His birth certificate says Pouce Coupe and his resumé says New York, but Neil Giroday’s heart has always listed Powell River as home.
After two decades living and working on the East Coast, the locally-raised dancer, singer, actor and champion figure skater has headed back west to share his knowledge and spend more time with family.
“I’m going to be spending about 10 days a month in Powell River,” he said. The remainder of each month will be spent working in Vancouver. “I’m getting to the age where I can’t dance anymore and I’ve always wanted to teach. I think there’s no better place to hand down craft than in your hometown.”
This will be the first time Giroday has lived in Powell River since he was 14. “I was a competitive figure skater when I was a teenager, from 11 to 21, and I moved to Vancouver to get more intensive training,” he said.
The move paid off. When he did return for holidays, he’d often come in the door with a medal around his neck. In 1975, Giroday won silver at the Canada Winter Games. In 1980 he won gold in Junior Men’s at the Canadian Figure Skating Championships and was named to Canada’s international skating team. Another award named him Most Artistic Skater in British Columbia.
During that time, he became increasingly drawn toward acting, as well. “I’d always wanted to do musical theatre since I was a little kid,” he said. “My skating coach in Vancouver was very strict. Once a year I was allowed to do one play or musical after the Canadian Championships because we had a slight break. Otherwise, she would not let me have time off to rehearse, which really bugged me.”
When he was 22, Giroday moved to New York to pursue his dream. He studied acting at HB Studio with William Hickey and Carol Rosenfeld, later spending two years at the Circle in the Square professional workshop. “And then I stumbled into Lynn Simonson’s dance class,” he said. “She kind of took me under her wing.”
Simonson is famous for a technique used in 22 countries around the world, and one that Giroday intends to bring to musical theatre students in Powell River. “It teaches plumb line alignment and body awareness and how to work somatically so that you’re caring for your body while still doing the work that the audience needs to see,” he said.
Giroday and Simonson remained close throughout his time in New York, and in 2012 he enrolled in her teacher-training course. “I had planned to come back to the West Coast then and start teaching but Lynn put me on substitute faculty at her studio and then she put me on faculty six months later,” said Giroday. “I stayed just to get the experience but also I was so thrilled that she would give me that opportunity.”
Other career highlights have included performances as Alonzo, Skimbleshanks and Mr. Mistoffelees during five years with the Vienna, Zurich and touring productions of Cats. “I was young when I first did it and the audiences just went crazy,” he said. “There would be 30 people waiting out back every night and giving us gifts and making us sweaters.”
As his dance career slowed down, Giroday shifted his focus toward acting for stage and screen.
“Sometime in the mid- to late-’90s it clicked in my brain—‘I need to pass this on,’” he said. “By then I’d been studying the Meisner Technique in acting and I saw that, wow, he’s broken it down to such simple steps that anyone can approach this and find some kind of performer in themselves.”
This fall, Giroday will be offering workshops and private classes at Powell River Academy of Music. Three have been confirmed so far (Intensive Acting Technique, Movement for Actors and Singers, and Acting Your Song, Monologue or Speech) and more may be added in the coming weeks.
“I’m excited to work with kids in all different styles of theatre,” he said. “My hope is that we can only grow the performance program, to make their work better than it is already, to give them everything that we can.”
To enrol in one of Giroday’s classes, readers can contact the academy at 604.485.9633 or visit online.
