Firecracker Toni Basil
There are tons of talented choreographers who flare up on the dance scene and fizzle just as quickly. Then there are the exalted few who light up the sky year after year. Toni Basil lights up the sky.
Toni was a member of the 1970s dance group The Lockers before branching into choreography and music. She captured a double platinum record for the hit “Mickey;” she has choreographed and/or directed over 30 music videos, choreographed and/or staged music tours for artists like Tina Turner, David Byrne, Matchbox 20 and Enrique Iglesias; she’s choreographed for film – “American Graffiti,” “The Rose,” “Peggy Sue Got Married,” “My Best Friend’s Wedding” and “Legally Blonde” and she just completed work on Bette Midler’s Las Vegas show, “The Showgirl Must Go On.” I recently had a chat with Toni about her enduring career as a commercial choreographer.
Q: Tell me about your background.
Basil: I grew up in show business. My father was an orchestra leader and my mother’s side of the family were acrobatic dancers and I remember my aunts talking about Billy Rose’s Diamond Horseshoe [nightclub].
I started out as a ballet dancer and depending on what job I’m doing, I always re-research that…Physically, I don’t have an arch. I don’t have slightly hyper-extended knees that look good on pointe. I don’t have an extension. I’m more of a turner and a leaper. So I didn’t realize I didn’t have the right body for ballet as a female and thank God nobody told me that and thank God nobody stopped me.
Q: What exactly is your style?
Toni Basil in rehearsals
Photo by Frank Miraglia for AEG Live/Concerts West
Basil: Pretty eclectic. Yeah, I’m eclectic and I’m eclectic because I’ve had so many years in the business of learning so many different styles. And I love to dance so much and I still to this day go to class every day that I can.
Q: How did your eclectic styles develop?
Basil: Locking started in the 70s and popping came along, popping and the electric bugaloo came along mid-70s. It was being birthed in Fresno, the beginning of whacking which eventually became vogueing much later on. That was in the 70s. You know, so many things started in street because of Soul Train and Soul Train was in L.A.
Up until 1990, you could only get it in the clubs. They just started teaching “street,” meaning locking or popping or hip hop. They didn’t start teaching that in the accredited dance studios until the 90s and I was dancing street in the 70s.
Other than the Lockers, which is the dance group that I was with out of Soul Train, really until videos happened and rap music where the street dancers could actually earn a living either dancing behind the rappers or in videos, it wasn’t that popular.
Dance studios that were ballet, jazz and tap oriented, really resisted street for years and years and years. They didn’t want to accept it as a legitimate American art form, which it is, and also, they were threatened by it.
Q: And now? How do you stay involved?
Basil: I research and constantly stay in the moment of what is happening out there and [try] not to become intimidated about anything new coming along. I think there are really very few choreographers who can earn a living doing one thing. There’s just not [many]. I mean you can be the choreographer of the moment and get a lot of jobs from a job that was a big success in one style, but I don’t think you can earn a living from one style.
I like to find classes that I can’t dance, I mean that I kind of stand still [in] and start to learn something new. Like when I go back to L.A. now, I won’t take an advanced jazz class. I’ll go back to a beginning jazz class. Going to class is like going to church for me. It keeps me interested. Maybe I’m attention deficit or something but I love it when it keeps my interest up. I love to learn new things. Dancing is my drug of choice.
I think that is what has kept my longevity. It’s what in street dance has kept me going from go-go dancing to krumping because I don’t feel like when I go to those kind of clubs I have to be the best. I’m so happy to see something new and I’ll take that class and I’m happy to be the worst in the class. You just know how to pace yourself. I find it hard on my body when I don’t dance.
Q: What’s the hardest part of choreographing?
Basil: They’re all different challenges. I can work with extremely technical dancers for one job, and another job a record company might ask me to work with a pianist who has a hit and “Can you get him to look up at the camera?” and “Is there anything else we can do on the Tonight Show when he’s just sitting at the piano that might be able to make it exciting?” Well, I can recall Jerry Lee Lewis being pretty exciting, so you just try to see where you can make it go.
Kids who are training to be choreographers don’t realize there’s a much wider gamut than concert dance. Concert dance you actually get to work with dancers, or if you’re lucky enough to have your own company, dancers that do your style, but as a choreographer working for a singing star or a pianist, you have to work with the style they can do. Not with what you can do but with what they can do.
Q: What’s your process like? How do you decide what stays and what goes?
Basil: It’s different for every job and for Bette’s job, it was probably different for each musical number. You get it wherever you can and the thing is, I look for something that will trigger me.
Somebody like Bette and also Bowie, Mick Jagger, well Tina too, these people are all actors so it’s also easy to build, especially a dramatic number, around a character or around an idea. Like when I work with David Bowie, I can say, “This is your James Dean number,” and he immediately knows what that might mean, so it takes on a whole different physical stance which changes the whole ambiance of the song visually.
Creatively and choreographically, with a singer who can act – choreographers out there, it doesn’t necessarily mean steps. You have to know who you’re working with and you know how to inspire them. Like those people who have their style of movement, like Mick Jagger—you don’t need to give him a step. I mean he likes to have new steps and new ideas but he’s got his own style.
In general, what you don’t want to do is mow down the singer if the singer’s not the dancer and for Bette, she can move really, really well. With Bette, I’ve worked with her since 1977 so I know every step she can do.
Q: Any advice?
Basil: What’s important as a choreographer and people training to be choreographers is to know it’s not just one thing. Know the rest of the business, like lighting and set design, costuming. All these things are of critical importance.
Master them all and light up the sky.