Of course, there will be sparkles aplenty when the Ignite Dance Live convention comes to Bethel Park High School on Saturday. But if anyone knows life beyond pink tutus and “Dance Moms,” it’s Rachelle Rak.
“What we’re trying to bring to the table is a little bit of L.A., a little bit of New York and a little bit of Broadway,” said Ms. Rak, a Green Tree native who was honored with the 2017 Broadway HERO award for HIV/AIDS activism.
“Dance Moms” icon Abby Lee Miller will be there with her team; the Lifetime series will shoot an episode at the school that day.
The marquee-name draw is JoJo Siwa, the 15-year-old breakout star of the second “Dance Moms” generation. JoJo, with her 8 million-plus followers on Instagram and line of accessories at shopping mall Claire’s stores across the nation, will be making an appearance, as well as handing out 2,000 hair bows.
(For the “Dance Moms” uninitiated, the spritely blonde wore a wild assortment of hair ornaments when she appeared on the spin-off “Abby’s Ultimate Dance Competition” in 2013, thus earning the nickname “JoJo With the Bow-Bow.”)
She’s won a Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Award and has been touring as a singer.
The JoJo pop phenomenon isn’t hard to understand. Although she didn’t win “Abby’s Ultimate Dance Competition” the season Ms. Rak was a judge, she charmed audiences. She joined the Penn Hills-based Abby Lee Dance Company briefly before it set out for Los Angeles. It’s back in Pittsburgh again.
“They [the ‘Dance Moms’ producers] are giving this Season 8 a big push and they’re bringing it back to where it began,” Ms. Rak said. “I think that’s super-important and I think JoJo coming here celebrates that. Even though she is from Nebraska, Pittsburgh is part of her story.”
Ms. Rak, who is partnering with Sandra Coyte and David Palmeri on Ignite Dance Live, has had quite the career, beginning with lessons in her mother Rosalene Kenneth’s studio. From there it was on to a touring company while she was still in high school (“I didn’t go to college, I went to ‘Cats’,” she said cheerfully).
From there, it was Broadway and other professional gigs, including a feature turn in the 2018 Rebel Wilson comedy, “Isn’t It Romantic?” (She’s the one in the fringed red dress next to Ms. Wilson in the big dance number).
It was through her longtime association with “Dance Moms” star Abby Lee Miller that Ms. Rak became involved in a format that will be used in part Saturday.
It’s a convention but also a teaching opportunity, she said. There will be classes involving dance, but also “bringing the cameras into the room, teaching them how to be on set,” said Ms. Rak, who will co-host with Marty Thomas.
Guests include well-known names such as choreographer Christopher Gatelli (Broadway’s “The Cher Show,” “My Fair Lady”), performer/associate choreographer Paul McGill (Broadway’s “A Chorus Line”), performer associate choreographer Mark Mayers (Broadway’s “Dear Evan Hanson,” “The Cher Show”), performer Lenora Nemetz (Broadway’s “Gypsy”) and performer/associate choreographer Charlie Williams (Broadway’s “Frozen,” “The Cher Show.”)
Mr. McGill and Ms. Nemetz are Pittsburgh natives. Ms. Rak said one of the biggest things the professional dancers will be able to impart on the youngsters who participate in what will be called “Show Nite” Saturday is this: “We are going to design a program for parents and teachers so they know how to handle rejection, how to help their kid handle rejection.
“It’s one thing we never touched on when I was coming up. Parents didn’t know how to say ‘Well, I don’t know why you didn’t get it.’ They don’t know how to be that support system when their child wants to be in show business.”
The Ignite Dance Live convention opens its doors at 9 a.m.
“These are people who have lived it and are living it,” Ms. Rak said of her friends. “We are keeping it in the now.”
Maria Sciullo: msciullo@post-gazette.com or @MariaSciulloPG.
First Published: March 28, 2019, 4:00 a.m.
