‘Happy Days’ for choreographer

Happy Days will be Nikoia McKelvie’s 14th time choreographing for Gore Musical Theatre and she is showing no signs of slowing down.

As a hip-hop dance teacher, Ms McKelvie was not as well versed in the rock’n’roll style of dancing in the upcoming musical, but she said she threw herself into it.

"I was like, ‘I don’t know if I can pull this off’, but hopefully I’ve done it justice."

Happy Days is a musical ode to the well-loved ’50s-set sitcom that ran 10 years from 1974 and the dance moves in the show included rock’n’roll and tap.

Ms McKelvie said the cast had a special session in Invercargill last week at the Invercargill Rock and Roll Club to help master the more complicated moves.

But, it was the dance’s signature lifts, from a health and safety perspective, that more help was needed for.

She said the cast had come a long way.

Her 15-year-old daughter Ellie played Joanie in the production and she said there had been some "eye-rolling" at the beginning of rehearsals, but now she was teaching her with ease.

Her favourite number to choreograph was Message in the Music which reveals the musical’s overall theme — through music and dancing, you can find joy.

Southland theatre mainstay Kayla Wilcox and the show’s director Craig Waddell choreographed the one tap routine, as tap was not in Ms McKelvie’s wheelhouse.

For every production she has choreographed for Gore Musical Theatre, Ms McKelvie has been nominated for an Otago Southland Theatre Award.

She faced similar challenges in choreographing the theatre company’s 2021 production of Chicago, as its jazz-style was also not her forte.

She won the award for that production, so she was fairly confident she could do anything she set her mind to.

"I think when I get shows like this, I really throw myself into it and just study it, just so that I can do it justice," she said.

Ms McKelvie studied many videos to help inspire her for Chicago, which had its famous Bob Fosse influence, but she studied burlesque too.

For Happy Days, running August 8-16 at the St James Theatre, she had mainly used her video studying to help with formation.

At the production’s rehearsal on the weekend, the cast had their steps down and Ms McKelvie said they were just in the process of cleaning things up in time for curtain call.

Tickets are available at the St James or on iTicket.

ella.scott-fleming@alliedpress.co.nz