Becoming the Artistic Director of Equinox Dance Company

My parents weren’t surprised when I told them I was taking over artistic direction of Equinox Dance Company this year, but I was.

Could the dream of a little ballerina from Silver Spring really be coming true? Wow.

Ever since I was young I’ve been bossing people around. Directing is just in my blood-I guess.

In the 80s I created dances to Madonna’s Like a Prayer in our basement. I even directed full productions of The Little Mermaid and Mary Poppins, complete with stunts and music to lip-sync to.

My musical selection and choreography have improved over the years but I still hold those values of having fun and making performance surprising, funny and beautiful.

Recently I’ve been employed to choreograph students at Montgomery College for their Dance Company and for the musical production A Year with Frog and Toad.

But this is different. Equinox is an adult modern dance company with beautiful, sophisticated dancers: dancers who will probably remember the moves, unlike my sister and her other 5-year-old friends, in our Girls Just Want to Have Fun music video.

Equinox dancers are strong enough to perform real stunts and sing their own words without lip singing. They probably won’t even cry when I give them constructive criticism.

They’re all mine and I can’t wait!

Now that I have met the company and am getting ready to meet future company members, they all seem to share my love of dance.

Equinox proves that no matter how old you are, girls still just want to have fun and I want to show them how.

--Andie Ligon