Balance is something anyone needs to survive the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. Perhaps it’s not a coincidence that balance is also a key ingredient Lisa McCall needs to put together Holiday Detroit, a seasonal celebration of the city’s incredibly diverse artistic legacy through a mix of dance and both traditional and original holiday music performed by professional musicians and local students.
“You have to be balanced, and you have to be proactive, and you have to plan, plan, plan,” said McCall, when discussing the challenges of putting a show like Holiday Detroit together.
McCall, a Detroit native, is the producer/director/choreographer behind this show. In her decades-long career, she has worked with some of the biggest names in entertainment, including Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Patti LaBelle, Debbie Allen, and countless others. What McCall has planned for this one-night-only program on Dec. 18 is a concept that is a dream for any young aspiring entertainer: Getting the chance to work with seasoned professionals and perform on the stage of the Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Detroit.
The Preparation Process
Holiday Detroit features a wide variety of music, including gospel, hip-hop, the Motown Sound, jazz, and blues. The show’s cast boasts live musicians, singers, and a host of dancers. Among the lineup of dancers are 75 students from Detroit’s Voyageur College Preparatory High School, where McCall serves as the head of the dance department. Voyageur provides support for the show, but Holiday Detroit is primarily self-funded by McCall.
“We have a lot of new students this year, so I would say 75% have never performed ever, and then the other 25% are seniors and have four years of experience,” said McCall. “They help encourage the other kids and remind them, ‘This is not a high school show; this is a major production.’”
While many of the young dancers are new to performing, McCall has made sure her students are ready for showtime. These students have a packed rehearsal schedule beginning at the end of September. Additionally, all students are required to take a theater etiquette class and a backstage etiquette class.
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“If you are a student, curriculum-wise, the students have their daily classes, but right at the end of September, I start creating a dance for each class,” explained McCall. “So, in addition to their regular curriculum, they rehearse their numbers for three months so that they are polished. So, the kids are with me every day [of school] …”
The professional dancers, which I have 22 [in the show], we do rehearsal once a week. The singers are doing four-hour rehearsals on Mondays. The musicians get all of their music at the end of September, and the musical director rehearses with them. Right around Thanksgiving is when we all start rehearsing together. We do rehearsals every Saturday all the way up to showtime, but that’s a nine-hour rehearsal.”
For this year’s show, McCall booked Tony Grant (lead singer of The Temptations), Khalia Campbell (former dancer with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater), Emani Drake (member of Chicago’s Deeply Rooted Dance Theater), Alise King (R&B artist/Detroit native), Angela Davis (singer-songwriter/Detroit native), and Della Hamby (veteran international dancer and former principal dancer for Chris Brown).
What to Expect from Holiday Detroit
Needless to say, Holiday Detroit is a very ambitious production. However, all of the hard work that goes into making the show a reality is well worth it. This is especially for the young performers.
“Normally, a kid gets to go see a Broadway show, like at the Fisher [Theatre], but very seldom are they on the stage with professional dancers and artists,” said McCall. “So, I provided a clever way to do a professional production and have students trained enough for three months to grace the same stage as people who they aspire to be one day.”
Spreading seasonal love and joy is the show’s overarching theme, but there’s one goal in particular McCall has for Holiday Detroit.
“We have so much amazing talent here in our city, and it’s possible to do a show of this magnitude using local artists,” said McCall. “ … I want people to have a great time for those two hours and go, ‘Wow! And this is a Detroit cast!’”
Holiday Detroit takes place on Dec. 18 at the Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets start at $38 and are available for purchase at HolidayDetroit.com. Most funding for Holiday Detroit is provided by McCall, but supporters can also donate to help fund future show productions.
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