Roll Out The Barrel

I've decided that the Polka is the great equalizer. Everyone can do it, no one gets left out, and everyone ends up with a huge grin on their face by the time the music winds down. I'm having a bunch of my students at the Playhouse do a little polka pass during their showing on Thursday, and even the ones who have negligable coordination are bouncing racously across the stage in grand gestures and toothy smiles.

I've found this polka phenomenon to hold true in every theatrical forum I've yet encountered. It was, in fact, the first thing I ever choreographed for opera. I was so incredibly green, had no idea how opera worked, walked in the door and said (to all of these fairly well respected singers in their high heels and sports coats), "Okay, everybody up! We're going to Polka!" They all looked at me like I was out of my gourd . . . probably a pretty astute observation, but I pulled them out of their chairs and got them all doing "step, hop, step, step" in time and eventually they were doing the exact thing my students are doing: asking for copies of the polka music, wearing themselves out dancing, falling down with laughter.

The great thing from a theatrical choreographer's standpoint is that the basic polka step works well for a variety of peasant dances that rear their ugly head in both opera and theater. Once the actor/singer has mastered the basics, any small addition is easy to accomplish.

And any sense of kinesthetic accomplishment among my students and singing actors makes my heart swell.