The Silhouettes shadow dance troupe returns to Paramount Theatre for show with Cedar Rapids native director

CEDAR RAPIDS — A Cedar Rapids dancer and performing artist is returning home with her troupe for an encore.

The Silhouettes, a shadow dance act led by founder Lynne Waggoner-Patton, will soon return for the first time since 2012 with the show that has captivated the nation through multiple appearances on America’s Got Talent, as well as a residency show at The Luxor in Las Vegas.

Now, 14 years after their debut as a first-runner up on “America’s Got Talent” in 2011, and a return as the Golden Buzzer Act on “America’s Got Talent: Champions” in 2020, she is bringing it back to the city that started her journey.

“The reason I am where I am today is because of the opportunities Cedar Rapids gave me,” said Waggoner-Patton. “I wouldn’t have had the experiences, knowledge or training if I hadn’t grown up in Cedar Rapids.”

She also hopes to perform live for her father, 89, at least one more time after his foundational support through the successes and failures that led her to where she is now.

With its return to the Paramount Theatre on Oct. 19, the show offers a theme of “Love Happens,” a family-friendly act demonstrating different types of love — love of family, children, the arts, animals, chocolate and more.

“We have comedy, we have drama, we have intrigue — all the emotions are there,” Waggoner-Patton told The Gazette. “We performed in Butte, Montana, last night, and people were sobbing through the emotion that blasts through.”

At this showing, The Silhouettes’ cast of children and teenagers will be accompanied by Orchestra Iowa’s Discovery Chorus, led by director Amy Hanisch. The custom performance will incorporate fourth, fifth and sixth grade singers on stage for a new shadow finale as they sing “Home.”

A portion of ticket proceeds will benefit underprivileged children in Discovery Chorus and Tanager Place, continuing the troupe’s tradition of supporting various charities including those for veterans, muscular dystrophy, children’s cancer research, Type 1 diabetes and mental illness.

But there are plenty of other reasons to be captivated by the troupe, first formed in 2009. A layered approach to shadow dancing develops each character and their story line with a unique form of engagement as members of the audience try — and sometimes fail — to predict what each shadow is trying to form.

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After years of doing it, the shadow-based show is hard for even its founder to describe. For the uninitiated, “shadow puppet” doesn’t quite captivate the number of sensations a group of young dancers convey with each scene’s story.

“It’s indescribable,” she said. “We’re not speaking, but we’re speaking with our bodies.”

The founder defines her audiences’ captivation as “the difference between a movie and a book.” In a book, a brief description of each character’s physical traits prescribes at least part of what they look like.

“In shadow work, everybody can relate to the shadows because they can’t see (the details.) Everybody is the same color shadow,” she said. “They can put themselves into that role because they have felt all these emotions in the show. They can become involved in the stories.”

“For me, it’s to honor everybody in Cedar Rapids. For me, it’s about giving back,” Waggoner-Patton said. “If you stop giving back, you stop getting.”

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How it happened

Waggoner-Patton, now a resident of Montana, left Cedar Rapids in 1987 after attending Kirkwood Community College and Coe College as a vocal music education major. She subsequently studied dance more intensively after a move to Denver, Colorado.

In Colorado, she planned to finish her bachelor’s degree. After funding for her degree dried up, she moved to a suburb of Denver, where she founded a dance studio in 1992.

The Silhouettes, first founded in 2009, were discovered after a Denver-based entertainment company saw news coverage of their performance at a local event and asked to book them for corporate clients. By October 2010, they were discovered by “America’s Got Talent” and asked to audition for the popular NBC show.

With concerns for the well-being of her young cast, Waggoner-Patton declined audition requests three times before she agreed.

In the show’s sixth season, they placed second out of over 100,000 acts.

In 2020, they returned for “America’s Got Talent: Champions,” where acts from the show’s franchises across the world compete again in the United States. The Silhouettes won the “Golden Buzzer” from judge Alesha Dixon, expediting their advancement in the competition, where they placed in the Top 10.

Since then, they’ve performed across the United States and the world.

The Silhouette’s residency show at The Luxor in Las Vegas ran from November 2021 to January 2024.

Comments: Features reporter Elijah Decious can be reached at (319) 398-8340 or elijah.decious@thegazette.com.