Stars of 5678! Then and Now....Continued
- Community
- Annuitants & Former ExPats
Author: Nancy Ackerman
Released 26 April 2004
Dawn Essoe
Photographs Contributed by Nancy Ackerman
Dawn Essoe
Dawn is a ‘personality’, a ‘presence’ and you have no doubt when meeting her that she has star quality. I’ve never analyzed why I feel this way about her, but the first impression she made on me when we first met, has never changed. Some people affect you like that.
During her years in Dhahran, Dawn was very active in DTG and her forte was comedy. She is a very funny lady, and while her acting talents are wide ranging, it is her wicked wit that I remember best. She also has an innate sense of movement and a perfect attunement to gesture that caught my eye early on, so to discover she was also an accomplished dancer came as no surprise.
In early 1985 I remember thinking about ‘who’ would want to commit to a project like 5-6-7-8! And give up months of Thursday and Friday weekends to rehearse, for a show that was without precedence on the Dhahran stage. I did have a couple of DTG musicals under my belt as well as a unique dance show called Footloose, that Geoff McGraw directed and I choreographed, and I suppose you could really say that was the first 5678! Because Footloose was so much fun and so well received, courage was summoned to try for the big one, the show that was nothing but dance. And so it began.
When I asked Dawn if she would commit to the show, I tried hard to explain what I had in mind and make it sound wonderful so she would at least think about it. I was ready to do whatever it took to get her to agree, so I was bowled over when she listened carefully, then widened her big brown eyes and said ‘that sounds like fun, but do you think I’m good enough?” I took that as a yes, and was relieved that she would join the corps alongside dance teachers Kay Siebold and Barbara Kimmons, ensuring a strong dance base.
Unknown to me, Dawn became pregnant when we were well into rehearsals, with her second child, who turned out to be Jake. She elected to keep this fact under her belt so to speak as ‘I did not want to be cast out of the show after all that rehearsal time”. Meantime, daughter Alexandra came to rehearsals with her mom, and was fenced in with yoga mats when she wasn’t taking her own first steps on the dance floor. I can only imagine what Dawn was thinking during this period, but assume her most urgent goal was to preserve her slim figure and pull this off. She fooled us all with nary a bulge in those unforgiving leotards. I still don’t know how she did it. Once our debut was made in Dhahran we were invited to take the show to Ras Tanura and Abqaiq, and it was on the bus traveling to RT that Dawn made her move. With ultimate cool, she retrieved from her dance bag a skein of white yarn to work on an already started baby blanket. I don’t remember which dancer figured it out first, but we all went wild when we discovered her secret. Of course from then on, she was pampered and allowed to sit out many of the sweaty run throughs and marking rehearsals. She just smiled. Then got up and danced.
Dawn remembers “ how agog we were with the positive community response we received. To me it was definitely a case of not really realizing until afterward what it was we accomplished. I still get excited when I hear “I’m So Excited”. It was an exciting, inspiring and ground-breaking experience”.
Dawn and Csaba
Dawn returned to perform with 5-6-7-8 many times, mainly for our cabaret performances at Mission Inn where she often put her comedic talents to work. She also taught dance classes in Dhahran to adults and children, choreographed and danced in DTG musicals, and won Arammys for her choreography, as well as for her acting performances.
Since returning to Canada with husband Csaba and the two kids, Dawn has done the musicals “Pajama Game” and “Annie” as well as straight theatre. She also taught hip hop and jazz dance for years, took Belly Dance (but concedes that holding your arms out for extended periods is wearisome work) and all this while battling with a fibro condition. Now, she may be inspired to take up Ballroom; she is truly a natural on the dance floor.
The creative genes instilled in both parents (Csaba is a brilliant photographer and did all the photography for the original 5678, as well as a unique slide presentation during the performance) filtered down to the children and both Alex and Jake are both proficient in dance, but in different realms. Jake is also seriously into black music in all forms, and Alex was a competitive Irish dancer as well as accomplished belly dancer, which her mom says she “does with great grace and aplomb.” Taking after her mother in the spotlight, the tall, statuesque and very beautiful Alex also models for a top New York agency.
Although Dawn is not dancing at the moment, and claims to be content to walk her dog, I don’t think it will be long until she gets the urge again. Dancers never really stop.