Pine Plains Grad Jordan Stroly Steps Up to Choreography

Jordan Stroly had almost done it all. Danced. Taught. Competed. But one major challenge lay before her. She had never choreographed a musical.

“I’m used to choreographing for competition dancers and kids doing Disney numbers at camp,” Stroly, 32, told The Daily Catch. “Doing a whole show in the style of Bob Fosse? Well, that’s where the anxiety creeps in.”

But this week, Stroly’s vision will unfold on the set of the Kit Kat Klub as Cabaret opens at The CENTER for Performing Arts in Rhinebeck. “I really wasn’t sure I could do it,” Stroly said. “This experience has allowed me to see that, even though I was nervous in the beginning, I can do more than I think I can.”

The director for the show, Peter Risafi, says he couldn’t be more thrilled with the precision, planning, and punctuality of Stroly’s work. “We took a chance on her, and she took a gamble, too,” he said. “It could not have worked out better.”

Since she was 3, Stroly has studied dance, first at the Stissing Loft in Pine Plains and then with Michele Ribble at the Rhinebeck Dance Centre in Red Hook, where she received most of her training. She studied tumbling, tap, jazz, hip-hop, lyrical, contemporary, and classical ballet. And she danced en pointe, too. As a pre-teen, she also attended the American Academy of Ballet camps at Vassar College. And she won awards as a dancer and choreographer at national dance competitions, including several far from home.

Indeed, dance was both the balm and the glue that kept her focused and steady, she said, especially after she identified anxiety as a personal pain point from an early age, growing up in Pine Plains.

“Dance was everything. It gave me a place to be and a place to be me,” said Stroly. “I didn’t have to be anything or anyone else.”

Through the Pine Plains Central School District and, since 2015, at The CENTER, Stroly has performed as an ensemble dancer in dozens of musicals: Carousel, Mamma Mia!, West Side Story,  Thoroughly Modern Millie, A Chorus Line, 42nd Street, and Ragtime, just to name a few. “I’ve always considered myself a dancer first” she says. The late Kevin Archambault, former artistic director at the CENTER, created whole parts for her, she noted. “He gave me so many opportunities that molded me into the performer I am today,” Stroly added. “I’m forever grateful for him.”

She even has battle scars that underscore her commitment. In 2019, she suffered a concussion when she hit her head during a show for Newsies. Six months later, when symptoms hadn’t cleared, she was forced to endure months of scalp, shoulder, and neck injections to deal with a brain contusion and suspected brain hemorrhage.

The opportunity with Cabaret surfaced unexpectedly. Stroly planned to audition for the role of a Kit Kat dancer under the tutelage of her friend, the noted CENTER choreographer Tamara Cacchione. Then, a personal issue forced Cacchione to withdraw from the choreographer role, and she and Risafi asked Stroly to take over. “It’s different to do some duos or trios for a competition than to do a whole musical” Stroly reasoned. “I always wanted to try, but I was nervous about it.”

Cacchione was instrumental in helping her build confidence, she said. “Tamara really gave me the push to jump into it, and I’m glad she did,” Stroly added. “It’s been a great experience.”

Stroly attacked Cabaret with the same dogged determination she brought to her studies in communication disorders at SUNY-New Paltz, from which she graduated with a BA in 2014 and an MS in 2017. She now works full-time as a speech-language pathologist at  Webutuck Elementary School in Amenia.

She watched and studied Fosse/Verdon, the 2019 TV miniseries about director-choreographer Fosse and his relationship with actress and dancer Gwen Verdon. She reviewed a number of remakes of the musical, as well as the movie with Liza Minnelli Then, she began to mark out eight-count blocks for the five large dance numbers in the show as she settled on a vision for Cabaret.

The choreography would not be overly suggestive or provocative, she determined after insights from Risafi. “We’re a community theater and we want the show to be accessible to all,” Stroly said. She also sought simplicity in the choreography that would echo Fosse’s work in the 1972 film, for which he won an Oscar.

“Sometimes, the marvel of dance and meaning can be seen in the most nuanced of movements,” she said. “That’s one of the lessons of Fosse.”

After working alongside Stroly in The CENTER’s production of West Side Story, Cabaret lead Amber McCarthy, who plays Sally Bowles, is a fan. “She is one of the most beautiful dancers and is really great to collaborate with,” McCarthy said. “She trusts me as a dancer and knows what I can bring, but she’ll also be honest and let me know if something is not working.” 

She earns praise for being tough and gentle both. “She’s really clear and leaderly with the dancers,” says Cabaret assistant director Wendy Urban-Mead, a professor at Bard. “She communicates clear expectations and helps them remember details in ways that empower them to incorporate moves into their own muscle memories.”

As McCarthy, her fellow actors, and the Kit Kat dancers prepare to don costumes for the first time this week ahead of Saturday’s opening night, Stroly is shaking off nerves. “I think we’re ready,” she said. “And it feels great.”

This article comes courtesy of The Daily Catch.