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“I think I’m fascinated with how the body moves. I could watch people and not hear their conversations, just watch their body language and how much you can communicate with movement, for hours,” Jenn Rose, of Second and McKean streets said.
Rose, 29, is a choreographer and put the fancy footwork in “The Flea and The Professor,” the newest children’s theater work at the Arden Theatre Co., running through June 12. The original musical based on the Hans Christen Anderson story made its debut on the Arden stage May 4, and Rose said things were changing up until the end.
“It was awesome. It was great,” she said of the first time she saw the show live in front of an audience. “It was down to the wire. We were changing things up until two hours before the show opened. It was a brand new musical and some of the ideas we had just weren’t panning out.
“It was a pretty crazy process. I had to be on my toes at all times and ready to change things on the spot.”
But once the house opened, Rose got to enjoy some of the perks of choreographing for a younger crowd, something she hadn’t done in the past.
“It’s a kids’ show and, in the lobby, they had a lot of activities for kids — popcorn and a circus scene. Some kids had dressed up as the characters in the play,” Rose said. “When you go into the room and you hear 300 children laughing, it’s the best. It’s exciting. It’s like, ‘Oh my god, this is why we did it. It’s for the kids.’”
This was the first time Rose worked with director Anne Kauffman, which is unusual, Rose said, as choreographers and directors usually come “as a package,” but the duo hit it off right away.
“In musicals, as soon as the music comes on, it’s the choreographer’s turn to take over and enhance the story with dance, not just words and walking and staging,” Rose said. “Sometimes the director and choreographer are just one person. Having two different people [that just met], it’s rare in theater.
“We’re working on the same thing and using different means to tell the same story. It’s the same thing, but it’s a different thing and it’s important that we have the same vision and can collaborate.”
Luckily Rose and Kauffman were in stride, and children — and adults — love the high-spirited production. One of Rose’s challenges came from working with the lead roles, who were seasoned actors, but new to putting on dance shoes.
“This cast is not dancers. They are actors that move,” Rose, who was brought on board in late November, and then began on-stage rehearsals at the beginning of April, said. “I could make dance moves until four in the morning, but I couldn’t do it until I saw them do it.”
Rose was born in a small town outside Allentown, where she danced in a studio for 14 years. When she attended West Chester University, she continued her passion.
“I got involved with a dance minor and I was on the dance team,” Rose, who graduated with a bachelor’s in professional studies, said.
Rose admited to being less than focused in her undergraduate studies, and recalled getting involved in a production of “Hair” that led her to the “’60s mentality, doing the whole: This is what I’m doing, and this is what I’m going to do!”
But through it all, she was drawn to the movement.
“I was an athlete in college and that attracted me to how to manipulate things. I was attracted to sports medicine and originally thought I was going to be a sports therapist. But then I got a D in anatomy,” Rose said with a laugh. “In the world, people don’t dance down the street. I just enjoy the body and how it can express without words. That’s my job when I choreograph. It’s my job to make up the physical language of what the actor needs to look like when they are singing this song.”
Despite struggling with her initial studies, Rose excelled professionally when she committed to theater, first moving away from West Chester when she happened on gig at a New Jersey-based theater, where she met her current roommate — and “The Flea and The Professor” music director — Dan Kazemi.
“It’s a goal of mine to start performing more,” Rose, who currently focuses on tap and modern dance, along with dance theater, said. “I just performed. I made this tap piece. The tap scene in Philadelphia is a great community. There are random, small little performances throughout the year.”
Rose will start work next on a stark departure from the current production when she tackles the dance moves in “The Great American Trailer Park Musical,” but she urges children of all ages to come out and see the Arden production of “The Flea and The Professor.”
“I’d say there is a lot of magic. There is a lot of mystery and the story line is one that is, it’s just whimsical and it’s fun,” Rose said. “It will get kids thinking. There were brilliant minds that came together to do this production.” SPR
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