From the Kickline to the Classroom

FOR MORE than 10 years, Lauren Gaul lit up the stage at Radio City Music Hall and beyond as one of the famed Rockettes.

And though she looks back on those dazzling and demanding performance days fondly, it’s as a professor and program director at the Sands College of Performing Arts at Pace University, where she co-wrote and co-founded the BFA Commercial Dance program in 2012, that she feels most at home.

“Teaching is the best part of my career,” the Ho-Ho-Kus resident says. “As much as being on stage and being with the Rockettes was really important and something I loved while I was doing it, I always knew I wanted to move into teaching, inspiring the next generation of dancers and nurturing talent.”

ROAD TO ROCKETTES

Gaul says, like many, she began dancing at a young age. She joked that “nobody is good when they’re four.” But she stuck with it and began to become more committed and serious about the art as she grew.

Raised outside of Philly, she would spend every day after school at the dance studio honing her skills.

“I would go to school, come home for a quick hour break and then go to dance for most of the rest of the night,” she says. “That was every day of the week, and I did that all through high school.”

As a teenager, Gaul says she began taking part in national conventions to explore different training programs, though she was primarily a tap and jazz dancer.

When it came time to go to college, Gaul says her choices for dance programs were limited; many at the time focused on concert-based styles, like ballet and modern dance. She would end up attending the well-regarded Oklahoma City University, where she graduated with a degree in dance performance.

Many of Gaul’s peers in dance school aspired to become a Rockette or perform on Broadway or national tours, she says. Gaul wasn’t sure it was for her, but despite being too short for the height requirement (she’s 5’4 and ¾; Rockettes at that time were required to be between 5’6 and 5’10.5) she decided to give it a go.

She appeared tall, even next to three 5’9 friends who auditioned alongside her and booked the job on her first try.

“It made my mom and dad really happy,” Gaul laughed. “But of course, I was excited, too. You work your whole life as a dancer and sometimes you could be the best dancer and not be able to book anything; it’s not always about that. To book this high-profile job right out of school was extremely validating.”

Gaul says that though she had doubts that the Rockette life was for her, once she became a part of the legendary troop, she fell in love and would end up staying for a decade— that’s a long run for a Rockette!

The dancer says the Rockettes’ season for the infamous Christmas show is from September through January. But she participated in other year-round events, like promotional media tours, parades or special events/television appearances.

The job looks very glamorous, but it’s also grueling. In a way, Gaul says, that’s what she liked about it.

“Sometimes you’d do four shows a day, and it’s exhausting,” she says. “It was rigorous work and it’s incredibly physically demanding. I liked the challenge of it.”

Gaul was also part of the Rockettes’ national touring company, which would do 21 shows in a week (for reference, Broadway casts do 12 per week).

“All you did was go the theater, dance, try to sleep or eat and repeat,” she says. “In those moments it was hard, because you’re also missing family and holidays. I didn’t have Christmas with my family for 10 years, but the cast really became part of my extended family; we became incredibly close.”

NEXT STEPS

Gaul said in 2007, she began teaching at Pace University in her off-season. At the time, the school didn’t have a dance program, only an acting and musical theater program, which she was hired to teach dance for.

The musical theater program was relatively new, Gaul says, but gaining momentum and would become top-ranked nationally within five years.

She decided if she wanted to continue teaching at a high level, she would need a master’s degree. She applied and was accepted to SUNY Purchase and took a two-year leave from the Rockettes to complete the full-time, demanding coursework.

She returned to the Rockettes after receiving her master’s and would teach as an adjunct or choreograph for Pace when she could. She got wind that the school wanted to implement a BFA program for dance; writing curriculum for such a program had been her final project at SUNY Purchase. She tailored the program to Pace, submitted it, and it was approved.

Gaul said she knew around then that it was time to step down from the Rockettes into a more sustainable yet equally exciting full-time career for her.

“I wasn’t one of those people that always loved performing,” she says. “I found it kind of stressful. But I always loved teaching and knew eventually it’s what I wanted to do. Pace offered me that opportunity. I learned to be a really good teacher and apply pedagogy and methods and doing that at a high level for a university was really my dream.”

Gaul says creating the BFA program at Pace and being able to play an integral role in the direction and vision of it has been incredibly fulfilling for her.

She’s currently the Interim Program Head of the BFA Commercial Dance program, where she teaches courses in everything from Jazz Pedagogy and technique to dance history and the Senior Seminar. Her choreographer and teaching credits are truly too many to list here. A career highlight, Gaul says, is teaching other dancers pedagogy, or how to teach dance to all age levels.

Gaul says in her 17 years with the University, she’s held many roles.

Along with teaching, she’s now heavily involved in running the program and writing curriculum. She recently revamped the college’s Los Angeles semester, where students have the opportunity to study in California with Emmy-winning choreographer Mandy Moore, whose credits include Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour and So You Think You Can Dance among many others.

“It’s fun because I get to collaborate with people like Mandy,” Gaul says. “The faculty are stars in their own right.”

BY SARAH NOLAN