LG Twin Wash Took On Broadway

If you happened to be in New York City on November 2nd, you may have had the opportunity to see a unique event. LG Twin Wash hired well-known choreographer and member of the Broadway Dance Center, Joshua Borgasse, to create a live version of their newest commercial in an all day event.

I got the opportunity to chat with Josh about the inspiration behind the performance and what people had the opportunity to see if they were in Times Square on that day.

Hi Josh, how are you today?

Fine. Good. How are you?

I'm wonderful and I'm excited to talk to you about this event that you were recently apart of in Time Square. So first, let's talk about how you got involved.

I was actually contacted by LG to create the event to celebrate the launch of the LG Twin Wash. So they told me they wanted to create a live version of this commercial with Times Square as the location.

So for those of you that happened to be in Times Square a few weeks ago (November 2nd), what were some of the things they were able to see and enjoy?

First we had a giant washing maching (about 14 feet tall) and then there were also two 16-feet tall puppets that represent your regular laundry and your delicate laundry. Then we had six dancers with skills ranging from things like Martial Arts and Acrobatics. Then we wanted to make sure everyone in New York would be able to see the performance, so beginning at 9am we had a performance every 90 minutes that was about 5 minutes long.

So this really was an all-day event?

Yes it really was.

So how did you come up with the inspiration for the choreography for the dancers and utilizing skills like Martial Arts and Acrobatics?

A lot of it was inspired by classic musicals like West Side Story in addition to being inspired by LG's Twin Wash commercial. What took the most time was actually figuring out how to get the puppets to do the choreography. With the size of these puppets, it took about six puppeteers to operate them. This was such a team effort to get them to not only try and do simple movements but also the intricate choreography that we wanted them to do.

Now thinking of those puppeteers, I got a little bit of a picture of what you might see with the people carrying the puppets and balloons down the street at something like the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Yes that's exactly right. There were six puppeteers and it really took an army to get those puppets moving. It's not unlike the floats in that parade.

That's exciting. Now were you able to participate in the event and the performance or were you more of a behind-the-scenes figure?

No, I didn't dance this time. I was sitting on the sidelines watching the performers and making sure everything went smoothly. One thing that was really cool to see was that because we had multiple performances, we were able to tweak and make it better as the day went on. We had people in the audience on all sides so as each performance went on we were able to see which angles were the best for audience interaction.

So then I imagine that you had a lot of repeat audience members who got a little bit of a different experience each time they happened to stop by.

It was LIVE theater and so anything could have really happened. With a different audience each time, it made for an interesting and new experience too with their reactions, where they stood, and then how we had to space out from that.

So in addition to the spacing, were their different ways that you could really include the audience and interact with them?

No, it wasn't very interactive in that sense. The choreography was very specific and we wanted to make sure that everything was seen. We rehearsed this for week's and really wanted to showcase the dancer's hard work and complex routines. So our focus was to make sure that everyone was safe while they were performing in Times Square.

So now that the performances have happened where could people go to see video or even learn more about the LG Twin Wash?

You can go to www.lgtwinwash.com.

Here's a sneak peak of what you may have missed in Times Square on November 2nd.