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Musical Theatre for Preteen Series: PART III: Helpful Hints & Suggested Music Choices

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Welcome to our last article in our musical theatre for preteen series! Hopefully you have found some great ways to adapt the information to best showcase and train your students! In this article I’d like to wrap up with some helpful hints to teaching the musical theatre genre which have helped me over the years and provided great results for my own dancers! The main thing I believe is to remember to always set works which your students will become engaged with, challenge them and make them knowledgeable about musical theatre history!

  • Always think about what is age & content appropriate & what you know your students can grasp conceptually, musically & physically! Choose music which will best showcase your students technically and performance wise and bring them to life on stage!

 

  • Consider work-shopping musicals throughout the year and take time to explore each piece or musical you are looking at! Investing more than one class will definitely provide students with a better and more thorough understanding of what they are learning!

 

  • Explain back-story/history of show to your students so they understand song context! This is key to grasping the nuances of the musical theatre genre.

 

  • Opt for an alternative song version/different arrangement/contemporary or original version. This is a great way to use music which is not often overused at completion and will offer audiences a fresh eye on a variation of a classic favorite!

 

  • Look at movie soundtracks with era specific genres or international productions that may not have hit the Broadway stage here in the states! Many West End productions have great scores which may be unfamiliar to some and will definitely tap into the originality factor for your dancers and audiences!

 

  • Use well known musicals but opt for the lesser well known songs.

 

  • Consider using overtures, entr’actes & reprises. This is a great way to use a medley of great songs from a show without having to music edit! It also takes the audience on a quick journey of the musical; creating space for many dynamic, transition and choreographic changes within one piece!

 

  • Go to the composers themselves, Cole Porter, Gershwin, etc. Many of the composers have music composed which were never used for actual full-length shows but will provide wonderful pieces which are all of different time periods and styles!

Below are some of my favorite musical choices for preteen musical theatre students! Remember to always think outside of the box and take chances! And most of all have fun! The best musical theatre dancers will always be those who have full knowledge of the whole show, history and technique!

 

Preteen Musical Theatre Song Ideas:

·         'Why we Tell the Story' from Once on this Island

·         ' Soul Bossa Nova' from Austin Powers

·         'Bushel and a Peck,' 'Havana' from Guys & Dolls

·         Boogie Shoes, 'You Should be Dancing,' 'Jive Talking' from Saturday Night Fever

·         'Hair,' 'Aquarius,' 'Manchester England' from Hair

·         '13' from Thirteen the Musical

·         'We Got Annie' from Annie

·         'Bon Jour Paris,' 'Think Pink' from Funny Face

·         'Oh the Things you Can do' from Seussical

·         'Chaiyya Chaiyya' from Bombay Dreams

·         'C’Mon Everybody' from All Shook Up

·         'Chicago Strut' From Jelly’s Last Jam

·         'Think' From Blues Brothers the Musical

·         'Everything Old is New Again' from The Boy from Oz

·         'Overture' from Snoopy the Musical

·         'When Pigs Fly' from When Pigs Fly

·         'Grease is the Word,' 'Raining on Prom Night into Shakin at the High School Hop' from Grease

·         'Wash that Man Right out of My Hair' from South Pacific

·         'New York, New York' from On the Town

·         'Rhythm of Life' from Sweet Charity

·         'It’s Your Wedding Day' from The Wedding Singer

·         Notable IPOD searches: MGM Hollywood Soundtracks, That’s Entertainment Series,Best of the Musicals Series, Judy Garland, Kay Thompson, Jamie Cullum, Songs of West Side Story, Gene Kelly at MGM, Pink Martini, etc.

Author

Jessica Rizzo Stafford

Jessica Rizzo Stafford

Jessica Rizzo Stafford is a native New Yorker and graduate of NYU Steinhardt's Dance Education Master’s Program; with a PK-12 New York State Teaching Certification. Her double-concentration Master’s Degree includes PK-12 pedagogy and dance education within the higher-education discipline. She also holds a BFA in dance performance from the UMASS Amherst 5 College Dance Program where she was a Chancellor's Talent Award recipient. Jess now works extensively with children, adolescents and professionals as choreographer and teacher and conducts national and international master-classes specializing in the genres of modern, contemporary, musical theatre and choreography-composition. Jess’ national and international performance career includes works such as: The National Tour of Guys & Dolls, The European Tour of Grease, West Side Story, Cabaret, Sweet Charity, Salute to Dudley Moore at Carnegie Hall, guest-dancer with the World Famous Pontani Sisters and IMPULSE Modern Dance Company. Jess has been a faculty member for the Perichild Program & Peridance Youth Ensemble & taught contemporary and jazz at the historic New Dance Group and 92nd Street Y in NYC. She was Company Director at the historic Steffi Nossen School of Dance/Dance in Education Fund and in 2008 traveled to Uganda where she taught creative-movement to misplaced children. The experience culminated with Jess being selected as a featured instructor at the Queen's Kampala Ballet & Modern Dance School. She has conducted workshops for the cast of LA REVE at the Wynn, Las Vegas and recently taught at the 2011 IDS International Dance Teacher Conference at The Royal Ballet in London, UK. She is also on faculty for the annual Dance Teacher Web Conferences in Las Vegas, NV. Currently, Jess is a faculty member at the D'Valda & Sirico Dance & Music Centre and master teacher & adjudicator for various national and international dance competitions. Recently, she has finished her NYU Master’s thesis research on the choreographic process of technically advanced adolescent dancers and is the creator of “PROJECT C;” a choreography-composition curriculum for the private studio sector. Jess is also faculty member, contributing writer and presenter in the choreography and “how to” teaching segments on the celebrated danceteacherweb.com. For more info, visit her website at www.jrizzo.net.

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