Steps on Broadway Gives Home to American Dance Machine 21

Steps on Broadway, NYC's legendary professional dance center committed to training and maintaining the integrity of the art form, announces an educational partnership with American Dance Machine for the Twenty-First Century (ADM21).

ADM21, the nation's leading organization for musical theater dance preservation, presentation and education, will take residency at Steps on Broadway beginning September 12, 2016. The partnership adds two one-of-a-kind classes, Ballet for Broadway and ADM21 Repertory, to Steps multidisciplinary offerings. Classes will be open to all intermediate and advanced dancers and will also be part of the curriculum for Steps 2-year Conservatory Program students.

The ADM21 Repertory Class will provide an unparalleled opportunity for dancers to learn iconic Broadway, film and television dance numbers and technique from a rotating faculty of current performers, dance captains, and luminaries who serve as a direct source to musical theater repertory. The class kicks off September 12 with Donna McKechnie, who will teach choreography by Michael Bennett from Company, where she originated the role of "Kathy" in 1970. The class will consist of a half hour of the original American Dance Machine warm-up, as conceived by Lee Theodore, and an hour of original repertory. Ballet for Broadway, a ballet class focused on the needs of a Broadway dancer, with an emphasis on technique and musicality, will be taught by Robert La Fosse. La Fosse, who has created over 100 works for ballet, Broadway, opera and film and brings his experiences as a former Principal dancer with New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theater, received a Tony nomination for his role in Jerome Robbins' Broadway, 1989.

"This partnership honors ADM21's mission to establish a training facility in order to inspire and enrich musical theater dance students," explains Founder and Producing Artistic Director Nikki Feirt Atkins. "By offering dance instruction that unites the work of musical theater's founding choreographers and teachers with current styles and trends, we are able to offer the 21st Century student an opportunity to study their craft and develop as a unique artist."

"There is a common bond between the two organization's mission with respect to legacy and the preservation of dance history and education. We are very excited to expose and enlighten our dancers to the American musical theater legacy utilizing ADM's incredible expertise and excellence," adds Diane Grumet, Co-Artistic/Managing Director, Steps on Broadway. "The partnership further cements Steps on Broadway's reputation as a leading educator in theater dance and adds a dynamic curriculum and mentorship element to the 2-year Steps Conservatory that offers a theater dance track for dancers ages 17-24."

Steps offers more than 300 classes a week, taught by a world-renowned faculty, in all levels of ballet, jazz, modern, contemporary, tap, theater dance, hip-hop, world dance, and body conditioning. The internationally recognized school is heralded for training that honors the integrity of each individual dance form.

CLASS SCHEDULE AND INFORMATION

ADM21 Repertory - Monday and Wednesday afternoon from 1:00-2:30 p.m.

Ballet for Broadway - Wednesday from 11:30-1:00 p.m.

All classes are open to intermediate and advanced dancers and cost $20 each. Class packages are available.

For the full class schedule, visit www.stepsnyc.com/classes/schedule

All classes will take place at Steps on Broadway, located at 2121 Broadway between 74th and 75th Streets and is accessible by the 1,2,3, C, and B trains to 72nd Street.

Founded by Carol Paumgarten in 1979, Steps on Broadway is an internationally recognized training center providing excellence in programming that supports the art and the artist. Steps is home to more than 250 world-renowned teachers who offer over 300 dance and body conditioning exercise classes a week. Throughout the year, Steps incorporates guest artists, special master classes, performances and special events. For over three decades Steps has been a training ground for generations of aspiring and professional dancers, as well as dance enthusiasts. Steps also offers the Professional Training Programs which include the two-year Steps Conservatory, the International Independent Study Program, Summer Study NYC: A Contemporary Intensive, and Steps' Steele Pilates Teacher Mat Certification. The School at Steps programs serves over 800 students from 18 months to 18 years.

ADM21 was founded by Nikki Feirt Atkins in February 2012 in order to continue the legacy of the American Dance Machine theatrical Dance Company, created by the late Lee Theodore in 1978. The mission of the organization is to ensure that significant musical theater choreography and the techniques that propelled such works, are preserved, studied and shared as we move into the 21st century. ADM21 has demonstrated the significance of Theodore's original concept through reconstructed performances of iconic dance works such as Jack Cole's "Beale Street Blues" from The Sid Ceasar Comedy Hour, Jerome Robbins' "Mr. Monotony" from Jerome Robbins' Broadway, selected numbers from A Chorus Line by Michael Bennett including "Music and the Mirror", and Bob Fosse's "Beat me Daddy Eight to the Bar" from Big Deal. Since the founding of ADM21, the company has reconstructed choreographic works by Rob Ashford, Patricia Birch, Andy Blankenbuehler, Warren Carlyle, Gower Champion, Wayne Cilento, Jack Cole, Agnes De Mille, Gene Kelly, Joe Layton, Henry LeTang, Ron Lewis, Gillian Lynne, Donald McKayle, Mia Michaels, Jerry Mitchell, Hermes Pan, Jerome Robbins, Margo Sappington, Susan Stroman, Tommy Tune, and Billy Wilson.