Carlie Silva has always dreamed big and the New Milford teen got her chance to shine under big city lights when she took part in the new ad campaign for NBC’s latest musical drama, Smash.
It was the chance of a lifetime for the 17-year-old. “I was the youngest one there, and I got to stand in at the top. I was the lead. And it was really, really cool,” Silva said. “There were so many professionals around me and I was just like, ‘I'm in high school, like, I have a math test tomorrow!’”
Her dance teacher, Rebecca Darling, choreographed a still shot for Smash’s promotional campaign.
Carlie stood in at the top of a pyramid of dancers. In the final product, she’s replaced by American Idol standout and Smash star Katharine McPhee.
Darling has been running her own New Milford dance studio, Studio D, for about eight years. She’s worked in the entertainment industry before, but this was one of those rare opportunities to share the experience with her students.
“It was different because I had to have dancers and other staff getting into the positions. And so I had to have it all looking great with people who weren’t even going to be the people in the photo. And then, one by one, we'd take one person out and bring that actor in,” Darling said.
Darling’s dancers said that what made their experience so worthwhile was to see the finished product hanging in Times Square. “To know that I was such like a big part of that is really cool,” Carlie said.
