Friday, September 28, 2007
By EVELYN SHIH
STAFF WRITER
This summer, Chuckie got his blades.[Promotional photo, left, courtesy of centreevents.com]
That's not another summer horror sequel that you (thankfully) missed. That was choreographer Charles Klapow, the mastermind behind the high-octane dance numbers in "High School Musical," getting on the ice for the first time in his life.
"Chuckie adapted to it very quickly, and he had so much enthusiasm for the skating that it was completely impossible to keep him from skating," said Disney on Ice choreographer Cindy Stuart. She and Klapow worked together to create the choreography for "High School Musical: The Ice Tour."
At first, Klapow taught Stuart and the skaters to do the original movie routines on dry land. The choreographing team then shifted the moves to the ice. "He was really hands-on," said Stuart. "It was wonderful, because he could have been a sideline choreographer, but he wasn't."
Following Chuckie's lead, the familiar teen characters of Troy, Gabriella, Sharpay, Ryan and Chad will be hitting the rink at Madison Square Garden to kick off the East Coast tour. The show will cover both "High School Musical" and August's "High School Musical 2" in two acts -- and under two hours.
And contrary to what you might believe about sequels, the second part of the show may be even hotter than the first. Audiences at preview performances have been singing along to the new songs of "High School Musical 2," says skater Bonard Muck.
"We've been on tour for 2½ weeks," said Muck, who plays Sharpay's shy brother Ryan. "In the beginning, you could slightly hear them, and as it's growing and becoming more known, I feel there's more singing going on -- especially in the second act, where I didn't think it had caught on that much yet."
Among the numbers that get the biggest reactions, said Muck, are the Sharpay solo "Fabulous" and the challenging baseball-themed "I Don't Dance" in which Ryan faces off with Chad.
Given the audience's intimate knowledge of the "High School Musical" soundtrack and dance numbers, Stuart had her work cut out for her. "I wanted to do something that would be as close to the movie as possible because it's so iconic. People learn the moves in their living room."
What makes it more difficult is the built-in hip-hop vocabulary of Klapow and movie director Kenny Ortega's dance vision. In ice skating, explained Stuart, the feet have a very different vocabulary.
"I created a hybrid," said Stuart. "Audiences will recognize the dance from the upper body, but the lower body is in skating language."
Unlike Chuckie, Muck and other young skaters speak that language fluently. It was the distinct "High School Musical" dance style that was challenging.
"It was tricky, and it's definitely very high-pace," said Muck, who learned the routines with the rest of the cast in five weeks. "You take a lot of classically trained skaters like us -- a lot of us have taken ballet and a little bit of jazz and tap while we were competing -- and get us into this hip-hop craziness, moving 100 miles a minute."
You'd think there would be more reports of injury with 34 young athletes whizzing across the ice every night, but things have been smooth, said Stuart. "We had one accident during rehearsal where one skater slipped and fell into a locker, and knocked it over, but the kid was fine, and the locker was stood right up afterwards," she said.
By now, the young pros have their heads in the game and are ready to go. What time is it?
It's ice time.
E-mail: shih@northjersey.com
Copyright © 2007 North Jersey Media Group Inc.
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