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The swing shift: Broadway depends on an unsung cadre of dancers who cover the many tracks that make up a hit. Meet the performers who make sure the show goes on.

Article Excerpt
It's called "swingitis," or "a swing moment." And every swing has had one. It happens when a swing, or fill-in dancer in a Broadway musical, has a mental glitch and gets lost on stage. The audience may not even notice that something has gone wrong--swings think fast, and so do the other dancers.

Everyone adjusts, and the show, of course, continues. But not in the same autopilot way.

"Everyone's eyes get really big," says Jennifer Harrison Newman, who has been swinging with The Lion King for three years. "They're looking at you with those big eyes--'What are you doing here? What are you doing here?'"

All dancers run risks on stage. But for swings, who never know whose shoes they'll be filling on any given night, and who must sometimes go on at a moment's notice, danger is a way of life. "It takes a really special mind and emotional makeup," says Rusty Mowery, the dance production supervisor at Hairspray. Jerry Mitchell's choreography doesn't require super technique, he says--"It's five basic '60s steps." But swinging on the show requires super swinging skills, because of the amount of partnering and the subtle differences among the tracks (their pathways onstage and backstage).

Nicole Powell, a Hairspray swing who grew up on Long Island, agrees. "The job...

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