In this episode of Back and Forth, host, Cara Hagan sits down with Deidre Lang, one of the original Fly Girls from the 90's TV show, In Living Color. Conversation ranges from Lang's work on Broadway in shows like Ragtime, and The Lion King to roles in touring companies and in the Rock of Ages at the Venetian, in Vegas, to being an artist while raising two daughters.
In this episode of Back and Forth, host, Cara Hagan sits down with Deidre Lang, one of the original Fly Girls from the 90's TV show, In Living Color. Conversation ranges from Lang's work on Broadway in shows like Ragtime, and The Lion King to roles in touring companies and in the Rock of Ages at the Venetian, in Vegas, to being an artist while raising two daughters.
INTRO: Welcome to How People Move People, a podcast about the impact that our words, art, stories, and lives have on each other. Each series' journey unfolds in a sequence of six episodes. The first series titled ‘Back and Forth’ is hosted by Cara Hagan, a New York City-based choreographer, professor and mother who explores the influence of pop culture on the lives of black girls, from the 1990s to today. Guests range from poets and thought-leaders to mom-and-daughter teams, to an original Fly Girl from the Wayans Brothers hit ‘90s TV show, “In Living Color.”
CARA HAGAN: Hello friends, and welcome to back and Forth, a podcast about pop culture and the kinetic lives of Black girls. This episode is super special. I’m fangirling over here because my guest today is a HUGE part of why I wanted to dance as a kid and I am not alone. You might remember in an earlier episode, Dr. Julie Johnson mentioning how impactful this person and her fellow dancers have been to her. You may have seen her on Broadway; in shows like Ragtime, and The Lion King. You may have seen her in Vegas in the Rock of Ages at the Venetian and like me, you may have been introduced to her work on a little television show called In Living Color, where she was one of the original Fly Girls, which is why she's here today. My eight-year-old self is having a moment. And if you grew up as part of my generation, I hope you are too. Welcome, Deidre Lang.
DIEDRE LANG: Hi! how are you?
CARA HAGAN: So good to have you!
DIEDRE LANG: Thank you for having me. I'm happy to be here.
CARA HAGAN: And so, you're a mover and a shaker. You've been in the performing arts industry for a long time. You're also an entrepreneur, which is another important way that Black girls and women move through the world. So, I want to know where little Deidre got the inspiration to become the woman we know and admire today. What were you watching? What were you listening to that ignited a spark in you to pursue the paths that you've pursued?
DIEDRE LANG: Okay. Well, it's probably I don't want to give my age. But like, when I was a, I'm saying, I would say about seven or eight, I used to I knew I wanted to be a dancer, I guess I was just, you know, back then, you know, in the early like, I guess like 70s, or whatever, 80s. We didn't have all this social media and everything. But we did have TV, you know. So, I would watch I got into watching like old movies, like back when I was like, nine-ten, around that age, maybe even younger, maybe like six. And I just remember, they used to have those movie marathons back in the day with the old movies. And I used to like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers and Gene Kelly, and all those movies, so they would come on TV. And a lot of times it would come on, like at eleven o'clock at night, and it would be a marathon. So, I would go to bed and I knew it was coming on. And I would ask my mother to wake me up, so I can watch those shows. So, I will get up in the middle of the night and watch all those movies like every you know, every day. I mean, like every night. So that was one of the right after I started watching those movies, I knew I was like, I want to be a dancer. I want to be a singer. I want to go to Broadway. I knew everything. And so, my mother knew that that's what I wanted to do. So, she started taking me to you know, I lived in Jersey, so it was easy to get to New York City. So, I would uh, she would take trips, you know, to New York and I would go see Broadway shows. I think the first one of my first Broadway shows that I saw was Evita and Dancin’, and the other one that really touched me with Ain't Misbehavin. Oh, I don't know if you remember that show. Um, so I started seeing those shows. And I was told my mother, I want to be a performer. And she put me in dance lessons and singing lessons. And the rest is history.
CARA HAGAN: Yeah, yeah. And I think so many of us can relate. I mean, I grew up watching those movies, too [Lang: Mmmh] And certainly, a huge influence in terms of my own dance path. And so I want to know, what is your favorite Golden Age of Hollywood movie?
DIEDRE LANG: I think I used to love On the Town, remember On the Town with Gene Kelly. I love that movie. And then I just watched the so many Fred Astaire movies, I watched Top Hat, I think it was Top Hat. Uh And I can't remember the other names. But that's one of the ones I really remember. And then there were the movies, the Black, you know, the Black Golden Age movies that I would watch, like Cabin in the Sky and all these different ones [Hagan: Oh Yes] With Lena Horne. So those really like, you know, got me going.
CARA HAGAN: Yeah [Lang: Mmmh] And so, in terms of talking about the Fly Girls, which was one of my biggest influences also. Uh so just tell us a little bit about how that happened. Like, how did you end up on this show?
DIEDRE LANG: So, the I, right out of high school, we, I did gotta show with Maurice Hines. You know, Gregory Hines brother. So actually, let me go back a little bit further. Right out of high school, I got accepted into Alvin Ailey as a dancer. So, I went to that went there. It was a scholarship program but I didn't stay because I'm, you know, I'm a singer and dancer. I'm a singer as well and as an actress. So, I was in the school for the dance program. But I but after we'd be out of dance program, I'd be going to auditions I'm looking in like they have this paper after the Backstage paper. Remember that paper? [Hagan: Yes] So I look in the Backstage paper and I was like, what can I do? I want to audition I want to do stuff, you know, so I auditioned for Bubbling Brown Sugar and umm ended up getting it. And I got that show at eighteen years old, went over to Europe did that show when I was like the youngest one in the audience, I mean, in the in the company. Went over there and did that. When I came back, I worked at Walt Disney World, I got a job at Walt Disney World. Started doing that. And then I got Cats. But after, after I did Cats, I did a show with Maurice Hines, Gregory Hines brother, and it brought me to LA. So, we did that show for a little bit. And it was a little weird, because the producer stopped paying us. So, we're all so all of us, it's crazy. Long story. But so, we're all over in LA, all of us the whole cast. So, we were like, well, maybe we'll just stay in LA, you know, see what we can get going in LA, you know…So I got an agent out in LA. And I think it was like maybe two, two weeks later, I got an audition from my agent for a show that was going to be it was a pilot that was going to be on TV, and they were looking for dancers and they were looking for and I wasn't a Hip Hop dancer at the time. I was technically trained dancer: ballet, tap, jazz [Hagan: Yeah]. So I went to the audition, and I think there were maybe the most, it was like maybe twenty, twenty girls or something like that at the audition. And so, we get so we get in there I do the audition, and Keenen Ivory Wayans is there. At the time I didn't know who he was, you know. So, we do the audition and I get a call that I got it. And it was a pilot, you know, so it wasn't nobody knew it was gonna be big or anything. Nobody knew what it was gonna be. So, we got the audition. And they were like, lady named Carla Earl was our choreographer at the time. So, they they say it's we're looking for technically trained dancers, but we're gonna teach them how to do Hip Hop. And at that time, you know, Hip Hop was so new, I didn't know I didn't know what Hip Hop was. But I was like, hey, I'm trained. I can like, I can do it. I can teach me whatever you can teach me, I'll do it, you know, so we get in there. There's like, they hired five of us. And it was all Black girls, actually, at the time. So, we do the pilot, then the pilot ended up getting picked up. So, we had to go back and audition again. This time, they were like, “This is gonna be huge,” you know, so we go back to audition. And there's like, three hundred girls, rather than twenty girls, there's three hundred girls, because they're like, this is going to be picked up. So, we got picked up, but the producers didn't want just Black girls, you know. It was like Fox TV, they were like, “We need this to be a melting pot.” So, everybody, when we look at TV, you know, you're gonna see somebody that you can relate to, you know, so they got all different shapes, not shapes, but you know, all different dancer, colors and everything. So, we so we ended up with an Asian girl, two Black girls, one white girl. Three Black girls. So, it was um, yes. So, it was nice. And that's how kind of how I got involved in it. And it stayed on the air from 1989 to like, 1995, we played. And throughout the years, people came like, you know, Jennifer Lopez came in, Carrie Ann Inaba was there from the beginning. Girls came and went, you know, and they called, they used to call me the OG like, I remember Keenen used to always say, “Diedre the OG” because I stayed from the beginning to the end. I was like, I'm not leaving this. This is a good thing. What am I gonna leave for? You know?
CARA HAGAN: Yeah. But yeah, I mean, I called you the OG too
DIEDRE LANG: Mmmh. I stayed there from the beginning to the end. It was a great gig. I just remember, we would be rehearsing in one room, and then you'd have the actors right next door. And they always had the craft services. The craft services was the food [Hagan: Yeah] You know, and all we really skinny girls, but it breaks we were like, “Let's go get some food.” And we go over there and watch them do their comedy. And yeah, it was fun. It was a fun time.
CARA HAGAN: Yeah. So, what was the significance of being on a network television show with Black creatives at the helm? I mean, that was not that common at the time.
DIEDRE LANG: Right. Yeah, especially like a comedy show like that. You had like, Saturday Night-- Saturday Night Live, I think was the only one [Hagan: Yeah yeah]. So just being part of that it was kind of like a legacy thing you know. Having somebody running the show that was like my brother, you know what I mean? And we did get to be family you know. So, it was great having him and he and he took us, you know, on as like, his family. He made sure that we didn't like, you know, that we were treated right: that we looked good that we weren't like, you know, looked over because we weren't dancers we weren't you know, like the producers did try to do that sometimes, too. It was like, you know, the dancers are down here, the actors are up here, you know. But he made sure that we got treated right and he really, you know, wanted wanted us to look good. You know, especially as you know, most of us will the cast was Black, you know [Hagan: Yeah] so as Black people as Black women he wanted us to have a great life out there.
CARA HAGAN: Yeah. And I mean, they succeeded, for sure. I mean, yeah, still, even today, I'm thinking my, my childhood self in 1995. I mean, I still think of the Fly Girls with such reverence for lack of a better word [Lang: Awww], in terms of just inspirations for a young girl of color to see other women of color [Lang: Right] doing really amazing work in this really big way. Right? [Lang: Yeah] I mean, obviously, there was the sketch comedy, which was great. You know, they were amazing comedians, and I can appreciate it more as an adult in ways that I obviously couldn't as a child [Lang: Right] but because dance is this universal language, I was hooked from the beginning [Lang: Right, right] you know? [Lang: Yeah] And so, like, how, in what ways have you been made aware of the importance of your presence on that show, throughout your career?
DIEDRE LANG: Umm basically, fans and family like I remember, you know, my family didn't, you know, didn't have anybody that they saw on TV, first of all, so I just know that it, you know, it gave them kind of a sense of pride to have a cousin or a sister, you know, dark skin, sister, you know, on TV. And I remember that, every time I go to visit, they'd be like my cousin Deidre. She's on In Living Color, you know, and they'd want to take me to, you know, meet their friends and everything. So, I know that a lot of young, Black females, babies, little girls just loved the fact that they had me to look up to, you know. And I, and I love that, you know, I just, I just want to make an impact, especially, you know, on on my people, you know, I would love I wanted to make an impact, and I'm glad that I got to do that. And it's funny, too, because In Living Color, was gonna go back on the air. You know, they were doing Keenen was in auditions to have new, you know, new Fly Girls, a whole new cast. And I remember seeing him on TV, they went through the whole process and everything. And they ended up not doing it, because he was like, it's not going to be as good. You know, it's just not, I don't want to if it's not going to be done, right, I don't want to do it. So, it's like, so it's nice to know that I have a legacy that they'll never be other Fly Girls. It'll just be you know, us.
CARA HAGAN: No, it's just you all and how beautiful [Lang: Yeah. Really good *laughs*] So I want to switch gears a little bit, because you're also a parent [Lang: Right] And I told you that I'm also a parent, but also but in the very beginning of my journey with a toddler. But I'm always curious to ask other artist parents, how you managed to juggle this amazing career that you've had with the needs of your family? [Lang: Yeah,] yeah. How do you do it?
DIEDRE LANG: It can be done. I mean, it's very hard. It was hard, because, um, when my kids were, maybe like about four, and five, four, I have two daughters, four and six, when they were around four and six, you know, I, we were living in Florida at the time, and I got the show Hairspray. And I didn't, you know, and I didn't want to leave them. I was going it was the road company. But at the time we needed, we needed jobs. My husband's an actor, too. And, um, you know, it was a good opportunity. And it was it was hard. And I had to leave them, you know, and they were babies. But my husband said, go ahead and go do what you have to do. So, it's good. You got to have support system. I had my, my husband who's an actor, too. And he knew this was a good opportunity. And he said, go ahead and do it. I've got the babies. I remember he had to do their hair, and one time he came to pick me up and he was like, I had to teach them how to do their hair. And he I taught them how to put their hair up in like little bun on the top. And I remember one time they came to pick me up at the airport, and they came running to me I was like, “Oh no, what'd he do to my kids hair? Look at them. They're like crazy.” But anyway, but he ended up we ended up finding somebody that could do their hair so that worked out. But umm there was one there was one time I was out in hair doing Hairspray and they were home, and I remember I was really sad. It was like hard leaving them and I was on stage and it's like for like a whole month I cried on stage. And one of the one of my one of the ladies in the show, she was like “D go get your babies go home take a break.” So, I went home. I stayed home for a little bit. And then one of the the cast members—this is a little girl in a show— and her mom was out there and her mom said I understand she said, I will watch your kids, you go with Kiana to work, and I'll watch the babies and they can be with you. So, I bought them on road with me. So, they went on the road with me for like a year and a half. So I had my family, I had a situation where, you know, I could watch them, my mother would come out sometimes, so, but I'm lucky to have my parents, like, both my parents are still alive, and they helped me, you know, so if I would go out on the road, they would come stay at our house, and they would watch the kids and, you know, if my husband was out on the road and I wasn't working. So, we just kind of, you know, kind of tag team because he's an actor, too [Hagan: Yeah] So, the thing is, it can be done, it's hard. And I know that they, you know, some things they feel like they missed out on, you know, they'll even tell me, “Mommy, you were not here. You know, that's why I'm screwed up or whatever.” But anyway, you know, everybody's got a little dysfunction in their family, but we made it work. And we love each other. And you know, now they're like, both of my daughters are twenty-twenty, twenty and twenty-two [Hagan: Yeah] So…
CARA HAGAN: So obviously, having you for a mom is a unique thing, not everybody goes out on the road with their parent, in a performing arts type of us in a performing arts type of way. And so I'm wondering, when your kids were growing up, what did you feel like it was important to expose them to in terms of the things that inspired you or that fostered their interests?
DIEDRE LANG: Yeah, they, um, well, they definitely got to travel [Hagan: Yeah] you know, that's one thing a lot of kids, you know, don't get to do and they, they went with me on the road, they got to go to different cities, they got to go to different countries. So, I just wanted to, you know, let them experience life outside of where they, you know, live and where they, you know, do their thing. It's like, yeah, they had a good time growing up, you know, they got to see a lot of things you know [Hagan: Yeah, that’s so special] So I got exposed them to that. Yeah.
CARA HAGAN: And so, switching gears once more. I mean, you're an entrepreneur. Tell me a little bit about your entrepreneur-entrepreneurial practice [Lang: Yeah] And how you move through the world with that?
DIEDRE LANG: Yeah. Ever since I was young, like, even when I was doing Fly Girls, I was always getting into something else. Like I had a travel agency I had, I did a couple of multilevel marketing businesses. So, I just always, and I think that my mother instilled that in me, because I always saw her doing businesses. And right now, I'm actually a talent manager, you know. So, since COVID, what happened was when COVID happened, you know, I was on the road, I was actually actually on Broadway with Lion King. And I had went out there to do a stint on Broadway with Lion King during the role of Sarabi. And then COVID hit, and then I had to come home. So, we all came home. So, we, so I remember thinking, oh, shoot, what are we gonna do? You know, I don't want to sit here eating and get fat. And, you know, so we, a friend of mine, we decided to put together a talent management company, you know, give back so there's like, a lot of young kids especially I live in Vegas, a lot of young kids. So, so many talented kids. And the way it came about is one of my cousins, she, there was a young lady that she heard she was working with her dad, and she said, “D, you ever think about being an agent, you know, so and so needs, you know, help? Can you help her?” So that happened, and then somebody else came to me and said, “She needs help. And then she needs help.” So, I was like, is this god telling me that maybe this is the way I'm supposed to go? You know, so we ended up putting together a talent management company. And now right now we have about eight clients. And they're young. I like working with younger people just starting out, you know, and we not only do we just help them get jobs, but we it's kind of like a talent development, where we help them with everything with their picking out songs, you know, working on scenes, all types of things, getting their pictures done, it's kind of like, you know, we're kind of like family, so they can call us like, at any time that they want. So um, so that's what we're working on right now. And, and I got some other things I'm working on too. But that's like the main, the main thing right now that we're concentrating on, and it's going pretty good.
CARA HAGAN: Good [Lang: Yeah] And in terms of like, what kind of jobs and things you're helping to book them? Is this all commercial work? Or are there different kinds of things that you're doing?
DIEDRE LANG: Yeah, it's anything dealing with the entertainment industry, like commercials, TV, film. Most of most of our kids or young adults are in not only young adults, I'm working with seniors too. So with everybody, but the young ones that I'm working with, mostly want to go to Broadway. And that, you know, that's like my expertise, is Broadway. So, I know I know. From you know, from my years of doing Broadway shows we have good relationships with casting directors, with agents with, you know, I can call some of my casting directors from when I was like twenty years old, Hey, young lady, you know, you kind of hear her sing, and I'll just send them a video and they're like, um, send her in, you know. So, it's like, it's good. And then my my partner Anika Ellis-Mungan, she's the same way. She did Color Purple back in the day with LaChanze and all those guys. And she did Sweet Charity, you know, so we both have extensive background in Broadway. You know, so she so both of us have great relationships. So that's kind of how it came about. Because I was already doing it for my friends. Like if I was doing a job and and something opened up, I'm like, hmm, this friend, let me call it let me call them and see if they're, you know, available. And I call the casting director and I'd get them auditions. So, it's like, I'm already doing that. So kind of like a, you know, it seems like that's just the way I'm supposed to kind of roll right now. And I still perform, you know, so that's another thing. I'm still in there. But I'm also helping, you know.
CARA HAGAN: Yeah, I, you know, what you talk about there is this, the way that when you're young, they say don't burn any bridges, these people will come up in your life again, and again, and again. And you just demonstrated that so perfectly [Lang: Yeah] That, you know, the people that you meet are the people that you keep on meeting.
DIEDRE LANG: right? Yeah. And if you're a, you know, you're a nice person, and you go in there just to you know, to do the work and grow, they remember you, you know, and you. And all along your journey, you can just call them and be like, hey, what's up, you know. So yeah, don't burn bridges, kids [Laughs].
CARA HAGAN: And so I'd love to know, at this point in your career, um you know, I think a lot of us who are in the arts kind of think about, okay, one day, I'm going to be quote, unquote, an elder in the field [Lang: Right] What does that mean to you in terms of being somebody who's had all the experience that you've had still performing, making space to help others, like, what do you think at the end of the day, is the significance of that and the takeaway of that for you?
DIEDRE LANG: Yeah, um, at the end of the day, you just want to, you know, you want to do do good, you want, you know, people to say, “she was a great person, and you know, and she helped out,” you know, I just want to my thing right now is I just really, really want to help people, you know, because we live in a crazy time right now. So this is all about people being family, you know, and just helping out. And, um, yeah, I just, I just want people to recognize me as somebody that, um, you know, helped and did a good job. And, you know, like, we were saying didn't Don't burn bridges, and you know, have, you know, happy family life. Yeah. Does that make sense? [That makes sense.] Okay. Yeah…
CARA HAGAN: [Laughs] So my last question to you is really geared towards some of the young folks that we're having on this podcast I've got [Lang: Ok]. This is an intergenerational podcast, and I'm speaking to folks of in all walks of their lives. And so for the young folks, for the young women who are going out into the world, whether they describe themselves as movers, like dancers or not, and are moving through the world in different ways. What advice do you have for them?
DIEDRE LANG: Yeah, I would just say just, if it's something if it's your follow your passion, first of all, it's like, don't go out there and do something that you know, you're just doing just ‘cause you see somebody else over there doing it. If it's in your heart to do it, go for it. And then and be ready. You know, it, there's no rush, especially when you're young, like I tell people, you know, you don't have to rush go ahead and be ready, get work on your craft. Take the classes, do everything you want to you need to do. So, when you go in there, you exude the confidence that you need to get the job or whatever, whatever it is, you want to do that that can be in like, performing or it can be entrepreneurship, whatever career path you take, just be ready. Just prepare yourself, you know, and then, you know, just to have an open heart and, and there's going to be a lot of rejection, you know, along the way. But like, right now, it's funny, ‘cause I auditioned a lot for commercials, and it's out. It's crazy, because when I was a kid, when I was like, twenty-twenty-two, I didn't get a whole lot of commercial auditions. And now I'm in my fifties. And it's like, I'd get like, five auditions a day, you know. So, there's gonna be you know, there's rejection, you go in there and you're gonna audition and you may not get that gig, you know. But you keep doing it actually, like the audition, think of the auditioning as the job. Then I get your mind off of like, “I have to have this gig, I gotta get it.” And then when it comes, it comes. So just keep doing the work. That's that's what I would basically say, do the work that you need and feel confident and happy about the work that you're doing.
CARA HAGAN: Sage advice. Thank you so much [Lang: Yeah uhhah] Well, Deidre Lang so good to have you on the podcast today [Lang: Thank you] Thank you for your time. Thank you for your wisdom. [Lang: This was fun] Yeah. And I wish you well on all of your future endeavors. And the eight-year-old me is still fan-girling.
DIEDRE LANG: Yay. I know. Sometimes I'll go back and watch some of the old videos. I'm like, that was me. I was good.
CARA HAGAN: You were good [Both Lang and Hagan laugh].
Thanks for joining us today. Catch our last episode next, where I chat with media scholar Lisa Covington and two young girls all about their lives and what they’re into.
OUTRO: How People Move People, is brought to you by The National Center of Choreography at The University of Akron, or NCCAkron. This podcast is produced by Jennifer Edwards, James Sleeman is our editor, theme music by Ellis Rovin, transcription by Arushi Signh, cover art by Micah Kraus. I am Dacquiri Baptiste, Vice President and COO at Orpheum Theatre Group in Memphis TN, and a proud NCCAkron Board Member. Special thanks to The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation for their continued support of NCCAkron programming like this. To learn more about NCCAkron, please visit us at nccakron.org and follow us on Instagram or Facebook @nccakron. We hope you enjoyed this episode and encourage you to subscribe on your favorite podcast streaming platform by searching for How People Move People.