The Rural We: Ilana Ransom Toeplitz

A director, choreographer, writer and teaching artist, Ilana Ransom Toeplitz has an impressive CV that includes work on Broadway and at Lincoln Center, on national tours, regionally, and as a guest professor and teaching artist. Born in Pittsburgh, she has had a connection with the Berkshires as long as she can remember, and gave up her place in New York when COVID hit to work on her projects and teach in what she calls “the most magical, perfect place in the world.” She has offered several Broadway choreography master classes at Berkshire Yoga Dance and Fitness, and is starting a four-session Beginner Broadway Jazz class this week, as well as a beginner ballet series.

I have Tanglewood blood in my veins: my father was the orchestra manager for the BSO, and my mother sang in the chorus. They met at Tanglewood. When my life got a little chaotic in my twenties, the Berkshires became a place of respite, calm and creativity, and I discovered my love for nature. I’m based in Lee now, but our home was in Richmond.

I knew Rachael Plaine [owner of Berkshire Yoga Dance and Fitness] because she and I both used to choreograph for the Berkshire Theatre Group. I also started taking her yoga class at the top of Mount Greylock; I looked forward to it every summer. When she found out I was back in the area she invited me to teach a Broadway master class last fall. We did the choreography from the “Thriller” video; the class was really well attended. Last week I taught the number “One” from “A Chorus Line,” using the original Broadway choreography that I learned from Baayork Lee, who was in the original cast of the show. It’s a deceptively hard number. Having patience is part of that work. In this Sunday’s master class, I’ll be teaching the “All That Jazz” number by Bob Fosse that was handed down to me from someone who learned it from the great Anne Reinking. These classes are confidence builders and joy makers.

I’m still going into the city every three or four weeks to take meetings. A couple of years ago I was approached with a script for a new workshop that I’m choreographing and directing, a Christmas musical about a young boy on a spectrum and his relationship with a new kind of Christmas with a new kind of family. We’ve been through about 20 revisions of the script since 2019.

In this area right now I’m choreographing a production of “Legally Blonde” at the Berkshire School, and directing and choreographing “Lucky Stiff” at Westfield State University — I’m going to be an adjunct faculty member there in the spring. I consider myself so lucky and I’m so grateful for these “survival” gigs.