Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Sean Aaron Carmon. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Sean Aaron, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How’s you first get into your field – what was your first job in this field?
I had been working as an apprentice for Elisa Monte Dance in NYC. In addition to rehearsing and performing and touring with EMD, I was also still taking dance classes at the Ailey School as a senior in the joint BFA program with Fordham University.
It was a sunny morning after ballet class and I had sat down for lunch with a friend of mine when I received a call on my cell informing me that there was to be an emergency audition for a Broadway show in a few hours and that the casting directors wanted me to attend. I had no idea how they got my information – I had only been to one other Broadway audition at that point. I was asked to bring a headshot and resume, jazz shoes, tap shoes and to have 16 bars of a song prepared to sing. This was back in the days before Google Drive and Dropbox, where you needed a disk or USB drive to print things out at the library or the local CVS. I didn’t have tap shoes (I hadn’t tapped since high school), my jazz shoes had huge holes in them, the printer was out of color ink for my headshot and I had lost my sheet music. I was woefully unprepared, but I decided to go to the audition anyway.
After three dance combinations (one where I “air-tapped” in my street shoes), the number of dancers in the room had dwindled from 50 to 5. They asked those of us left to prepare our songs; I had nothing to prepare. So I walked in when my name was called and, with completely unwarranted confidence, asked the pianist to play along as I sang Gershwin’s “I’ve Got Rhythm” from memory. I was asked to transpose keys five times to test my range, eventually I cracked and thought my chances were ruined.
To my surprise, I was asked to stay for the final round. Only two of us were asked to stay; coincidence of coincidences, the other dancer was also named Sean. He went first, thankfully and I was asked to wait in the lobby for them to come back and get me. I assume this was to keep the final round a surprise… Once they came to get me, I walked back into the studio and was told what the final task would be – a solo lip-sync to The Weather Girls’ “It’s Rainin’ Men.” Surprise surprise, it’s an old favourite of mine.
It’s important to point out here that the choreographer, Lynne Page, had given birth to a beautiful baby girl less than a year before and she had the baby with her in the audition room.
They played the track and I kicked into high gear. I didn’t know how long they would ask me to go on but I knew every word, every ad-lib, every riff. So after the first chorus, I decided to take a huge risk: I sashayed up to their table in the front of the room, danced around all of them and started to lip-sync to the very entertained baby in Lynne’s arms. I made eye contact with Lynne and, in a moment I still flashback to, received the unspoken permission I needed. I picked up the baby and began to improvise movement with her during the dance break. The entire panel of directors’ jaws were on the floor. I knew in that moment that I had either gotten the job or I would never work a single show on Broadway.
Cut to an hour after the audition and my phone rang as I sat reflecting on the evening’s shenanigans at the Papua Dog on 42nd St. The director said he had never seen anyone bold enough to do what I did, and he knew that he wanted to work with me. I was in rehearsal with the cast the very next morning and went on to make my Broadway debut the very next month, on my 22nd birthday.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I graduated from the Ailey/Fordham BFA Dance program and soon after joined the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater; I was fortunate to perform many principal roles including Mikhail Baryshnikov’s original role in Alvin Ailey’s Pas de Duke and featured roles in ballets by other notable choreographers such as Judith Jamison, Paul Taylor, Ulysses Dove, Wayne McGregor, Robert Battle, Jiri Kylian, Aszure Barton and Christopher L. Huggins, to name only a few.
I’ve had the opportunity to dance on Conan, the national TBS television talk show, Good Morning America, LIVE with Regis and Kelly, Lincoln Center at the Movies, broadcast nationally on PBS and to have been profiled in the Huffington Post for my work as an AGMA union representative. As a musical theatre performer, I’ve been a featured performer and Dance Captain on Broadway, regional theatre, and national tour stages across America in La Cage aux Folles (Original Broadway Cast), The Phantom of the Opera (Broadway), Disney’s The Lion King (Rafiki North American Tour), Kinky Boots and Ragtime (Dance Captain, Broadway Sacramento).
As a choreographer, I’m a Palm Desert Choreography Festival award winner, National Choreographers Initiative awardee, a YAGP Outstanding Choreographer, won The Joffrey Ballet’s Winning Works award and have been chosen as Audience Choice Award winner on several occasions. After directing the Vitacca Ballet School Studio Company in Houston from 2021-2024, I have recently relocated to Indianapolis and am now the newest Rehearsal Director for Dance Kaleidoscope, joining Joshua Blake Carter and Liberty Harris in artistically managing, coaching and preparing the company members for their various rehearsals and performances year-round. I continue to choreograph and educate as a freelance artist, creating award-winning works and teaching master classes for festivals, companies, studios, and universities across the country and internationally.
Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?
There is an interview with Dr. Maya Angelou where she asks her audience to consider a statement by the philosopher Terence: A homo sum. Humani nihil a me alienum puto. Translated to English: I am a human being. Nothing human can be alien to me.
She goes on to describe that we should never be able to say of another human being’s thoughts or actions “I could never do that.” The statement challenges us to consider that if a human being did it, then so can we – no matter how heinous or fabulous the action. In doing so, we accept that we have all of the same components inside us. We must choose to use our energies constructively instead of destructively. If someone can change the world for the better then that means so can we. So we must actively choose to go to battle and DO RIGHT.
RIGHT may not always be expedient – it may not be profitable – but it will satisfy you in ways that nothing else can.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
The pandemic shut down most performers’ lives and livelihoods. The Lion King North American tour was closed for 18 months. When we received the initial shut down notice, I had just closed on a $300k home in Houston and had designs on purchasing my very first car (I lived all of my life after high school in NYC with no need for a car until the pandemic brought me home to Houston). With no way to perform for money as I had been doing for almost 12 years at that point, I pivoted to my side hustle of working with budding pre-professional students. Little did I know that it would slingshot me in just a few short years to a Rehearsal Director position at Dance Kaleidoscope, Indiana’s longest-running professional dance company.
The greatest joy of my life these last few years has been affecting real, artistic change in my students’ lives. These young dancers continue to excite me with their hunger for more — technique, quality, artistry and knowledge.
Mr. Carmon was never supposed to be “Mr. Carmon.” I thank the dancers almost exclusively, for making these last four years worth it all.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://seanaaroncarmon.com
- Instagram: @hookedonsean
Image Credits
Ashkan Images, Justin Hartsaw, FluidFrames, Paul Kolnik