When the 2012 Tony Award nominations are announced Tuesday morning, one name is sure to be on the list: Christopher Gattelli, the choreographer of "Newsies." While other award categories will have the theater crowd debating like railbirds handicapping the Kentucky Derby, this one is practically a lock.
In "Newsies," which romanticizes the story of the 1899 newsboy strike, Mr. Gattelli uses Broadway dance to do exactly what it should: enhance a story through movement. Sure, this show has come in for criticism for its inability to scratch every dramatic itch of the mature theatergoer, but it is unassailable for its craft in a season that has seen Broadway dance undermined in every conceivable way.
In "Ghost," the evil office drones are upstaged by unforgivable projections and lighting. The likable steps in "Nice Work If You Can Get It" turn arthritic as Matthew Broderick heaves himself through them. (Whoever met a rich playboy who can't dance?) "Leap of Faith" has some crisp moves, but their function is to give the singers a break. At "Evita," dance is a distraction between costume changes.
Mr. Gattelli's success lies not in having created a new style or edge-pushing concept; the choreography is drawn from existing classic steps. Rather, he has assembled those steps in an original way and created a dance vocabulary that is specific enough to communicate the story at a visual level.
One jump in particular (shown in the graphic to the right) illustrates the mechanics of how that's done.
At first glance, the jump might look like your garden-variety backup-dancer move. But "the Kyle," as it's known—because the photo of dancer Kyle Coffman hitting it graces the show's main marketing image—is loaded with deliberate choices.
When we first meet the rough and tumble youths of "Newsies," they're enjoying the freedom of living on the streets. "The Kyle" shows up early as they head to out to sell newspapers, and their sense of fun starts from the ground up: with flexed—not pointed—feet.
"I tried to structure a lot of vocabulary on things they would do in the street: kick the curb, cans, hopscotch," Mr. Gattelli said. "We tried to incorporate anything they would find on the way to work."
What sends the body moving are the legs, and this jump leads with downstage leg (the one closer to the audience), which crosses the body, suggesting the forward motion of a kid running down the block. By contrast, in ballet it is the upstage leg that often leads in the traditional leap (the grande jete), so the body can appear as taut and elongated as possible. "The choice was to have it crossed, so it didn't have the length and line that a normal jete would," Mr. Gattelli said.
As the boys decide to organize, they dance with a goal-directed sense of purpose. The jump returns with more polish: the toes are pointed, the arms are more militant and the newspaper becomes a weapon. "It goes from boyish flying-through-the-streets to more powerful," said Mr. Gattelli. "It's like the cavalry is coming."
Other steps have layers, too. The fact that the boys are airborne throughout much of the show contrasts their vibrancy to the earthbound newspaper owners. "Pulitzer," said Mr. Gattelli joked, "would never jump."
One series of several pirouettes—which whips the crowd into stadium-style cheering—also does double duty as the dancer turns with a newspaper underfoot to say, "This is what I think of your publication."
It helps that the "Newsies" cast is extremely well trained, especially in ballet. It's the underlying reason why these steps in service of musical theater are executed so well, said Rhonda Miller, the director of Pace University's commercial dance program: "You practice classical technique. You work and work and work daily. But you have to approach movement from the acting perspective."
That perspective maintains the characters' personalities until the lights go out on the story. And you can see the difference in the dance as soon as the extended curtain-call starts: When the young actors return, they're dancing to their own strengths, be they turns or tricks that don't fit into the show. "That's me saying, 'Here they are,'" Mr. Gattelli said. "We are in such a great place with their talent."
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