By KAREN LEIGH Palisadian-Post Contributor ‘Dance is the hidden language of the soul,’ said performance legend Martha Graham’but Hannah Schneider’s secret is out. This past December, the 13-year-old was the prodigal wizard behind Paul Revere Middle School’s winter musical, ‘One Fine Day,’ acting as its chief choreographer. ”’I never thought I’d have this opportunity at such a young age,’ says the eighth-grader. After all, most people don’t. ”’One Fine Day,’ set in the swingin’ 1960s, is the story of The Lollipops, a singing girl group intent on making it all the way to an appearance on ‘American Bandstand.’ Revere English teacher Joshua Roig, who moonlights as a composer, penned the tunes. When he needed someone to make those Lollipops groove, he turned to his star pupil. ‘Mr. Roig knew I danced and had seen me perform,’ says Schneider, who lives in Topanga Canyon. ‘He called during summer break and asked if I’d like to choreograph the show. I was kinda scared. I mean, it takes place in the ’60s and I’m more up on modern dance.’ To prepare, the enterprising Schneider watched musical films of the time, and when Roig gave her a recording of the musical’s score, she bounced around her room, creating dances in her head. ‘I would think of a beat and move around,’ she says. ‘I was having fun with the music and that’s how I got the choreography.’ Though she cites Alvin Ailey and his professional partner Judith Jamison as influences, Schneider is most admiring of a dancer closer to home, one Debbie Allen. ‘When I was little,’ she recalls, ‘I would start moving every time a song would play.’ This led actor parents Mark and Jennifer to enroll their 2-year-old in dance classes; by age 9, she had joined a corps of other young students at Allen’s Culver City academy. Today, she logs 32 hours per week at the studio, and her card includes African, jazz, hip-hop, flamenco, and modern dance. Ballet classes are required, and one of Schneider’s specialties is Dunham, an obscure type of rhythm that incorporates elements of ballet, African, jazz, and flamenco. ‘My favorite is lyrical jazz,’ Schneider says of her repertoire. ‘It’s a slower jazz, hallmarked by fluid body movements. It’s definitely not stiff.’ Allen, whose credits include a Tony Award nomination for the Broadway revival of ‘West Side Story’ and a producer title on the Steven Spielberg film ‘Amistad,’ has consistently singled out Schneider as a dancer on the rise. Over the past four years, Schneider has been one of a group of students invited to perform with her teacher at events in Italy, New York City, and Washington, D.C. When Allen staged the play ‘Pearl’ at Westwood’s Geffen Playhouse, Schneider was selected for the ensemble. ‘It was a modern-day version of ‘Snow White,” she says of the fairy-tale update, ‘and I played a swamp character and a circus contortionist.’ Four times a year, Schneider takes part in Allen’s academy recitals; earlier this month, she strutted new jazz, tap, modern, ballet, and hip-hop skills for its winter showcase. ”With ‘One Fine Day,’ Schneider was finally able to impart her love of dance to fellow Revere classmates. The young choreographer found the rehearsal period frustrating at times, since she was working with many first-time performers. ”’When you memorize a dance, your brain tells you to do it involuntarily,’ Schneider explains. ‘I’d play them the beats, just like I had done at home. Then they’d learn a new move and immediately forget whatever they’d learned right before. But seeing kids who hadn’t danced before do so for the first time’and to my choreography’was really rewarding.’ ”There were other hurdles to overcome in mounting a new musical. ‘The opening song was big. It took about two hours to choreograph, and three weeks to teach it to the dancers.’ Other numbers were even more difficult, ‘especially a duet, because it involved pairing. I was trying to figure out what steps the girl and guy were supposed to do so they didn’t bump into each other.’ Schneider’s biggest challenge came with the actual creation of new rhythm and movement. ‘I combined different kinds of steps. When you’re choreographing, you have to come up with new steps or it’s not your own.’ Schneider’s other interests include acting (she played a Lollipop singer in ‘One Fine Day’), community service (as a member of Revere’s outreach group, the Town Criers), and studying (she is a straight-A student). Supportive in all performance pursuits is one seriously theatrical family’father Mark and mother Jennifer are actors, as is proud grandmother Julie Andrews, a Broadway legend with whom Schneider briefly appeared (a raucous sleepover party scene) in the 2004 film ‘Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement.’ ”’If I do anything in the future, it has to incorporate dance,’ says Schneider. ‘Dance is me.’
This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.
