Into her groove

When Dawn Noel Pignuola was 5 years old, she danced around her living room on the 1500 block of Porter Street to Madonna tunes.

All that practice has paid off bigtime.

Today, the 27-year-old brunette dancer and model gets into the groove alongside the blonde bombshell who now calls herself "Esther" (her kabbala name).

The lithe, attractive South Philly native — who’s long since parted with Pignuola and simply goes by Dawn Noel — is among five female and seven male dancers on Madonna’s current world tour. When the singer hits the Wachovia Center on July 4 and 5, many of Noel’s friends and family members will be in the audience to cheer for their own star.

Luckily, Noel doesn’t suffer from stage fright. She was practically born in the spotlight, dancing and modeling since age 3.

Yet, she admits, the opening night of Madonna’s tour, in Los Angeles, was nerve-wracking.

"Madonna is the biggest person I’ve ever danced for. I mean, I’ve performed all my life, but never for 20,000 people," Noel says. "Just to hear all those people screaming at the top of their lungs — it was just the most amazing feeling. It was a high. I was high on life."

Part of Noel’s act for the Madonna stage includes a swing and aerial work. Her areas of expertise are flying and harness work, point, tap, flamenco and salsa.

Dancing with the rich and famous is nothing new for Noel, who now calls the Washington Heights section of Manhattan home. She has shared a stage with the likes of Beyonc�, Mariah Carey and Britney Spears.

She’s also strutted her stuff in several music videos, including the Whitney Houston and Enrique Iglesias duet, Could I Have This Kiss Forever? and Will Smith’s So Fresh.

But, in her words, "it doesn’t get any bigger than Madonna."

"It’s a pleasure working with her," says Noel of her mystical boss. "It’s nice to be around her. She’s great. She’s funny. She’s definitely a perfectionist and she works extremely hard. She’s so professional and always has a deeper meaning. She’s expressing herself all the time."

Rather than play the aloof superstar, Madonna makes a point of mixing with her dancers, Noel notes. While the singer doesn’t exactly "hang out" with them, she rehearses with her team and is very approachable, says Noel.

From time to time, the star hosts parties for cast and crew at her LA mansion. Madonna — make that Esther — even encourages the dancers to attend kabbala classes.

"She doesn’t force us to go," says Noel, who has studied the ancient Hebrew mysticism. "It’s not a religion."

Being a backup dancer for pop stars and performing in their videos is by no means Noel’s only claim to fame.

The dancer has performed in dozens of Broadway, off-Broadway and other theater productions, including The Lion King, Fame — The Musical, As Long As We Both Shall Laugh, Spirit Dance and KTU Miracle on 34th Street.

She’s also appeared in films and television shows, including All My Children, Saturday Night Live and last year’s Adrian Lyne hit movie Unfaithful, starring Richard Gere and Diane Lane.

And when the 5-foot-6 svelte dancer isn’t shimmying across a stage, she’s posing for a camera. Throughout her career, Noel has appeared in print and industrial advertisements for Strawbridge & Clothier, New Jersey Transit, Johnson & Johnson, Bell Atlantic, Reebok and Tiffany & Co.

A 1994 graduate of the High School for Creative and Performing Arts, Noel danced with the renowned Koresh Dance Company. After graduating from Philadelphia’s University of the Arts with a degree in modern dance, she moved to New York — despite that she had no job prospects.

She taught dance while attending college just so she could save enough money to move to the Big Apple and, once she arrived, she earned a scholarship to train at the prestigious Alvin Ailey American Dance Center.

After that, Noel didn’t have to wait long for her first big break.

In 1998, she got a ballet-dancer role in the New York City Opera’s production of Carmina Burana. More work followed, including another dance role in the Metropolitan Opera’s production of War & Peace.

"I’ve been blessed to have constantly been working," Noel says. "I’ve been doing this my whole life, so I moved to New York with somewhat of a r�sum�."

The performer credits her success to four things: hard work, experience, discipline and ambition — in this case, of the brunette kind. Her local roots are the real deal, she says.

"I’m proud of where I come from. There’s a lot of great talent that comes from Philly. It’s a great place to come from."

When it came to making Madonna’s team, for Noel, the second time was the charm.

The local native auditioned for Madonna’s tour three years ago but didn’t make the cut. She made quite an impression nonetheless, because Madonna’s director of choreography hired Noel for other work — namely for Mariah Carey.

Four months ago, Noel auditioned again in New York for the latest Madonna tour. She made the cut and was flown to LA for another audition. Out of 2,000 women on both coasts, "Esther" was hiring five dancers.

This time, Noel was one of them.

"Ah, I’m OK. I don’t know," she says with a laugh when told she must be one heck of a dancer to have beaten out 1,995 competitors.

"It’s the only thing I can do. It’s the only thing I will do. When I’m on stage performing, it’s home. It’s the only place I can totally express myself."