{"id":976,"date":"2012-02-08T06:49:47","date_gmt":"2012-02-08T06:49:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mtls.ca\/issue9\/?page_id=976"},"modified":"2012-03-01T16:35:18","modified_gmt":"2012-03-01T16:35:18","slug":"marcus-pei","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/mtls.ca\/issue9\/film\/reels\/marcus-pei\/","title":{"rendered":"Marcus Pei"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dance across the Floor <\/strong><\/h1>\n
In conversation with Marcus Pei, 13-year old ballet dancer<\/em><\/h6>\nngg_shortcode_0_placeholder\n

Tom Ue<\/strong>: It is a pleasure to talk to Marcus Pei, one of four actors playing Billy in the multiple award-winning musical, Billy Elliot<\/em>, which stops in Toronto on its North American tour. Marcus, please tell us about your dance training before Billy Elliot: The Musical<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Marcus Pei<\/strong>: I started ballet when I was six, and took classes until I was eleven at the University of Iowa and Nolte Dance Academy. Then I moved to Toronto for a year to train at Canada\u2019s National Ballet School.<\/p>\n

T.U.:<\/strong> Do the demands of your training have a negative impact on your teenage experience?<\/p>\n

M.P.:<\/strong> The training takes up a lot of time, but I still find time to hang out with friends and play video games.<\/p>\n

T.U.:<\/strong> Have you seen the movie version, Billy Elliot<\/em>, released in 2000?<\/p>\n

M.P.:<\/strong> Yes, and I love the movie. But I still like the musical better!<\/p>\n

T.U.:<\/strong> What do you see as the appeal of the story?<\/p>\n

M.P.:<\/strong> That Billy finds a way to do what he loves, even though his community and family are against it.<\/p>\n

T.U.:<\/strong> On the road to Billy, you beat some 1,500 candidates during casting.\u00a0 What did your audition entail?<\/p>\n

M.P.:<\/strong> I had to get through an open audition, another hour private audition, and then went to New York for five days for the final audition.<\/p>\n

T.U.:<\/strong> Tell us about your training for this part.<\/p>\n

M.P.:<\/strong> 3 months of learning tap, and learning the singing, acting and dancing for the show. I trained and started shows in Chicago. Also, I had to do lots of cardio and core training to stay fit for the show.<\/p>\n

T.U.:<\/strong> Describe a typical day in the life of Billy, (the character).<\/p>\n

M.P.:<\/strong> Billy wakes up usually to find that his grandma is messing around, then he usually has to go to boxing. His dad is abusive, and Billy just misses his mom.<\/p>\n

T.U.:<\/strong> What was more difficult: the dancing or the singing?<\/p>\n

M.P.:<\/strong> The singing was difficult because I had never sung professionally before, and it took voice lessons and lots of practising.<\/p>\n

T.U.:<\/strong> Tell us about working with Stephen Daldry.<\/p>\n

M.P.:<\/strong> I didn\u2019t get to work with him, but I have great resident choreographers.<\/p>\n

T.U.:<\/strong> What was the set environment like?<\/p>\n

M.P.:<\/strong> In Billy Elliot<\/em>, the cast and crew are like family to me. We always have fun, even during shows!<\/p>\n

T.U.:<\/strong> Are there any funny stories about the production that you would like to share?<\/p>\n

M.P.:<\/strong> There are lots of funny stories, but one of my favorites was the time that I put my pants on backwards for the ending of act one.<\/p>\n

T.U.:<\/strong> What is it like to have three other actors working on the same routine?<\/p>\n

M.P.:<\/strong> It\u2019s helpful, because we can learn from each other and help each other.<\/p>\n

T.U.:<\/strong> Does each of you bring something unique to the role?<\/p>\n

M.P.:<\/strong> Yes, because we each have strengths that create a fun and different show each day!<\/p>\n

T.U.:<\/strong> Have you learned from your fellow \u2018Billys\u2019?<\/p>\n

M.P.:<\/strong> I have learned lots, like dancing tricks, and tips to make the show smoother \u2013 like certain ways to change quickly so that we aren\u2019t late for entrances.<\/p>\n

T.U.:<\/strong> What was the valuable tip you got for this part?<\/p>\n

M.P.:<\/strong> There isn\u2019t one certain thing that makes the part easy or go well, but overall you need determination, because the show is really hard to get through.<\/p>\n

T.U.:<\/strong> How do you find Toronto?<\/p>\n

M.P.:<\/strong> I love the city, and since I lived here for a year, I know all the hot spots, restaurants, etc.<\/p>\n

T.U.:<\/strong> Did you get to see much of the city?<\/p>\n

M.P.:<\/strong> Billy takes up a lot of time but we get to go lots of places on Monday, our day off.<\/p>\n

T.U.:<\/strong> What is on your ipod now?<\/p>\n

M.P.:<\/strong> It\u2019s all Glee<\/em> cast songs; Glee<\/em> is my favorite TV show!<\/p>\n

T.U.:<\/strong> What\u2019s next for you?<\/p>\n

M.P.:<\/strong> I’ll probably go back to the ballet school to continue my ballet training.<\/p>\n

<\/a>T.U.:<\/strong> Thank you so much for your time, and best wishes for a wonderful career!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dance across the Floor In conversation with Marcus Pei, 13-year old ballet dancer Tom Ue: It is a pleasure to talk to Marcus Pei, one of four actors playing Billy in the multiple award-winning musical, Billy Elliot, which stops in Toronto on its North American tour. Marcus, please tell us about your dance training before […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":980,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"authorpage.php","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-976","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mtls.ca\/issue9\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mtls.ca\/issue9\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mtls.ca\/issue9\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mtls.ca\/issue9\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mtls.ca\/issue9\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=976"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mtls.ca\/issue9\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1004,"href":"https:\/\/mtls.ca\/issue9\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/976\/revisions\/1004"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mtls.ca\/issue9\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mtls.ca\/issue9\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}