THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 31, 1996 TAG: 9603310091
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARSHA GILBERT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 81 lines
Norfolk native Tiffany Williams is bubbling with excitement about her new job.
The singer-dancer-actress is in the cast of the traveling gospel musical ``Your Arms Too Short to Box with God,'' being performed in two shows today at Willett Hall in Portsmouth.
Williams is happy for the steady gig and beside herself because she gets to perform daily with award-winning recording artists Teddy Pendergrass and Stephanie Mills.
``It's so exciting,'' said Williams, 24. ``I've been performing since I was 10 years old. It never gets old. I've been doing the same thing in this show for months, but no matter how tired I am, when I have to go on stage, I light up.''
Williams has been shining on stage since she started dancing at summer camp at age 10. She knew then she enjoyed performing in front of an audience. After a couple of years of dancing at camp, she began taking ballet classes at the Tidewater Ballet Academy.
She also studied dance and acting at the Governor's Magnet School for the Arts and with the Hurrah Players.
She majored in dance at the North Carolina School of the Performing Arts in Winston-Salem. Performing with the North Carolina Black Repertory Theater Company was also good experience.
The bright lights of Broadway lured Williams away. She moved to Brooklyn, N.Y., in June 1993, a month after graduating from college.
``New York is a big internship,'' she said. ``New Yorkers are tough and raw. It's a survival ground. It's true what they say, `If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.' ''
For the first year and a half, Williams worked as an aerobics instructor, a secretarial temp and a telemarketer while she waited for jobs as an extra in television, film and commercials.
``It was pretty tough at first,'' she admitted. ``Many nights I sat up and cried and said, `It's gotta get better than this.' No way was I going to turn around and go home.''
Her first big break came in November of 1994 when she landed a part as a principal dancer in the as-yet-unreleased movie ``Let It Be Me,'' with Patrick Stewart and Jennifer Beales. With the $8,000 she made in two months of filming she was finally able to pay her bills and have some money left.
Since then she has danced at the Apollo with rapper Heavy D and the Boyz and appeared in the videos for Mariah Carey and TLC. She helped choreograph the video of the R&B group Brownstone.
In ``Your Arms Too Short,'' Williams is a part of the chorus ensemble. She gets to dance, sing and act. She is proud to have one of the few speaking roles in the almost all-singing show.
``The play is meant to inspire,'' Williams said. ``It was taken from the book of Matthew in the Bible. It's about the crucifixion of Christ. It tells who he was, what he did and his mission. He came to save the world. It takes you back from modern-day times to biblical days. I'm a born-again Christian. It's nice to do something that my life is really about.''
Williams was hired by the show's writer-director, Vinnette Carroll, after Williams auditioned and got a call-back.
Williams is adapting to life on the road in this, her first touring show.
``It can be tiresome, living out of your suitcase,'' she said. ``Most days we travel and perform the same day. We sleep for three to four hours and then get on stage.''
Since opening the show in August, they have performed in places like Los Angeles, Detroit, Chicago and Oakland.
``Teddy and Stephanie are the most beautiful people,'' Williams said. They're very open-hearted. They don't act like it's them and us, even though they have celebrity names. It hits me every now and then that I'm on a first-name basis with people that I used to look up to.''
The show has been well-received. The tour is tentatively planned to end with a five-week run at the Beacon Theater in New York in August.
At that time Williams plans to move to Los Angeles to continue shopping around her demo in search of a record deal and keep looking for work in film and television. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Tiffany Williams has known she's a performer since childhood, in
summer camp.
by CNB