Dazzle with dance
Paula Roberts is returning to the Harbourfront Theatre with her show Celtic Fire
After dazzling audiences with her high-energy dancing at the Harbourfront Theatre in Summerside, Paula Roberts put her amateur-performance career aside about a decade ago.
“I realized that I had gone as far as I could on P.E.I.,” says the Kensington dancer, known for her expressive, bold and provocative dance moves.
And her manager, Heather Mountain, agrees.
“Paula’s skills were escalating so fast that her Island troupe wasn’t able to keep up. Paula wanted to learn from the masters.”
So, after giving up her apartment and her job at a local dance studio, she looked for ways to expand her training and dance world connections and turn her pastime into a fulltime job.
Now, years later and after many training and auditioning experiences in London, Toronto, New York, Las Vegas and Halifax, her journey takes her back to the Harbourfront Theatre for two shows on June 16 and 23.
“I feel a mix of anxiety and excitement all rolled into one. It feels like I’m starting all over again,” says Roberts, who will present a fundraising show, Celtic Fire, at the Harbourfront Theatre in Summerside on June 16 and 23 at 7:30 p.m. Emceed by CFCY’s Chris Pride, it will also feature performances by P.E.I. fiddler Richard Wood and singer-songwriter, Gordon Belsher.
Roberts says the concerts will raise necessary funds for a professional video that will showcase her dancing style. That’s because she and Mountain have plans to market Roberts and her larger vision of an international stage show, “Kameleon” featuring
colourful dancers, elaborate costuming and lighting effects to show producers in Las Vegas and Los Angeles.
“I’ve spent the past 10 years
trying to find ways to get in the door. We’ve gone to dance companies, dance schools. And eventually you run out of avenues. That’s why I am creating my own production,” says Roberts, who has spent hundreds of hours practising Irish dancing in her room.
Her former dance instructor credits her creativity. “Paula’s choreography involves intricate footwork, high kicks and dramatic moves. She shines during performances and her captivating stage presence vaults her to the top of her profession,” states P.E.I. senator Libee Hubley in an article on the Harbourfront Theatre website. In her decade-long quest to break onto the international stage, Roberts was assisted by Mountain.
“You would not believe the things that Heather and I have done including jumping on a train in the middle of the night to go from London to Birmingham because Michael Flatley’s manager was going to be there. We were running in the city, in heels, at midnight,” she said, with a laugh.
Armed with press kits, they were always “taking chances.”
“It felt like an odyssey: surreal at times; with a lot of highs and a lot of lows.”
Their quest eventually led to Dublin after Roberts landed auditions for “River Dance” and “Lord of the Dance”. Soon after she arrived, Roberts took 20 hours of private Irish dance lessons from Nicola Burn, a lead in “Riverdance”, which provided her with two audition-quality numbers.
“She was impressed enough with my work that she set up a private audition with ‘Riverdance.’”
And, although she didn’t land the role, she did receive some valuable advice.
“Julian Erskine, the producer of ‘Riverdance’ told her she was too stylized and that she should pursue her own show,” says Mountain.
So that’s exactly what she’s doing.
Now teaching dance at Stepping Out Studio in Kensington, Roberts is excited about the new chapter in her life. She also feels she’s “closer to her dream” with the shows that are coming up.
“I’m performing on the stage where I first started. It feels like: here we go. It’s beginning.”