Monica Bill Barnes & Company visit USC to perform ‘The Running Show’

On Thursday night, Monica Bill Barnes & Company, led by Monica Bill Barnes and Robbie Saenz de Viteri, visited USC to put on “The Running Show,” a dance performance that combines sports and theater to tell the story of a dancer’s life and what it means to keep dancing as she ages. 

“I think it really kind of takes people through the timeline of what it means to pursue dance.” Saenz de Viteri said. 

The company held auditions for the show Sept. 24th, selecting 13 dancers from the Glorya Kaufman School of Dance, and began rehearsals later that same day. With just six days of rehearsal, Bill Barnes and Saenz de Viteri created a new version of the show.

Bill Barnes choreographed for “The Running Show,” as well as dances throughout the entirety of the performance.

Saenz de Viteri is the show’s self-proclaimed “chairperson.” Despite his lack of professional dancing experience in comparison to Bill Barnes, he remains onstage for the whole show, playing the role of a sportscaster compiling clips from the interviews he conducted. 

“I think we have a lot of shared sensibilities, but we have no shared skills,” Saenz de Viteri said. “Monica is an incredibly trained dancer, and I don’t know anything about dance, and I think so much of our collaboration is sort of rooted in that very thing.” 

This is not a show that was created overnight, but something that took a lifetime of experience and years of work. 

“There’s maybe a year or two of a process where we’re just collaborating to create, to try and understand what kind of event to make,” Bill Barnes said. 

When watching, the performance seems to be a combination of both dance and sports, making its name extremely fitting. “The Running Show” is unique from other shows in that it is different each time that it is performed. While Bill Barnes teaches the choreography alongside fellow dancer Flannery Gregg, Saenz de Viteri sits down to interview each individual dancer. Then, when the show is put on, Bill Barnes’ choreography is combined with snippets of Saenz de Viteri’s interviews, creating a story about the life of a dancer.

While the Kaufman students made up the largest part of this cast, the show also included 12-year-old Jada Turner’s ballet solo, as well as the story and dance of 77-year-old Gerri Houlihan. Both of these two performers were incredible, bringing to the stage dancers from all stages of life.

The subject matter of “The Running Show” is unique on its own, but the show truly stands out when looking at the story being told. Part of the story comes from Bill Barnes’ own life and struggles of dancing as she ages. But, just as importantly, it includes the stories of the Kaufman School’s dancers, such as Simone Peterson, a freshman majoring in dance. 

“It was definitely daunting the first time I heard my voice on stage, […] I’ve never actually danced to my voice,” Peterson said. “Monica and Flannery are just so amazing [at] what they do, and I’m so glad I got to work with them.” 

Not only was Peterson dancing to their own voice, but also hearing Saenz de Viteri use them to tell a story. The story of “The Running Show” is not simply Bill Barnes’ or Saenz de Viter’s, but the story of who know and what it is like to grow up and identify as a dancer for the majority of their lives.

“Trying to involve a really large cast of local performers was just nothing we’d ever done before,” Bill Barnes said. 

Not only does “The Running Show” have a variety of dancers from across the world, but it is a completely different performance each time that it is shown, making the experience incredibly special for both dancers and audience members alike.