Linn-Mar Graduate on Tour with Britney Spears
By Diana Nollen
By Becky Ogann
Story Created: Sep 9, 2009 at 10:44 AM CDT
CEDAR RAPIDS - Tiana Brown has run off and joined the circus.
The Cedar Rapids native is kicking up her stilettos in “The Circus Starring Britney Spears.”
The three-ring extravaganza sets up Friday under the Big Top otherwise known as the Wells Fargo Arena in downtown Des Moines. The show begins at 7 p.m.
A dancer and performer now based in Los Angeles, Brown, 28, was excited to know the world tour would be swinging through her home state, giving Brown’s family and friends the chance to see her in action.
“My cousins are coming and I hope my friends come,” she says. “I’m getting lots of hits on Facebook saying, ‘Hey, we’re coming to the show!’”
She describes the event in one word: “Spectacle.”
“The opening is just full of everything,” she says by phone from a recent tour stop in Miami. “Britney Spears comes out of the ceiling and the audience goes nuts. The choreography travels around the whole stage. We have aerialists in these hoops, who are so talented and strong. They spin in crazy positions and go up and down. We have these muscular men who use wheels. Every inch of your body has to be tense to do what they do.
“There’s so many elements to the opening, then the whole thing takes you to all her greatest songs that everyone knows. It has her new stuff, her ballads, goes into the sensual part of who she is, then back to her major hits, still all related to the circus theme.”
This isn’t the first time the 1999 Linn-Mar graduate has worked with Spears. Brown danced with her on the 2001 Video Music Awards show and in the “I’m a Slave 4 U” music video.
On Jan. 2, Brown auditioned for the Circus tour in Los Angeles. “It was a huge call — there were so many dancers,” she says. But, she made it through all the layers, to become one of 12 main dancers on the tour. She’s also a co-dance captain and choreographed the “Breathe on Me” and “Touch of My Hand” numbers in the show.
Her tour gig started with two months of intensive rehearsal in Los Angeles, right after auditions.
“Basically, you’re there from 9 a.m. and get done at 10 p.m. You learn one number a day — possibly two numbers a day. It’s long, extensive hours, with an hour off for lunch, six days a week.”
And Spears is right there, working alongside them.
“She learns the dances the same way we do,” Brown says. “She’s fast learner and lets me try new things.”
The tour began in the United States in late March, moved to Europe, is back in the U.S. and will go to Australia in November.
“That’s as far as I know of,” she says. “I take it one leg at a time.” Brown, who also toured twice with Christina Aguilera, is loving her life on the road.
“I think I was born to travel,” she says. “I love performing. I get so tickled by the thrill I get. I surprise myself every night — something’s always new. If any stress gets to me, I get to release it on stage.”
She prefers traveling by bus, since theirs are decked out with a dozen bunks, a small living room, kitchenette, bathroom and a TV lounge. After a show, she likes retreating to her nook. “The buses are homey — you make it your own,” she says.
Countdown to the concerts begins around 4:30 or 5 p.m., when the performers head inside the venue.
“We start getting time on stage to go over things. Sometimes the boss wants to run a number, do a soundcheck,” she says. “The co-dance captain and I have a meeting with the crew to go over anything that might have happened the night before, make sure all worlds are on one page. They have a dance meeting to relay the message to everyone in our department. We go eat, then have hair and makeup here. That’s my creative time. I’m just a girl that loves makeup. ...
“Then we like to see the opening acts and support them and feel the vibe of the audience as they are feeling it. From there, we start stretching. We created this cardiobarre — ballet technique combined with aerobics, so we can get a workout in before the show.”
Brown says working with Spears is “awesome.”
“She’s just glowing when her kids are around her. I’m really happy to be working with her at this time. She’s in a better place in her life these days. When you see her on stage, it’s ‘wow, she’s back.’ You can really see the growth that’s happened all over again.”
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