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Catapult Entertainment, Adam Battelstein’s silhouette-style dance troupe, is one of the final 12 contestants on 'America’s Got Talent.'
TORRINGTON, Conn. — A leap of faith took Adam Battelstein’s dance company out of the shadows and into the limelight.
Catapult Entertainment, Battelstein’s silhouette-style dance troupe, has landed among the final 12 contestants on “America’s Got Talent,” where they are one of the favorites to vie for the $1 million first prize and a chance to headline a show in Las Vegas.
Making the magic the audience sees at Radio City Music Hall — and millions see at home — is far from a one-man show. The 10 dancers in the troupe contort their bodies into shapes that create synchronized silhouettes projected from behind the big screen to tell a story in just 90 seconds.
“One of the most freeing parts of doing this work is that when I sit down to think about a story, I can let myself go anywhere and just let my imagination run wild,” Battelstein told the Daily News during a Catapult rehearsal in Torrington last week. “I’m always thinking, ‘Can we be under water?’ or ‘Can a baby appear in someone’s arms without anybody seeing how it happened?’ ”
After Catapult’s touching dance dedicated to the children slain in the Newtown school massacre, the celebrity judges raved.
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“To see the circle of life that these children who we lost in Connecticut will never have and you depicted it ... it’s just amazing. I have no words,” said Howie Mandel.
“You guys are on a different level of imagination,” said Heidi Klum. “It is so beautiful to watch you guys go behind that screen.”
“It’s very hard to get me emotional — you did,” said Howard Stern, the show’s most discerning judge. “Your story came through crisp and clear. You are just phenomenal talents. You stole the show tonight.”
The News got a behind-the-screen look at a Catapult rehearsal, where the dedicated team spends up to 12 hours dancing in the dark in a cluttered third-floor studio.
From backbends to forward tumbles and arm extensions, the dancers depend on one another to create images such as a human seesaw or a towering dragon.
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“I think we’re pushing the limits with the storytelling and finding out that it’s not just a magic trick, it’s about metaphor that resonates with an audience,” Battelstein said.
While the focus of the act is on body movement, makeshift props strengthen the performance using unsuspecting objects — a dragon tale is made from a pool noodle, blades for a helicopter are clad in duct tape, while cardboard cutouts create a city skyline to lend movement to a scene in just half a second.
“I do a lot of Dumpster-diving for my materials because we’re on a limited budget,” said Catapult’s prop artist William Giese, 57, whose sometimes tiny pieces can loom large on screen.
Battelstein’s near-psychotic ambition motivated him to found the company on a shoestring budget in 2008 when he was between jobs. “When I started the company I had no support or staff, no dancers, no screen, no projector, really nothing that I would need to do this,” Battelstein said.
Chasing a dream isn’t cheap. Pushing to win “America’s Got Talent” has put Battelstein up to $100,000 in debt.
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“I’m more famous — and more broke — now than I’ve ever been in my life because of how much it costs to produce one of these,” he said.
That dedication goes for the troupe, too.
“A lot of us have sacrificed our work, gotten fired from jobs as trainers and deferred grad schools because we’ve given up so much of our time, but we’re making it happen,” said a determined Jaime Verazin, 28, of Sunnyside, Queens, who has danced with Catapult since its inception. “We certainly never expected to have this exposure so quickly.”
“I had a consistent teaching job in the East Village that I had to give up to keep doing this,” said Jason Stotz, 27, an East Village native who has been with the company for a year. “And my personal training clients had to be put on hold for a while.”
John Eden, 28, who hails from the Financial District, deferred grad school at Columbia University in hopes of making it big with Catapult. “I was torn, certainly,” he said, “but this is more of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
Even if the team doesn’t win “America’s Got Talent,” the show won’t be an end for Catapult.
“The goal,” Battelstein said, “is to get our own show where we could really produce some fantastical things that come out of our imagination and play.”
Catapult’s silhouettes take center stage again at 9 p.m. on Tuesday at Radio City Music Hall and NBC.
jsettembre@nydailynews.com
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