Under the lights, they danced. They twirled and snapped and stomped until beads of sweat slid off their chins.

“Five, six, seven, eight! Left, two, three, four!” shouted Jeremy McQueen, a featured dancer in Wicked, currently at Fair Park Music Hall through June 27.

McQueen and Sterling Masters, who plays the mother of the Green Witch, taught about 80 people some wicked dance moves Saturday at the Majestic Theatre. For nearly two hours, the pair glided across the stage and entranced onlookers.

The contemporary music blasting onstage was a sharp contrast to the ruby-colored velvet seats and towering chandeliers of the historic theater. The likes of John Wayne, Mae West and Bing Crosby have performed at the Majestic, and some of the workshop participants were inspired by the history there, convinced that music and dancing connects people.

Alex Sutherland, a 15-year-old from Carrollton with curly red hair and amber eyes, wants to be a cast member of Wicked one day. When she first stepped onto the old stage, she thought it was kind of “creepy.”

“But it’s an honor to dance where famous people have stepped,” she said.

McQueen warned the group that in performing arts, nothing is fresh.

“Everything we consider new today isn’t new at all,” he said, snapping his fingers for effect.

One young Dallas woman has dreamed for several years of taking pointers from professionals. When she lived in Mexico City, Ana Larranaga danced in a theater company and fell in love with Wicked.

Yesterday, the 17-year-old twirled and tapped next to her heroes.

“When I’m on the stage, I feel openness,” she said of dancing. “Throughout the years, theater can change, but it always will connect us.”

Two hours after she entered the “creepy” halls of the Majestic, Sutherland was even more inspired to continue her career in dance.

“I love moving my body in different ways and expressing emotion and telling stories,” she said. “And this just makes me want to be in the show even more.”
{ Via Dallas News}