“Gotta Dance” Spotlights Musical Theatre Program at Jacob’s Pillow
At 10 a.m. on a Monday, Jacob’s Pillow is eerily quiet. My feet crunch along the gravelly path of the famous music festival’s sylvan grounds in Becket, Mass. as I make my way, as instructed, to the new Perles Family Studio. Despite being exceptionally well versed in the cultural activities of the region — courtesy of my job — I’ve just learned that Jacob’s Pillow runs a Musical Theatre Dance program, and I want to know more, particularly since there will be a gala performance by its students on August 19.
It’s not surprising that I hadn’t been aware of it, says Chet Walker, who’s been the program director for 20 years. It’s sort of its own separate division at the Pillow, concerned as it is with acting and singing, along with dancing. The three-week program started as the modern and jazz dance track, followed by modern contemporary, and finally, a jazz dance program. Walker, an award-winning director/choreographer, inherited it when he came to Jacob’s Pillow in 1999 and shaped it to concentrate on musical theatre dance.
Twenty-four dancers with Broadway in their sights are accepted into the program each year. They take daily technique and master classes, have career-building discussions with Festival artists, rehearse (and rehearse and rehearse) and perform once each week at Inside/Out, the free outdoor performance space.
“Inside/Out is our way of teaching people what we do,” Walker says. “When they go to a Broadway show, it’s all put together for them, but here they can see the process.”
And because Broadway dancers need to be able to sing, the students also receive vocal training.
What if a dancer can’t sing? I ask Walker. “We coach them,” he says. “A dancer these days has to sing. But everyone can; it’s a matter of finding your voice. By the time they leave, they say, ‘I had no idea I could sing!’”
This is Walker’s last year as director. “After 20 years, you have to move on,” he says. So, for his swan song, he is choreographing and staging the ballet scene of a new musical he has been collaborating on with composer/lyricist Stephen Schwartz and screenwriter/playwright Shaun McKenna. Walker has assembled a team of musicians, choreographers and singers to work on the original numbers with the dancers.
As a visitor to one rehearsal, the plotline of the musical, tentatively entitled “Boy on the Roof,” wasn’t entirely clear to me. What was certain, though, was the attention paid to the nuances of each movement. Much of the ballet is danced in pairs, seconds-long interactions between a girl and a guy that are charged with meaning. When one male dancer makes a hand gesture, Walker stops him.
“What does that hand mean?” he asks. If the dancer doesn’t know, or if it doesn’t make sense in the context of the action, the gesture has to go.
On Saturday, Aug. 18, the Musical Theatre Dance Program students will take over the Inside/Out stage for the third time, as a final preparation for "Gotta Dance: New Faces for Broadway," a benefit performance on Sunday, Aug. 19 in the Ted Shawn Theatre. Three weeks isn’t a lot of time to create and perfect original numbers, but the fast pace and intensity is meant to mirror what these Broadway bound dancers can expect when they make it to the Great White Way.
"Gotta Dance: New Faces for Broadway"
Inside/Out Stage: Saturday, Aug. 18, 6:15 p.m., free
Benefit Show: Sunday, Aug. 19 at 5 p.m. Tickets $25-$65
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