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Red Deer Dancer performing in U.S. musical

Georgina Moore never imagined the tap-dancing classes she started in Red Deer would launch her on a journey to the Big Apple and beyond.Yet that’s what’s happened for the talented 20-year-old, a soon-to-be graduate of New York’s American Musical and Dramatic Academy. She will be performing in a U.S. touring company of the musical 42nd Street.“My Red Deer teachers are not forgotten,” said the Red Deer-raised singer and dancer.
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Georgina Moore

Georgina Moore never imagined the tap-dancing classes she started in Red Deer would launch her on a journey to the Big Apple and beyond.

Yet that’s what’s happened for the talented 20-year-old, a soon-to-be graduate of New York’s American Musical and Dramatic Academy. She will be performing in a U.S. touring company of the musical 42nd Street.

“My Red Deer teachers are not forgotten,” said the Red Deer-raised singer and dancer.

Moore credits Jody Liptak, Judy Dorland and other local dance instructors for giving her a solid foundation of skills and discipline. These ultimately helped her nab a chorus role in a “show within a show.”

The stage musical of 42nd Street, adapted from the 1933 film, is about putting on a big Broadway musical during the Depression. Moore was among 400 young dancers who auditioned in New York for a role in the national touring company. Although it was her first professional audition, and it was strung out over a week of gruelling call-backs, she ended up being among 15-or-so women who made it into the ensemble.

“It was really a credit to all the jazz and tap I learned in Red Deer,” said Moore, who left this city at age 14 to carry on with dance training at the School of Alberta Ballet in Calgary.

As an 18-year-old she moved to New York City in 2013 to study dance, singing and acting at the academy. While Moore admitted she was initially “overwhelmed” by the fast-paced life in the busy city, she said, “the program really helped me figure out what I wanted to do, and my confidence has grown.”

So far, she’s one of only two graduating students from the academy to land a professional musical theatre role.

“I think it’s a good start, right out of school,” said Moore, who will sing We’re In the Money, Shuffle Off to Buffalo, Lullaby of Broadway and other favourites when 42nd Street opens in Salt Lake City, Utah, on Sept. 22.

Her family, including her mother, Christine Moore, PC candidate for Red Deer North in the next provincial election, plan to attend that show. Moore, who’s still figuring out how she can vote for her mother while living in the U.S., will continue touring with the company throughout the U.S. until the fall of 2016.

She then hopes to successfully audition for a Broadway show, or become one of the Radio City Rockettes.

If she does link up with the high-stepping Rockettes, Moore will be following in the footsteps of Lacombe’s three Jantzie sisters, who all danced as Rockettes together — although Alison recently stepped down from that chorus line.

Instead, she’s now making her Broadway debut in a revival of Gigi, starring Vanessa Hudgens of High School Musical fame. Alison fills the role of “swing,” understudying all the female ensemble parts, and is also dance captain for the show.

Moore remembers learning some dance moves from Alison during one of her classes in Red Deer. She thinks its wonderful that she’s still in touch with the Jantzies, and that Central Alberta dancers are staking out some territory in New York City.

lmichelin@www.reddeeradvocate.com