GREENSBORO — Students in the Centerstage Youth Performing Group at Community Theatre of Greensboro have won a national social media dance-off and earned a free license of the musical, “Getting to Know… Footloose.”
As a result, CTG will save about $1,400 in royalty fees when it produces the show during its 2019-20 season, said Roz Fulton, CTG’s education director.
The New York City-based educational theater company, iTheatrics, partnered with R&H Theatricals to launch the release of “Getting To Know… Footloose,” an educational version of the musical now available for licensing.
Based on the movie, “Footloose” is the iconic story of young people coming together to leave the past behind and fight for their right to dance.
R&H Theatricals represents the stage performance rights to over 150 musicals by more than 200 writers.
During September and October, R&H Theatricals and iTheatrics hosted a dance challenge on social media entitled #FootlooseFridays.
iTheatrics opened up its social media dance floor so that educational musical theater groups across the country could take part. Groups posted videos of themselves performing their own choreography to a 40-second clip from the show’s finale. The videos were adjudicated anonymously.
Watch CTG’s video by clicking here. Participating students were Trinity Evans, Annie Conrad, Shaina Luft, Kayia Morrow, Ezra Arndt, Regan Heberle, Jaxon Garner, Carlie Shaner, Cassidy Fields, Mira Eby, Julia DuMond, and Justice Reeves-Burke.
Centerstage students will attend the Junior Theatre Festival in Atlanta, Ga. over Martin Luther King Jr. weekend in January.
In addition to CTG, other winners were The Rose Theater in Omaha, Neb.; Edge Dance & Performing Arts Center in Plano, Texas, and Stage Door Productions in Memphis, Tenn.
The organizations will have the opportunity to license the show for free. iTheatrics also adapted “Footloose” into a Getting To Know… student version.
“Getting To Know… Footloose” features a running time of approximately 60 minutes, music in keys perfect for young voices, accompaniment and guide vocal recordings, as well as teacher-friendly resources including a production guide and instructional choreography videos.
“At its core, ‘Footloose’ is about young people changing their world for the better through the arts,” iTheatrics founding chairman Timothy Allen McDonald said in a news release. “It’s only natural that we celebrate this show in a way that shines the spotlight on the talent, creativity, and enthusiasm of this exciting generation of young performers.”
Dawn DeCwikiel-Kane, Greensboro News & Record
