EXPAT DRIVE A SERIES DEDICATED TO SHARING STORIES OF LOCALS WHO MOVED ON TO SPREAD THEIR WINGS AND SHARE THEIR GIFTS WITH OTHERS.
Ruby Red Slippers
DANIELLE WADE IS FOLLOWING HER YELLOW BRICK ROAD FROM LASALLE TO NYC By Alley L. Biniarz | Photography: Syx Langemann “Danielle… You’re safe.” Danielle Wade hears these words as she runs back to embrace her group of Dorothys. She’s safe. They’re all safe, for now. The 19-year-old Lasalle local would wait for these words throughout the course of the 2012 CBC reality show Over the Rainbow. The winner of the competition would have the pleasure of playing Dorothy from the classic show Wizard of Oz for the full tour run. The young women relied on viewers’ votes, and eventually the “safe” group dwindled down from 100 Dorothys, to 20. The top 20 girls would fly to Barbados to sing for theatre mogul Andrew Lloyd Webber. What could be scarier than performing for the famous composer responsible for The Phantom of the Opera, Cats, and Evita? Getting locked in his bathroom right before the performance. 52
In this moment, trapped and waiting, all of Danielle’s worries about her performance escaped her. “I was just worried that I’d never make it out alive, but it did help me forget about the audition part,” Danielle tells me from her apartment in Stratford, Ontario. She is running around doing laundry on her day off, and even in the midst of chaos she is incredibly lovely and charming over the phone. “I couldn’t even bang on the door because they were recording. I just prayed that someone had to pee soon! They eventually couldn’t find me, and because I had a microphone on, I started yelling, ‘I’m in the bathroom!’” She laughs, and it is completely infectious. It’s the kind of laugh that immediately brings me into her world. Danielle never let this wholesome kindness of hers fade throughout the competition, even when it came down to
the final two: Danielle and her best friend Stephanie. The two girls hadn’t known each other before the reality show, but became close friends and even lived together after the experience was over. Danielle tells me to watch her face in the final video of the competition. The two girls have so many features in common, which is something that makes these competitions so difficult. Either girl could win. But as the two stood hand-in-hand, Danielle tells me that she wanted Stephanie to win. “We only had one vote, and I used mine on Steph. I thought she had done so well, and I was so proud of her. I really did think that she would win.” But Danielle would hear her name on the safe list one last time. “And the girl who will wear the Ruby Slippers is…
