Home >  A & E

Saturday, October 20, 2001

By Jane Vranish, Post-Gazette Dance and Music Critic

The smoke from the World Trade Center disaster still lingers over New York City, but Broadway is alive and well and still kicking, according to Tome Cousin, Pittsburgh native and cast member of "Contact."

	For more information on the Helios Arts class, $12 for intermediate and advanced students, call 412-605-0558.

"It's a crazy period, with new challenges every day," he explains. "We've gone from being nervous and afraid to just being OK, because you can't do anything about it."

"Contact" canceled two performances but then resumed because "we needed to be there, to do something, not just sit around and mope." During those first performances, Cousin said, he could see the pain on the faces of the audience members decked in red, white and blue. "They had to know that it was OK to laugh," he recalls. Standing ovations were met with rousing renditions of "God Bless America."

Cousin is in town to be honored tonight as a distinguished alumnus of Point Park College. He graduated in 1982 and was immediately placed on the teaching staff. He would become a Pittsburgh presence, performing extensively at Hartwood, founding the Physical Theatre Project and appearing as Ragdoll Tome on "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood."

But Cousin had a global vision. He studied with modern dance maven Pina Bausch in Germany, then went on to the national tours of "A Chorus Line" and "Dreamgirls" before landing the role in "Contact."

"It took me a while to feel my way around," he says of his arrival in New York. But now Cousin teaches for Jacques d'Amboise's famed National Dance Institute, which brings movement to inner-city kids. "Everyone can do it," Cousin says. "I'm dyslexic and took movement and music to help me. Now I'm able to help students who might have similar problems."

He also just finished a "Dreamgirls" benefit, as well as six commercials for BRAVO to encourage tourists to "come back to the city."

Cousin has another full schedule this weekend. He will be meeting with publishers about a pictorial history book of Physical Theatre Project, dedicated to co-founder and friend Doug Miklos, who passed away several years ago. He also will teach a master class at Helios Arts, open to the public, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. tomorrow. On Monday he will teach Point Park students choreography from "Contact."

Cousin also has plenty of sage advice for all those young Point Park hopefuls with stars in their eyes. "Pittsburgh has such a strong reputation, with Point Park and Carnegie Mellon," he notes. "That's a big foot in the door."

He tells them to "take any job you can get. You never know who you're working with and where they'll be in 10 years. I've auditioned for former roommates in New York."

Cousin adds, "Absolutely know what your niche is, what you do best. Own that and don't be afraid. They'll like you if you're confident in your mistakes, if you go and take the risk."