Becoming a dance choreographer on Broadway is not an easy feat, but 1998 Cal High graduate Alicia Albright has found success as one.
Albright is a dance captain for the “Wicked” and “Frozen” Broadway shows.
During her time at Cal, Albright was involved in several activities, including choir, drama, marching band, dance team, and cheer.
Albright started dance at the young age of five and attended the San Ramon Dance Company until she left for college. At the local academy, she found one of her many mentors, Jennifer Berger.
“[Berger] believed me when I didn’t believe in myself,” Albright said.
Albright said her passion for dance has been almost therapeutic for her.
“Dance has always been something that has made me feel better, kind of like therapy. I didn’t know that’s what it was at the time,” Albright said. “I didn’t know how to express myself through words, so dance helped me express what I needed to say.”
Albright’s former choir teacher, Lucerne Mottaz, helped Albright get to where she is now. Mottaz was her choir and band teacher for six years in middle and high school. She helped Albright with her dance applications for college.
“Ms. Mottaz was the one that told my mom that your daughter needs private voice lessons,” Albright said. “She [said I] can go further in life and become a choreographer.”
With Mottaz’s support, Albright attended UC Irvine, where she double majored in dance and drama and graduated with an honors degree.
Albright was the one of the first people that UC Irvine accepted into their honors drama program.
UC Irvine has a program that takes students to New York in the third quarter. Students are able to live in New York for some time and meet Broadway actors. Albright has been a teacher for this program for the past 10 years.
“[During the program] was the first time I worked with Broadway people and it was very inspiring,” Albright said. “I already knew I wanted to do this [on Broadway], but it solidified this even more, to be one of them. And now I am!”
Albright acknowledged that she was only able to get to where she is now with the help of others along the way.
“It was all these mentors that helped me along the way. Ms. Mottaz was a really big mentor. At UC Irvine, Donald McKayle was my mentor,” she said.
After graduating college, Albright had the opportunity to participate in multiple smaller musicals including “Jesus Christ Superstar”, “The Chorus Line”, and “7 Brides for 7 Brothers”.
Albright was a swing both times in “The Chorus Line.” As a swing, she had to understudy various roles. The first time she understudied all the roles and the second time she understudied three roles.
The first time Albright performed on “Jesus Christ Superstar” she was part of the ensemble, and the second time she was part of the ensemble as well as a dance choreographer.
For “7 Brides for 7 Brothers”, she played the lead role, Millie, the first time and was part of the ensemble the second time.
Albright performed in these smaller shows for a while before she finally got her big break when she got an opportunity to be a part of the cast of a national tour for “All Shook Up”.
While a part of “All Shook Up”, Albright was a swing that covered everyone in ensemble as well as an assistant dance captain. The musical follows the different storylines of unlikely people falling in love, while crossing color boundaries. Albright described the show as really fun as it was set to Elvis music.
Performing a national tour opened up many doors for Albright, including the opportunity to become a dance choreographer for Broadway shows such as “Wicked” three times and “Chicago the Tour”.
Finally, in 2010, Albright performed on Broadway and performed there for five years before going to Bali to take a break. As a part of the musical theater industry, she (and any other Broadway actor) has to know how to act, sing, and dance.
Albright made her debut Broadway on “Wicked” as a dance captain swing. She had already been on the production crew, but her role on the Broadway production opened up and the job was offered to her.
In Bali, Albright found her passion for underwater dancing and created an underwater dance video.
Albright went to Bali for a yoga retreat where she surfed, meditated, and wrote to find her life’s purpose.
Through this, she did an exercise for finding words for a life purpose phrase. Not knowing what to say in words, Albright resorted to dance to express herself.
One day, while snorkeling, Albright came up with the idea to make an underwater dance piece. After coming back to the United States, she filmed the dance piece in Pennsylvania in her friend’s pool.
“The piece signified the times in your life when you are really sad and wanted to give up, but you remember there’s more to life,” Albright said. “This video was kind of like a new beginning for me.”
After going back to New York, Albright joined the original Broadway cast of “Frozen”. She was on the original cast list and had the opportunity to dance again.
During the course of her acting career, Albright learned how tenacity leads to success.
“Keep auditioning for the next thing,” Albright said. “You never know what’s gonna happen.”
