It’s two days before the curtain rises, a time when most directors of live stage performances are fraught with angst, confronted with myriad details that need attention.
Not Kristen Leach. Angst isn’t her style. Sure, the myriad details are there, yet the artistic director of the N.H. Dance Institute in Keene is beaming inside the main theater of Keene State College’s Redfern Arts Center. A few dozen of the 300 dancers who will take the stage this weekend for “The 8th Wonder of the World” are going through their paces, and Leach couldn’t be happier with their footwork.
“This is the fun part,” she says. “The work has been done.”
The dance ends and the heavily breathing performers, children from 11 area schools in grades 2 through 8, look up to her in the first row of the balcony. She compliments them, saying it’s all there, the choreography, the steps, the gestures. Just one thing, she asks: “How many of you were worried about making a mistake?” Most hands shoot up, as she expects.
Don’t worry about mistakes, she tells them. Let the joy of dancing supersede the business of dancing. “Let the glow of dance really reach out to the balcony,” she says. They repeat the dance, burnished with energy, and Leach’s smile never fades, even as she multi-tasks. As the recorded music plays, she seeks out Alex Trombly, technical arts director at Keene State, and playfully bribes him with more brownies if he’ll make some adjustments to the soundtrack.
“The 8th Wonder of the World” is the institute’s “Event of the Year,” a full-fledged production featuring a plot, theme and climax. Formal dance recitals are so passe. Leach is not only director of the show, she wrote it, as she has been doing for years.
First of all, she says, “I hate recitals.” Secondly, so did Wendy Dwyer, the dance institute’s first artistic director, a position she held for 21 years before passing the torch to Leach.
“Wendy told me it’s imperative that I have a storyline with characters and narrative arc,” Leach says.
Thus, began the tradition of Leach writing her own shows. This year’s theme is actually quite serious, exploring the dynamics of grandparents who are raising their grandchildren. Leach says she’s cognizant of the challenges many of her students face in their home lives, as she sees it all too vividly. That contributes to her own relaxed demeanor in the theater. Missteps on stage pale to the plights some kids face off it. She’s just glad they’re there, so if they’re late to rehearsal through no fault of their own, so what?
As for the plot, Yar Petrov of Dublin plays Matty, who is being taught by his grandmother to recognize and appreciate the small wonders of the world around him each day. In Act 2, Matty’s grandmother sends him on a journey around the world to find the eighth wonder. Leach says she thought of Yar, a veteran of the dance institute, as she wrote the story. It’s not uncommon for her to create a character based on matching plot and songs with the personalities of her students.
“Writing is never something I thought I’d do, but it comes very quickly once a thought gets into my head,” said Leach, who names the fictional characters after important people in her own life.
“Gram” is played by Marylouise Alther of Keene, who, like her character, is raising a grandchild. Alther was heavily involved in theater when she was younger and says returning to the stage has been invigorating.
“It’s rejuvenating, it’s exciting, the roar of the crowd, the smell of the greasepaint. I’ve always wanted to be in theater,” Alther says. “It’s a personal story for me because I’m a grandparent raising my grandson. Nobody has a typical family — the wonders of the world are to be kind, to teach, to love. I feel privileged to be a part of it.”
Alther isn’t the only grandparent involved in the production. In Act 2, more than 50 sets of grandparents will join their grandchildren on stage, dancing to “You and Me.” Leach, who has four children, will be dancing with her own mother despite her mother’s unsteadiness after suffering a recent stroke. Also on stage will be Super Seniors from the Keene Senior Center, who will partner with kids whose grandparents aren’t present.
“They’re really remarkable people, and they’ve kind of figured it out,” Leach says of the seniors.
Show times are tonight at 7, Saturday at 1:30 and 7 p.m. and Sunday at 1:30 p.m., all at the Redfern Arts Center at Keene State College. In all, 300 performers will take part.
The production won’t completely come together until this afternoon, when the musicians receive their arrangements for the first time. No worries, the orchestra is under the direction of conductor Peter Mansfield of Boston, who has worked under maestros John Williams and Keith Lockhart of the Boston Pops for years. Likewise, Mansfield has been writing and arranging the pieces for the dance institute shows for years.
The professional musicians in the orchestra come from a variety of backgrounds, including the Pops. They will rehearse with the students this afternoon and be ready to go tonight.
“These children are getting the best of the best,” Leach says. “These are really exceptional musicians giving up exceptional gigs on Memorial Day weekend.”
Leach says one of the highlights for her is watching the reaction of the dancers when they first hear the live music. “You can feel it in the floor, and they can feel it in their skin,” she says.
It’s a team effort to pull it off, starting with Executive Director Jennifer Marshall. Residency Director Lisa Cook and administrative assistant Tim Conrow are also integral players, but Leach says open input from everyone is invaluable.
The staff has also been bolstered by teaching artist Linda Estabrook, who danced professionally in New York and on Carnival Cruise Lines. Estabrook is a N.H. Dance Institute alumna from its early years. She played Princess Irene, the lead role in its first-ever production under Dwyer, “A Magical Tale,” in 1986.
As for writing an original production every year, Leach grins and says she has four years’ worth of shows already in the pipeline. Next year’s is called “The Beekeeper,” and that theme has already been worked into the summer intensive program, “What’s the Buzz?” Mount Monadnock will take center stage the following year, and climbs up the famous landmark will be a part of it.
But first, there’s this weekend, “the fun part.” The smiles come naturally.
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