements come together. I think one of the beautiful things about this adaptation is the way that the orchestration, the new music and the carols, which are so known and loved, the movement and the script come together in moments. Preserving that, I think, is incredibly important. There’s always tiny little bits of creativity that individuals can add themselves. Really good choreographers leave room for that and Lizzie has certainly done that with the more choreographic elements, but with the movement as well. There’s parts of choreography where we really want to hit, Lizzie’s choreography is very rhythmic. So quite often that creates a counterpoint to the music or to the narration, which is the spoken word element. Sometimes we want to be super specific and get that right. Sometimes, in terms of more of the party kind of moments where they’re doing what we call the Ceilidh, which is a traditional dance that gets done at a party, there’s elements of that where it just becomes super free. The thing that always is the through line is that individuals are always bringing their character to it. That’s what ultimately connects them all together and sort of give that community spirit.

This production is known for its immersive, magical atmosphere. How does choreography help enhance the overall audience experience and transport them into Dickens’ world?

At the start of the show, it’s really important to set up that you’re in a community because that, later in the show becomes such a critical element. From the very top of the show, the way that the actors really actively are in conversation with the audience is a really critical part of the choreography early on in the piece before the first bits of dialogue. In the rehearsal process, it’s just about clarification, because we either want to turn the audience’s focus, laser into a moment of Scrooge or we want to tell them a part of the story outside of that world. Later in the piece, Scrooge, to some degree or other, almost falls outside of the world and into the audience as well. I think staging wise, a few of the things that still exist in the show that feel immersive are a sort of a carry over from the original big production where the stage does sort of thrust out into the audience. We can’t achieve that with the theatres that we’re in here, but certain other things got shifted around so that we brought the audience as feeling as much as though they’re literally on the stage with the narrators as they’re telling the story. That’s kind of the goal, but it is sort of a tightrope because you do want to be really clear in your head as to whether you’re seeing the people out here and talking to them or not. It’s the same when doing the choreography. It’s a really different feeling to be dancing with the open knowledge that you’re welcoming in thousands of people into the world. I think that even when the actors are sort of in a fictional world and that fourth wall is up, there’s still a knowledge there that they want the audience to be a part of the joy that they’re feeling as opposed to sort of remembering of that joy, whether it’s in the past, present or future.

Can you take us behind the scenes of your process for creating and refining choreography for a show like A Christmas Carol? What are some unique challenges you’ve encountered in translating the story’s themes through movement?

There are obviously some boundaries and you want to give the resident director or whoever else it might be, the chance to communicate their specialty. Things do cross over and you have to have the conversation privately and then ask, do you want to take the lead on that? It’s a management process really. In terms of the temperature of the whole show and the style of it, that’s something that you sense and get to understand the knowledge of that with more contact with the show. David Spencer, the Resident Director, has had just as much contact with the show as I have, if not more. So we know that we agree on how we want it to feel in any given moment. Then things just tend to kind of fall in the right spot. There are certainly times where a movement thing is obviously also an intention and a motivation thing. I have to talk about intention and motivation because it directly affects the scene that’s playing out. The other thing I’d say about this show in particular is that a lot of the magic of it is that it’s very manual. So there’s quite a few times where the design of a room or of a whole time period is built by the actors. The way in which they do that with their bodies makes a huge difference. It’s one of those things that an audience walks away and maybe they don’t know why it was beautiful, but it just was. When those things align, that happens and the audience doesn’t need to know why and that’s our job. Things are either appropriate to a moment or inappropriate to a moment, not because they’re taboo, but because they work or they don’t, given the temperature of the story. So that’s the logic we’re always trying to follow. Then when the boundaries are a little unclear, it doesn’t matter so long as we agree on that fundamental kind of atmosphere.

What role does collaboration play between yourself, the director, and other creative teams—such as the scenic and costume designers—to ensure the choreography complements the entire visual and sensory experience of the production?

Ultimately it’s such an interactive role and that’s what just makes it fun. We can create these environments that these bits exist in and then it just becomes about playing with the audience.
For our opening run, there were two Deadpools because as the creator, I’m not silly enough  to go through our final rehearsals and tech on stage as well as be in front of the stage. But for the end of Sydney and for the Melbourne season, I am playing Deadpool narrator. The role is fun because I have the ability to improvise and have that fun, that silliness, and I’m able to do the voice. It’s basically great fun to be able to take on this sort of over the top persona.

Many of our readers are aspiring choreographers and performers. What advice would you give to young dancers looking to transition into choreography for large-scale productions like A Christmas Carol?

To be a resident choreographer, as an example, means showing and telling what needs to be done. Fundamentally underneath that, I think that being a good communicator is the thing. So being really well read and well versed, going and seeing a lot of things, first of all, and then reading about and talking about those things. Many young dancers may know how to do it, but do they know how to talk about how to do it with someone who doesn’t know? That’s a whole different thing. Being a resident choreographer to some degree is just a highly focused teaching role. Focused within the world of Scrooge and the fictional tale of Charles Dickens. What am I teaching? What to do in that world and how to do it with your body. So communication and understanding what individuals need at any given point in a rehearsal is the fundamental skill. The way that you get that is by being literate, really well read, you’ve watched a lot of things, you’ve talked to the people who have made those things about how they did it and noticing how they talk about it. Watching interviews, with people like Matthew Warchus, “How did they make Matilda? How did they make A Christmas Carol? How did they make whatever else they’ve made?” Listen to him talk about it and then learn how that talking happens.

You’ve had a diverse career working on productions like Muriel’s Wedding The Musical and Mary Poppins. How have these experiences influenced your approach to choreography in a more traditional work like A Christmas Carol?

How I store the knowledge of the show, in terms of annotating it. I think the processes and procedures of a traditional musical form help with this production. I guess it comes back to that thing of collaborating amongst the set of people who are typical to a musical, the music director, resident director, associate director, the creative team, costume, wigs, etc. Those procedures are really helpful to know. Then from a performance perspective and teaching that. Originally, I first started training as a tap dancer and then a ballet dancer after that, and then jazz and added the acting and the singing stuff later. I think having started with the dancing, I’ve always felt like it’s body first. That philosophy about performing where strength and control in the body can inform so much for the audience and say so much to the audience has held me in good stead on this show because that is a constant thing. The movement and the choreography being such a constant kind of shape and atmosphere in the show, having that knowledge about strength and how to isolate different parts of the body, I think has been really useful.

As an educator and mentor at Patrick School of the Arts, how do you bring your experience from shows like A Christmas Carol into your teaching and mentoring? What lessons from the stage do you think are most important for the next generation of dancers to learn?

One thing that I noticed about people who have a sustainable career in performing arts is that they understand how to build and maintain good relationships. It comes back to that thing I was talking about being literate in the sense of being a good communicator and a good collaborator. One thing that I try and teach, especially if I’m directing a production with students, is how to have the conversation with the creative team when they’re giving you instructional notes. How do you ask questions? How do you ask follow-up questions? How do you interpret the answer to the question and then turn that into action in a positive way? I use the word positive regardless of the scenario. Even if you’re in a highly dramatic heartbreaking scene, you can make positive offers, but give the creative team the understanding that you’re moving the piece forward to where they want to get it to. As well as understanding that you’re actually listening to them. That is what builds that relationship. My focus is around how are you collaborating with people that you know are going to be in the room every single time, whether you get cast or not, they’re always going to be there. They’re all going to be there in the audition process too. In an audition process in roughly five minutes, times three in a callback, they’re trying to discern whether you’re capable of doing that process. The music director will know very quickly whether you can sing, the choreographer will know very quickly whether you can dance, but the thing that is really hard to tell is whether they can spend six weeks with you in a high pressure scenario and whether you’re going to be able to get the show where they need it to get to.

Beyond this season of A Christmas Carol, you’re also an early-career playwright and a PhD candidate. How do you balance these various aspects of your career, and how does your work as a choreographer influence your writing and research?

I’m pretty good at compartmentalising and giving myself deadlines. If I don’t, then I just won’t. I compartmentalise, create deadlines and break things into manageable pieces. Instead of thinking about writing a play being 85 pages long, I think about, getting the character from point A to point B, not from point A to point Z. Then in the research, for example, tonight for one hour, I’m going to read five papers and pull out 10 things from each paper and just write them down. That’s all I’m going to do. Breaking things into smaller pieces, no matter what I’m doing always helps. In the realm of A Christmas Carol, what’s the next day look like? I’ll prepare those two things. I won’t worry about the thing we’re doing in a week yet. My supervisor very early on said, and I think he’s right, “If you want to be in theatre, you have to be a self-starter” and that pretty much sums it up. You’ve got to be able to start your own engine.

Bio – Jan Di Pietro

Jan is delighted to be a part of the A Christmas Carol family once more after his role as Swing/Dance Captain in 2022.

Some of Jan’s theatre credits include Muriel’s Wedding The Musical (Dance Captain), Dream Lover, Singin’ In The Rain, Mary Poppins (NZ), Anything Goes, The Producers and Sweet Charity (Dance Captain) for the Palace Theatre (USA), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Promises Promises, The Boy From Oz, Music Man, The Mikado, and Pirates Of Penzance.

Jan is an educator and theatre director/choreographer with Patrick School of the Arts in Melbourne.

He is also an early-career playwright and now a Doctor of Philosophy candidate (Performing Arts) where his writing and research is supported by a Griffith University HDR Candidate Scholarship.

As we look forward to the festive season, A Christmas Carol promises to deliver a magical experience at the Comedy Theatre, running for a strictly limited time starting 22 November 2024. Tickets are now available for purchase at christmascarolaustralia.com.au inviting audiences to join in the celebration of this timeless story filled with hope and joy. Don’t miss your chance to be part of this enchanting holiday tradition!