You may remember Alyson Stoner from the childhood classics “Cheaper by the Dozen” and “Phineas and Ferb,” or from dancing her pigtails off as Missy Elliot’s adorable kiddie backup dancer in the“Work It” and “Gossip Folks” music videos, but these days the star is all grown up, and coming into her own as a triple threat.
Stoner chats with Backstage about balancing her singing, acting, and dancing careers, the importance of self-expression, and her first film as an adult—“The A-List”—coming to VOD May 12.
On filming teen comedy “The A-List.”
Stoner’s filmography may be longer than most adults’, but “The A-List” marked the 21-year-old star’s first experience filming without a guardian. “It felt like it was my entrance into real adulthood. And the cast, everyone was young, so the camaraderie and the senses of humor and everything just blended together really nicely,” she says. “Will Bigham [the director] had just gotten done with the Fox reality show ‘On the Lot’ from Steven Spielberg, so it was his first film; everyone was fresh and excited at what the future held, and that sort of set the tone for the set. We got into a lot of antics!”
On being a triple threat.
Stoner more or less defines the term; a professional dancer since age 3, her dancing, singing, and acting careers have intersected with films like “Camp Rock,” the “Step Up” franchise, and the upcoming TV Movie “Sugar Babies,” for which her single “Pretty Girls” is the opening song. “I think what's important, as an artist who wants to be multi-dimensional, is learning how to shape shift into those different paths fluidly and frequently. They each have their own techniques, states of being, and you have strengths and weaknesses in all of them, so it's a lot to hold onto. It creates a full plate but it’s worthwhile when you love each of them!”
On finding balance.
“I talk to a mentor about this regularly, because it’s a huge struggle,” Stoner admits. “What we’ve arrived at is the concept of spontaneous organization. It’s learning how to react to a constantly moving and shifting schedule. I may be on set acting, I may be in the studio recording, I might be teaching dance class all in the same day—so how can I manage all of those needs, prepare for all of those things, and still grow and train in all of them? The best you can do is when you’re focusing on one, be there and be present.”
On the importance of dance.
Stoner’s star rose earlier this year when her “Missy Elliot Tribute” dance video went viral on social media. The performer shares the meaning of dance in her life (and it may not be what you expect).
“Dance continues to be a very vivid tool for my personal growth. It’s anything from overcoming fear and learning how to be vulnerable and expressive in movement, to shifting from my technical background and experimenting with the abstract world of freestyle. I find that with dance—and with the arts in general—because I want to grow in my performance, I have to come face to face with my own personal challenges. It gives me an outlet to explore new parts of myself while still having the structure and the goal of the performance, the meaning of the show. Honestly, without art and dance I think I would be a very safe, black-and-white thinker. I wouldn’t dare to take any risks, or see so much of the world in myself and other people!”
On why everyone can—and should—dance.
“What’s silly is that we’ve popularized dance moves, and we’ve made distinctions about who can and cannot do them, when really dance is free! It’s something we’ve been doing since the first human beings walked the earth. It’s a form of expression; if you’re being yourself while you’re doing it, there’s no right or wrong—it’s simply who you are.
0 comments:
Post a Comment