A choreographer talk about working with Diana.
Vincent Paterson published this book in France in 2018. I don't think it was published in the US or elsewhere.
He worked with Michael Jackson, Madonna, staged a major show in LA with Barbra Streisand, Elton John, Minnelli, Patti Labelle and others...
Quote:
Vincent Paterson just released his own autobiography and will be available on September 5th so far only in France. The book is called “Icônes et Instincts” will tell you everything you need to know about Vincent and his extraordinary career working with Bjork, Madonna and of course Michael Jackson
I'v done my best to translate, with the help of google translate.
He talk about Diana three time in the book. As a child watching The Supremes, during the Pieces of Ice clip and in 1989.
"The third and last experience I shared with Diana was in the late 1980s when she called me to ask me to choreograph and stage her new world tour. She had seen Michael Jackson's Bad Tour, and obviously they had talked about it. I was taken to Connecticut. We were in my beautiful, spacious room overlooking her lush estate. My concept was to make Diana appear as a Lady Day, performing moving songs like Good Morning Heartache and Strange Fruit, perhaps accompanied by a saxophone and double bass.
I admired Diana so much. I wanted to create an evening that would include not only her most popular songs but also songs that she didn't usually perform in her concerts. I spent several weeks in L.A. creating this show. The orchestra rehearsed in one room while the dancers and backup singers worked with me in another room. Diana called me to make sure everyone was working hard and to let me know that she would be in L.A. soon to learn the show. Everyone was happy. Even more so, her managers, the music director, the backup singers, the musicians and the dancers, all were over the moon. Everyone who knew Diana and had worked with her for years told me that this was exactly what she needed to revitalize her career as a female superstar. The show was fresh and gave both traditional and new fans what they were expecting, as well as some electrifying surprises. Apparently, all this excitement was arousing her curiosity. She asked me to videotape a rehearsal to give her an idea of what the show looked like. This would allow her to start learning the choreography from a distance. I borrowed a VHS camera and set it up in the rehearsal room. I wanted to show her the basic structure of the concert and the range of musical selections I had made to get her excited. There was a minimum of choreography for her and a lot around to make the show grand. That day, when we finished, I gave the recording to her management team, who made a copy and sent it to her. Three days later, in the studio, there was quite a commotion among the music directors, some of whom were longtime members of the management team. Something was obviously going on, but none of us knew what it was. Finally, I was told that Diana wanted to talk to me on the phone. "Hey, Diana, it's Vincent. How's it going?"
