RFKT Q&A with Megan Bartula

Random Farms Kids' Theater recently started offering dance classes in theater jazz and tap for our students in grades 2-4 and 5-9. I sat down with our dance instructor Megan, the latest addition to the Random Farms family, to learn more about her approach to teaching.

You're brand new to Randfom Farms Kids' Theater. Tell me about yourself.

This is my first season with Random Farms. I grew up in Michigan and did competitive dance for ten years. I started teaching dance and ran a competitive dance program there. I went to the University of Michigan. I was in a couple different dance companies, including a tap company and a lyrical dance company, when I realized I loved to tap dance.

What brought you to New York?

Tap! I'm a professional tap dancer. I'm in a big company called Dorrance Dance. It's run by Michelle Dorrance. She's awesome. It's mostly tap, but it's also inspired by other forms of dance. 

What do you like most about teaching?

Oh my goodness, there's not just one thing. I just love it. I love being around kids. They have such great energy. It's really fun teaching here. It's not the first time I've worked with theater kids, but it's the first time I've taught specific types of dance to theater kids. Everyone is so eager to learn. It's great!

If you were talking to a parent who was considering getting their children into dance lessons, what would you say the top benefits are? Would you say, for example, coordination and exercise?

Definitely the things you mentioned, but also structure and discipline. Having something that ties together music and movement is so important. It's more than just exercise and just getting fit, because you can go to gym class or do sports for that. There are great benefits in those things, too, of course, but having the musical aspect of it adds a whole other level of understanding the world around you. It's so important.

Is there anything you want people to know about your philosophy as a teacher? You know, you see the show "Dance Moms" on television, and it's really negative. This is obviously the opposite of that.

Absolutely, this is absolutely the opposite of that! It's all about having fun and learning. It's all about learning the basics and making the kids more comfortable, especially since there's a huge theater program here. Maybe a child wasn't as comfortable dancing in a show as he or she could be. Maybe they were doing a show that had tap choreography, but they didn't know how to tap before. This is a great way to learn the basics and then go from there.

Thank you so much, Megan. And welcome!

Thank you!

You can check out the class schedules here and sign up online.

Doggy Dog Weekend

Legally Blonde's opening nights are right around the corner (do you have your tickets yet?) which means that the pieces of the show are really starting to come together. For this show, that means it's time to bring on the dogs.

Most people remember that Elle Woods' sidekick is her chihuahua Bruiser, who is played by Faith Pyle's dog Sara, above. However, there's another dog in the show who belongs to Elle's hairdresser, Paulette. In her first legal accomplishment as a law school student, Elle helps Paulette get custody of her dog Rufus.

The Random Farms Kids Theater has not one, not two, but three different dogs playing Rufus, including Stella, above, and Oliver, below.

So this past weekend, the actors got to meet the dogs, and the dogs got to meet each other.

Rufus in Cast D will be played by Bella.

Full disclosure: Bella's owner is yours truly, the resident Random Farms photographer and blogger. I don't have kids yet, but I officially became a "stage mom" this weekend when I bought a Legally Blonde cast t-shirt for my dog.  For the record, director Alexis Grausz took one look at Bella in her Random Farms apparel and declared it the moment that I officially lost my mind. This is probably true.

Bella meets Sara... Sara was an angel all weekend long, attending rehearsals for all four casts for hours at time. Bella totally barked and interrupted Noah Ruff, Cast D's Emmett, in the middle of a monologue. In her defense, a parent knocked on the studio door to deliver dinner for their child. Hopefully, no one will knock on any doors or deliver any pizzas backstage during the show.

We also did a quick shoot with each of the three Rufuses with all four Paulettes, including Cast C's Eliza Benfer with her dog Oliver. Keep an eye out for this photo to appear somewhere in the show!

The truth is, the addition of live animals to the production really requires all four casts to bring a whole new set of skills to the stage.  As always, Random Farms' young actors have risen to the challenge. The dogs add a layer of unpredictability to the action on stage, and the cast is learning to adjust on the fly while staying in character. Frankly, it's pretty impressive. I can't wait to see this show, and I can't wait for you all to see it, too.

Legally Blonde... in the press!

Legally Blonde opens in a little more than two weeks, and we are starting to get some great press! Check out this feature on BroadwayWorld.com, for starters.

We also have lots of local coverage featuring our Legally Blonde actors on 21 different Patch sites from our performers' hometowns, including New City, Nanuet, Nyack, Pearl River, Mahwah, Chappaqua-Mount Kisco, Bedford-Katonah, Yorktown-Somers, Peekskill-Cortlandt, Scarsdale, White Plains, Port Chester, Rye, New Rochelle, Pelham, Pleasantville-Briarcliff, Ossining-Croton, Larchmont-Mamaroneck (Michael Albert is the top photo on the front page right now!), Wilton, Greenwich, and New Canaan.

We had a great day shooting hundreds of press photos in the Elmsford studio back on December 9th. Many of those photos are up on Patch! (They're also on Zenfolio if you want to purchase them.)

We had more than 100 kids and teens from four different casts photographed in groups by town, region and coverage zone in three hours. I had so many photo subjects, all of whom need coordinating caption information to go out with press releases, that each person held up signs for the first shot.

The cooperation was nothing less than stupendous.

I was so appreciative of the number of families who dropped off kids before family weddings, in between Nutcracker performances around the region, and so many other things. We know how busy you all are. Parents and teens who carpooled, your efforts to make this happen didn't go unnoticed.

We've had about half a dozen press inquiries in the last few days, so there's more to follow. Thank you all! See you at dress rehearsal!