Musical Theatre
 

What is Musical Theatre?
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining music, songs, spoken dialogue and dance.

 

What do students learn in Musical Theatre?
At Billings, students in our Musical Theatre classes have the opportunity to combine their jazz, tap and ballet skills with singing, acting and production, and to engage in character-building activities that will spark their creativity and facilitate their growth both socially and emotionally. Students learn how to work cooperatively with others in the cast, how to speak (and sing and dance!) in front of large audiences, how to prepare for and go through the audition process, and how to be the best that they can be both on stage and off. The skills they gain will benefit them in all areas of their life. Most of our Musical Theatre students find that they have no trouble speaking in front of their classes at school after being in this class!

Where do Musical Theatre students perform?
Each year the students in Musical Theatre put on a Christmas production that is performed at “Breakfast with Santa”, a festive holiday event held at the downtown Portland Hilton Hotel that benefits the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Following ‘Breakfast with Santa”, the students begin working on a “musical in miniature” where they celebrate and learn about some of the great musicals of our time. Recent productions have included “The Wizard of Oz”, “Alice in Wonderland”, “A Chorus Line” and “Bugsy Malone”. The musical productions are featured numbers in our Spring Recital and often compete at local dance competitions. These classes do something new and exciting every year, thanks to the creative mind of our very talented and experienced Musical Theatre director, Pat Heath-Silva.

 

Who Can Join Musical Theatre?
There is no audition required to be in Musical Theatre; it is open to all students with the appropriate amount of dance experience. For example, our beginning level of Musical Theatre (Musical Theatre I) requires one year of dance experience. All levels require that the student be taking additional dance classes while they are in the Musical Theatre program, including but not limited to jazz. Often in a production, there are parts that require different dance styles and abilities, so other classes like tap, ballet, acro and vocal, are recommended to support the choreography and allow a student to participate as much as possible. There is no audition required to be in the class, just a desire to sing, dance, act, and of course…have fun! Because Musical Theatre always moves at an accelerated pace (where other dance classes are perfecting one number per class for recital, depending on the level, Musical Theatre students are preparing two to four pieces!), we ask students to maintain good attendance and to practice, practice, practice! We also ask that students who sign up for this class make a commitment to the class and to the other students as it is very difficult to change things once the shows are “set”. Musical Theatre is an incredibly fun and rewarding experience for students, and we encourage all of our dancers to get involved!