SINGAPORE – Dance might look easy on a stage, but that is because dancers work hard at it. Audiences will get a look at the challenges of dancing in New York-based dance company Monica Bill Barnes & Company’s The Running Show.

The work is part of the Esplanade’s da:ns Focus programme, themed EveryBody, and is on at the Singtel Waterfront Theatre on April 20 and 21. The company will also conduct workshops from April 19 to 21.

The Running Show examines the life of a dancer from an athlete’s point of view, borrowing the style of sports broadcasts to make contemporary dance. Show writer and the company’s co-leader Robbie Saenz de Viteri, 42, narrates proceedings in a live commentary and adjusts his scripting to accommodate the stories of different dancers in different cities.

Some of these dancers are found via auditions, and the Singapore show too will incorporate home-grown dancers. About 15 dancers, from ages 12 to over 70, are usually cast from these auditions. The deadline for audition applications here has been extended to April 10, 11.59pm, and further information can be found at str.sg/ebEU.

Over a Zoom call from San Diego, de Viteri says: “There’s a desire to create a show that feels like a documentary and the only way is to work with real people who are going through these same questions of where their place in dance is.”

Audiences will get to see the immense dedication and training required to make dance look effortless, and the ways in which the industry slowly pushes dancers out as they begin to age. Hence, the show makes it a point to cast older dancers, with the age range topping out at more than 70.

Choreographer and company founder Monica Bill Barnes, 51, says in the same Zoom call that dancers are a dedicated bunch. She adds: “When I first mo...