
Amy Quanbeck of "Moulin Rouge! The Musical"
Season 2 Episode 4 | 3m 6sVideo has Closed Captions
Amy Quanbeck, dance captain and swing for “Moulin Rouge,” keeps the choreography tight.
The challenging choreography in “Moulin Rouge! The Musical” requires constant work to ensure the safety and precision of its dancers. Dance caption and swing Amy Quanbeck shares what goes into her essential role for this high-kicking Broadway hit.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
We Are Broadway is a local public television program presented by WLIW PBS

Amy Quanbeck of "Moulin Rouge! The Musical"
Season 2 Episode 4 | 3m 6sVideo has Closed Captions
The challenging choreography in “Moulin Rouge! The Musical” requires constant work to ensure the safety and precision of its dancers. Dance caption and swing Amy Quanbeck shares what goes into her essential role for this high-kicking Broadway hit.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipMy dad saved the article of me saying I wanted to be on Broadway when I was 11, but I don't know if I had really realized that that would be my trajectory until it was happening.
And I knew I wanted to dance, and so that was how I ended up here.
♪♪ I'm Amy Quanbeck, and I'm the Dance Captain/swing at "Moulin Rouge!
The Musical" Broadway.
Woman: Welcome to the Moulin Rouge.
♪♪ ♪ Because we can, can, can ♪ Quanbeck: Being a dance captain and swing is a cool responsibility where you are partially cast and also partially team leadership and management.
A lot of my job is to uphold the integrity of the choreography of the show.
Zidler: ♪ Because we can, can, can ♪ Quanbeck: Because the show is so physically demanding, who is on and off stage does change frequently, and so it takes a lot of collaboration and a lot of communication.
♪♪ It's massive, so many lifts, so much choreography.
Everyone in certain things is doing something different.
And so trying to keep everyone safe is my responsibility.
♪♪ ♪ Gitchie, gitchie, ya-ya, da-da ♪ Quanbeck: "Moulin Rouge!
The Musical" at its core is really a story about artists, and it celebrates the bohemian ideals, which we talk about a lot -- truth, beauty, freedom, and love.
The choreography is sensual and ferocious and dynamic and challenging.
♪ Everybody can, can ♪ ♪♪ Quanbeck: The team to get the show on its feet every night is massive.
You can go from the front of house all the way to the back, and then, again, like, throughout the show, that whole team is working the whole time, from the front-of-house staff to everyone that works at the theater to the crew that's helping set up the theater for that night.
Then we have the wardrobe team and electric team and then all the dancers and the singers, the artists.
So everyone has a different job, and they do connect.
And we need to work together as a team to have the show go on every night.
♪♪ I grew up dancing at a competitive dance studio in Minnesota and was very grateful and fortunate to have a family that supported that, then went to school for dance and loved dancing.
And then I joined the "Wicked" tour.
So that was how I ended up in the city.
Being a performer on Broadway is a dream and is also work.
♪♪ We're so fortunate that we get to do what we love.
I do always find gratitude being on stage and having the lights and having the excitement and the adrenaline and also feeling like that's where I'm meant to be.
Ooh, I'm gonna get emotional.
Um... Yeah, there's just something to being on stage that's really remarkable and powerful.
And with something like "Moulin Rouge!
The Musical" people are coming to escape and be thrilled and watch this spectacular.
And so it's really incredible to be able to bring that to them every night.
We are Broadway.
♪♪
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