Many dancers and choreographers dream of the chance to showcase their talents on national television. One of the largest arenas to display such talent is NBC's hit competition series "America's Got Talent."
Unlike the majority of contestants who appear on the show, Kristina Isabelle, artistic director and founder of Columbus' HighJinks Dance Company, was recently invited to audition for season three.
"I'm not sure how they found me; I couldn't believe it," Isabelle said.
HighJinks started in 2001 and is known for hallmark stilt dancing and cirque-infused pieces. It was this quirky style of dancing that got the producers of the show interested in Isabelle.
"Stilts allow you to create these larger than life characters, so we can be pretty outrageous," Isabelle said.
Since the third grade, Isabelle knew she would be a dancer and choreographer.
"It was in me; I would wake up as a kid and dance around and improvise," she said. "I always knew that dancing was my way of expressing myself. I like to tell stories with my dances."
At a young age, Isabelle was influenced by choreographers and companies, such as the Pilobolus Dance Theatre, Bob Fosse and Martha Graham, who used theatrical elements and modern storytelling in their works.
Isabelle was trained at the Juilliard School in New York City and at Ohio State's dance department. She has worked with Ralph Lemon, Doug Varone and Maurice Wainrot and found "stilting" in San Francisco in the late 1990s.
"Once I got on stilts, it was like my whole world opened up," Isabelle said.
Isabelle said she was intrigued with further developing the technique of dancing on stilts.
"Anything I could do on the ground I wanted to do on stilts. I wanted to turn, kick and do partner work."
Dance is not always music inspired. Isabelle's piece titled "Levels and Lines" was inspired by abstract expressionist painter Joan Mitchell.
"She has these colors and lines just darting across these canvases," she said. "I wanted to create this large-scaled moving painting that uses accents of color on the stage."
Pieces such as "Uneven Tango" express the quirkiness in Isabelle's vision.
"I thought it would be funny to see an extremely tall woman dancing with a small man," she said.
The thought of engaging the audience and leaving them on the edge of their seats keeps Isabelle excited about her work.
"I love to dance, and the extra height of stilts adds an exciting daredevil feel as well as creating exciting characters and costumes," she said.
Unlike most contestants on the show who are only there to win $1 million, Isabelle is just excited for the opportunity to share her work with the estimated 11 million viewers.
"They can see what we've been developing on stilts since we've been back in Columbus," she said.
The show allows 60-to 90-second dances. Isabelle plans to bring in her dancers and perform various pieces, such as the "Uneven Tango," one-legged stilt work and maybe even a stilt-trapeze act.
"Everyone I work with is amazing and to be able to showcase that on TV would be nice," Isabelle said.
Isabelle's goals for the future are to continue making exciting dance and stilt work and to share the work with as many people as possible. Isabelle auditions for the show March 17 in Chicago.
Whitney L.B. Miller can be reached at miller.3859@osu.edu.
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