West End WICKED's Dance Supervisor Talks Staying Healthy For 8-A-Week

Wicked's dance supervisor talks eating green and staying healthy!

Long-running Broadway and West End musical mega-hit Wicked continues to sell out and the dance supervisor, Hannah Toy, discusses how best to navigate the eight performance schedule in a new interview.

Toy relates, "I actually started using Pilates as a form of injury management because it helps keep my body even and strong and now I've qualified as an instructor. On top of being resident dance supervisor, I'm also a swing here at Wicked, which means I'm always in the building ready to cover if someone can't make it because of holidays, injuries or illness. I might go from doing a slightly less physical, more vocal track one night, then the following day be up there as one of the monkeys doing really heavy dance tracks. Swings are constantly throwing themselves into something different, and because of the adrenaline I always go at it full force, but that can take its toll - my body takes a real battering. So I have to do a fair amount of maintenance on my body outside of the show to keep it strong and Pilates really helps with that."

Furthermore, Toy says, "People who know musical theatre will know that a lot of shows are delivered out front - it's all about presenting to the audience. But Wicked is all about storytelling and the only way you can do that is together. So sometimes we'll find that within a number or a scene, we've not really acknowledged the front as much as we would in other shows because we've been so involved with where the show's journey is taking us and our relationships with each other on stage. I love that. I find it really inspiring. And on the days that are more difficult I always tell everybody to work together, because you're never up there on your own."

Additionally, Toy shares, "Everybody has a way of eating they know works for them - my favourite meal of the day is breakfast. If I don't have it I'm of no use to anybody! Then I'll have a juice and a snack in the early afternoon and a good lunch like soup - I'm a soup queen. I put tons of veg in mine and chuck in all the things I don't love but know I should eat, like celery, spinach and broccoli. Then I just add some garlic and onions and forget all the other stuff is in there! I don't have time to sit down and eat meat, veg and potatoes so soup is great. It helps with my immunity and I've found it really keeps injuries at bay. When I'm working those extremely long days, that's really necessary."

Check out the original article on the matter here.

The official synopsis of Wicked is as follows: "If you think you know the Wicked Witch of the West, think again... When Dorothy famously triumphed over the Wicked Witch, we only ever heard one side of the story. Gregory Maguire's acclaimed 1995 novel, 'Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West', re-imagined the Land of Oz, creating a parallel universe to the familiar story written by L. Frank Baum and first published as 'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz' in 1900. Wicked tells the incredible untold story of an unlikely but profound friendship between two girls who first meet as sorcery students at Shiz University: the blonde and very popular Glinda and a misunderstood green girl named Elphaba. Following an encounter with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, their friendship reaches a crossroads and their lives take very different paths. Glinda's unflinching desire for popularity sees her seduced by power while Elphaba's determination to remain true to herself, and to those around her, will have unexpected and shocking consequences for her future. Their extraordinary adventures in Oz will ultimately see them fulfil their destinies as Glinda The Good and the Wicked Witch of the West. The spectacular, multi award-winning stage musical, with music and lyrics by Academy Award winner Stephen Schwartz and a book by Winnie Holzman, has become "the biggest thing in musicals since The Phantom of the Opera opened" (The Times)."

More information on Wicked in the West End and on tour in the UK and Ireland is available at the official site here.