Step It Up and Dance’s Adriana Falcon Dishes on Step, Shrewsbury, and oh yeah, TV’s Jessie Spano

By Sasha Fastovskiy

“I just ducked into a Starbucks to talk to you,” she said. “It’s raining here.” For Adriana Falcon of Bravo TV’s Step It Up and Dance, “here” refers to New York, a ways away from Shrewsbury and neighboring Worcester, where the 25-year-old first started.

“I grew up in Shrewsbury, but I trained at Chickee’s Dance World since I was five,” she explained. “My best friend in kindergarten danced, and I liked it and told my mom.”

The classically trained dancer’s greatest lessons came from those leading the classes.

“I loved watching them teach, and I learned so much from just observing. That made me want to teach too, as soon as I started, I just knew. I was looking through my old school stuff the other day, and I found a little story-book we had to make about ourselves in the first grade, and I wrote that I wanted to be a dancer-slash-teacher.”

–Adriana Falcon, photo credit Mitch Haaseth

Falcon choreographed all-age productions at Holy Name and assisted in after-school dance programs at Belmont St. School. In college, she scored a coveted position as captain of the UMass Amherst Dance Team while she majored in English and secondary education. Shortly afterwards, she moved to New York to continue her dance training.

“It’s so crazy,” Falcon exclaimed, “I come from Shrewsbury – a town, you know what I mean? I’ve been here three years and I’m still learning the subway. It’s all good though, at least I’m learning.”

An internship at Broadway Dancers led to working under Ginger Cox, with whom she now works at LiNK! The Movement, a contemporary jazz company in New York City. “That networking is so important, it set the path for everything,” Falcon said. And this path led her straight to Bravo TV.

“It was a two month long audition process,” Falcon said. “They didn’t show that, but it was really hard work. It was auditions, interviews, more auditions, flying to L.A., showing your personality 100%, meeting with executives, all of that.”

She didn’t seem to sweat it though.

“I have a naturally loud personality,” she shared. “You have to walk in there and capture people’s attention and exude confidence.”

Although she was voted off fairly quickly, it didn’t faze her.

“I have a quote that I live by, ‘”rogress, not perfection, is what we should be asking of ourselves.’ I mean, some people would get really upset if they’re voted off, but it’s such a big progression in my career, putting myself out there.”

Does she still tune in? “Of course I still watch the show! Those people are like my second family.”

I had to ask about the real show-stopper, host Elizabeth Berkley. “She’s had dance training, and she’s a genuinely sweet, nice person. She was always asking how we were. She knows how grueling it is for the body.”

Does Falcon have any advice for up and comers? “For dancers, I’d say take classes, and take lots of them. Lots of diverse styles and lots of preparation. You have to be really versatile. But in general, to be a professional, you have to think of the business of everything. Market yourself as to what your strengths are…I’m 5’2, I’m not gonna be a Rockette, so I gotta think of other ways to focus my personality and talent.”