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[0:00] Martín Acuña: Hi everyone, I am Martín Acuña and you are listening to Backstage Talk.

[0:16] Martín Acuña: Jonathan Larson asked how can you make someone take off and fly in one of his songs from Tick Tick Boom, and I, for the past two years, have learned one way to do it, through the power of community. Welcome to the Latinx in Musical Theatre special for Season 3 of Backstage Talk, where we will be featuring artists from across all positions in musical theatre, from several Latin American countries and different Latin heritages. I am proud to showcase my Latinx family. I hope you enjoy.

[0:51] Martín Acuña: Hello everyone, welcome back to one of the last episodes in this season, the Latinx in Musical Theatre special. Today's guest is someone I've been following around for quite a while. She is an amazing dancer, born and raised in Miami, Florida. I have her here with me, Gaby Diaz. She started dancing at the age of three and trained in various styles growing up. In 2015, she was crowned America's Favorite Dancer for Season 12 of Fox's So You Think You Can Dance, and she went on to perform and tour alongside Season's 12 Top 10. She has also performed in Jennifer Lopez's Las Vegas show, All I Have, and on several tours, like Travis' Walsh Shaping Sound Company. Her work on film includes Netflix musical Tick Tick Boom and Steven Spielberg's adaptation of West Side Story.

She will now be part of MCC's new musical Only Gold, set to premiere next month, October 2022. Alongside previous guests from Backstage Talk, Reid LaPlau and Jennifer Florentino. Gaby, I am so honored to have you here. Welcome to Backstage Talk.

[2:08] Gaby Diaz: Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here.

[2:14] Martín Acuña: So, tell us why the thespian path of life?

[2:20] Gaby Diaz: So, I feel like I didn't necessarily set out to join this musical theater community, but I love storytelling and I have just been drawn to that through movement and physicality specifically. And that love of storytelling in dance has now led me to New York City, led me to jobs like West Side Story and meeting this community of people in the musical theater community in New York. And it's just, they welcomed me right in to this Broadway, off-Broadway show life. So, it's my first performance experience in New York with this community of people, but I'm really enjoying it so far.

[3:16] Martín Acuña: I love it. I know it will be amazing. So, let's go a little bit back to the start of everything, which was your like aha moment because you started dancing very, very young and with several styles. So, tell us a little bit about your journey in dancing and in movement.

[3:35] Gaby Diaz: I started dancing, like you said, very young because my older sister was in dance. I feel like so many people share this common story, but I saw my sister dancing and immediately asked my mom as soon as I was allowed to, I wanted to be in dance classes. And then from there, it just took off. I loved moving. I loved storytelling. I loved tapping into different emotions, different genres, different styles to convey different emotions. So, I also had a lot of energy as a child. So, I was really interested in learning as many different styles and genres of dance as I could. So, I trained ballet, jazz, tap, hip hop, contemporary, whatever it was I wanted to get in a class and learn how to teach my body to tell stories through movement.

[4:35] Martín Acuña: I love it. Let's double click on that, on telling stories through movement. So, how do you approach storytelling through movement? What's your process like?

[4:42] Gaby Diaz: I just try to be as present as I can be in the moment and receive. I mean, it's not dissimilar to acting. It's just a different medium. I've never practiced translating through my voice and through the sound of my voice, but in the same way you receive direction in a play or on film, I try to adapt that same mentality through my body. And like, it's listening to what's around you, being with the people you're in the scene with or in the number, in the piece with, and letting the whole world around you that's being built by the creatives inform your physicality.

[5:40] Martín Acuña: I love it. I absolutely love it. So, what piece of advice would you tell a younger version of yourself, a younger Gabby that has, that hasn't discovered this whole dancing through life to be a little bit cliched thing about being an artist?

[5:48] Gaby Diaz: I think I would tell my younger self to not be afraid of singing and acting. I actually went to, I grew up at a studio that offered singing and acting classes and I was just always intimidated by it and I felt like the dance part always came more naturally to me. And now later in my life that I'm tapping into, I'm singing in the show, I'm acting, I'm doing these things that I was afraid of growing up. I don't know why I was so afraid and why it felt so intimidating, but I would tell my younger self to approach learning about storytelling with my voice, with the same openness as I did with movement.

[6:53] Martín Acuña: Absolutely. I love it. I love it. I love it. I am quite the opposite. I'm an actor, singer first, dance like last, but I would, I would give myself that advice to like, go try it. You might enjoy it. Just try it.

[7:15] Gaby Diaz: Yeah, absolutely. Gabby, you were born and raised in a city full with Latinx influence, right? And through your embodiment of, of, of styles and dance, we can see the Latin flow on your body. So I want to, to know what is visibility and representation for you?

[7:42] Gaby Diaz: It matters more than anything to me. I actually feel like I lost or I veered away from my culture a little bit when I was just strictly dancing, living in Los Angeles and living in Chicago for a bit. I just, I was not surrounded by other Latinx people. And I didn't realize until I got to New York to do the West Side Story film and was surrounded by my community of people again, how much of myself had just like been put on the shelf for years. And the wonderful thing about New York City is I have that community with me again.

[8:58] Gaby Diaz: Latinidad. I really enjoy being able to bring that to hopefully inspire, you know, the future generations of performers to show up with their whole selves as well.

[9:23] Martín Acuña: You will have your first New York experience with this off-Broadway show that we mentioned, the Only Gold, that is getting done at MCC. There are other Latinx performers on that show. And being this your first experience in New York, how do you think that we can increase that Latin visibility and representation on Broadway, off-Broadway, off-off-Broadway?

[9:50] Gaby Diaz: I mean, someone like Andy Blankenbuehler just opening the door to invite these people into the room is step one, right? It's like the people who are in the positions of power and create the opportunities right now, they have to let us in the room. And he has done that. He has built and cultivated a very culturally diverse room. So I'm in rehearsals with people who I can relate to within my sense of humor. I can speak Spanish in rehearsal and be understood and feel seen in the room. And I think you'll feel that when you watch the show, because you will feel a body, a company on stage of people who truly see one another for who they are. And we're not all just trying to blend in and look the same on stage. And so I think increasing the visibility will hopefully happen naturally through the way the audience receives what they're seeing on stage, seeing excellence in every form and every color on stage together.

[11:08] Gaby Diaz: And I love that you mentioned that you're having this opportunity of saying something in Spanish and someone turns around and answers you. And because that feeling of being seen, heard, included, it's just magical. And one of my last questions would be, what is the most important part of creating Latin characters or adding Latin movement to shows in your experience? Because your background is so big, right? And you're diving, you're putting your toes out there in musical theater now. So what would be that important part of adding the Latin flow into characters and into movement?

[11:56] Gaby Diaz: It feels very important to me to, although I'm not playing a Latin character in this show, it doesn't mean that those parts of me do not exist in her, in the way she moves, in her sass, in her spunk, in the way she carries herself on stage. I can inform so many of those decisions with my culture and my history. And I think it's amazing that I, as a Latina, get to just play this role. And I'm not specifically playing the Latina in the show, but it doesn't mean that I can't still bring myself to it. And I'm having a lot of fun. I'm having fun getting to incorporate, you know, the fire that's like, it's just in us. And there's no need to keep it away from the stage. Like why not bring it all? I absolutely love it. I absolutely love it that you just have that in the back of your mind and it's playing there. It's informing how you move, how the presence you have on stage. And it's amazing.

[13:20] Martín Acuña: It's amazing. Gabby, if someone wants to follow you, see what you're doing, where can they find you?

[13:28] Gaby Diaz: The best place to see what I'm up to would probably be my Instagram. I have to admit I'm not the best. I'm not the best with social media. But whenever I do want to share what I'm up to, or if you're interested in seeing what I'm up to, it would be there. It would be on my Instagram.

[13:49] Martín Acuña: Awesome. And I'm going to tweak this question a little bit since you're starting to get to know musical theater. But the original question would be, which are your favorite five, your five favorite musical theater shows, right? Okay. But I might change it with you to your five favorite choreographers. Oh, wow. Okay. So you can choose either the shows or the choreographers or both. Give us the treat.

[14:09] Gaby Diaz: Okay. So I feel like growing up, I just, I was obsessed with the Cats DVD. And as a dancer, I think Cats, it has just stuck with me my whole life because that was a show that fully embodied storytelling through physicality. These people were committed to being Cats on stage. So Cats is one of my favorites just because of what it meant to me growing up. In terms of choreographers, I really love Justin Peck. I love Andy Blankenbuehler. I'm having a wonderful time working with him on this. Oh my gosh, this is hard. I mean, West Side Story, obviously, would be a favorite show because of my history with it and seeing Rita Moreno and everything that Anita was and is to so many young Latinas. That's four.

I need one more. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. What have I seen recently that I've enjoyed? I mean, there's so much out there. There's so much out there. I actually really enjoy seeing plays too and getting used to seeing people just use their voices through speech on stage and how powerful that can be without the heightened reality of dance and singing has been interesting. Oh my God, this is hard. This is on Cats, West Side Story, Justin, Andy Blankenbuehler, and Camille Brown as a choreographer. I think she's amazing and I would love to work with her someday.

[16:06] Martín Acuña: Oh, trust me, you will. We're going to make that happen. Yeah, we'll put it out there.

[16:12] Martín Acuña: Yes. Gabby, thank you so much for being here. This has been amazing. I wish you the best, not only with Only Gold, but everything that will come. You are amazing. Your movement is amazing. Thank you for being here, sharing your thoughts.

[16:35] Gaby Diaz: Thank you. Thank you for having me.

[16:40] Martín Acuña: Thanks everyone for listening to this new episode of Backstage Talk. Remember to follow us on Facebook and Instagram at Backstage Talk Podcast.