Jan 24, 2008
John Jay High School theater program
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Students learn to tap for spring musical
The next spring musical at John Jay High School will require a little bit of extra work from its performers: For Crazy for You, a musical by George and Ira Gershwin, many of the cast members will be required to learn to tap dance.
To prepare potential cast members for the play, arts booster club Arts Alive! sponsored a five-session weekly tap dance lesson at the high school, taught by dance teacher and former Broadway dancer Anne-Marie Galler of Goldens Bridge. Ms. Galler, who teaches at Dance Cavise in Mamaroneck, will be choreographing the show for the school, as she has for previous musicals Pippin and Children of Eden.
“I’m a dancer, but I haven’t had that much tap experience, so it was just nice to learn the basics and really just get a feel for it,” said John Jay junior Erica Lupinacci. “It was a great experience.”
The workshop attracted 64 students, 27 boys and 37 girls, at all levels of experience and talent. Many had never danced before.
“I had never taken any sort of dance class before, so to me this was a huge challenge and a valuable experience,” said senior Benjamin Krieger. “The dance moves we were learning were very difficult, and I found it to be a great challenge to grasp them. But slowly, as I persisted, I was able to get many of the steps down.”
Starting with the very basics of tap dancing, by the fourth week of classes the students were already working on time-steps and full routines, Ms. Galler said. The fifth week was spent working on theater dance, a style closer to jazz than tap.
“My favorite part was learning to time-step, one of the most ubiquitous steps when it comes to tap dancing,” said senior Sam Breslin. “I’ve been trying to learn how to do it for years, but with an hour or so of solid work and repetition I was able to get it.”
Although previous musicals have required some dance from the students, Ms. Galler said that Crazy for You had “at least twice as much” as the last two, hence the “crash course” in tap. Auditions for the show are taking place this week.
Ms. Galler expressed hope that some kind of dance would find its way into the high school’s curriculum, which has theater classes but no dance classes.
“I really am impressed with the talent that I see at John Jay. I’ve taught dance here in the county for going on nine years, and I don’t think I’ve ever been able to move as quickly as I did with those kids,” Ms. Galler told The Ledger. “They were completely committed.”
© Copyright 2008 by Hersam Acorn Newspapers
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