Born to dance

Emmy Award-winning artist Karla Puno Garcia on movement, inspiration, and the upcoming local production of 'A Chorus Line'

- JOHN ROLAND LEGASPI

When Karla Puno Garcia visited the Philippines in October, she was daydreaming of a fun time at the beach—Bolinao in Pangasinan, to be specific.

But things quickly geared up creatively, leading her to take a rain check on that vacation and focus on the task at hand: directing and choreographing the local production of “A Chorus Line.”

“A Chorus Line” is an American musical originally directed and choreographed by Michael Bennett, with choreography co-created by Bob Avian. The show depicts the trials and triumphs of Broadway’s unsung heroes. When Theatre Group Asia’s (TGA) overall artistic and creative director, Tony Award-winner Clint Ramos, thought of bringing it to the Philippines, it was a natural decision to tap Karla to lead the production. With her Broadway credits—most notably as the first Filipino cast member and dance captain in “Hamilton,” and as the first woman of color to choreograph the opening number of the Tony Awards, which earned her an Emmy for Outstanding Choreography for Variety or Reality Programming—Karla is the perfect artist to take on the role of director and choreographer. But the show calls for more than technical excellence. If TGA’s most recent production, “Into the Woods,” is any indication, “A Chorus Line” may also highlight elements of Filipino culture and artistry—something Karla is deeply familiar with.