Swinging On Broadway.

In the dance world, if someone says Lynne Taylor-Corbett, chances are that balletgoers will think Great Galloping Gottschalk. Moviegoers might think Footloose. On Broadway, however, it may not be remembered that she has provided much choreography. Maybe the ill-fated musical Chess is best forgotten. Titanic--hers, too--had minimal dancing. But in the ballet world, Taylor-Corbett's works have been performed by American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet (a couple of Diamond Projects), Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Ohio Ballet, Miami City Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance Theater, Jennifer Muller/The Works, and more. Over the years, she's also choreographed TV shows, commercials, industrials, and videos.

Years in the theater haven't dampened Taylor-Corbett's enthusiasm or her desire to choreograph and direct a Broadway show of her own. "That's why it's really exciting being the director and the choreographer of Swing!" she said during a rehearsal for the show's December 9 opening at the St. James Theatre (previews begin November 2). "In musicals I've usually had nondancers before, and I've not been the director; but this project is what I always dreamed Broadway would be."

Swing! may well be the culmination of what Taylor-Corbett has been working toward all her life. At seventeen she began studying acting with Uta Hagen but was later drawn to dance. "I eventually joined the Alvin Ailey company when it was a group of ten, if you can imagine!"

Essentially, Swing! is a musical revue featuring different styles of swing dancing, from the traditional lindy hop to West Coast and Latin. It's pitched around such hits as "It Don't Mean a Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing," "Blues in the Night," and "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy"--the latter in a hip-hop version. Says Taylor-Corbett, "The show celebrates the cultural fusion that's going on in swing at the moment, and includes story-driven episodes like the `I'll Be Seeing You' number, where Scott Fowler and Carol Bentley do a Gene Kelly kind of ballet.

"I think the show can be enjoyed by everyone," she continued, "from kids new to swing dancing to those who cherish the well-known numbers of a past era. It's not about Broadway dancers trying to pretend they're specialists. We have featured leads like championship lindy hoppers Ryan Francois and Jenny Thomas, who have been dancing together for ten years." (They won both the American Swing Dance Championship and the U.S. Open Swing Dance Championship in 1997.)

Huge amounts of original choreography are required to set the show. Taylor-Corbett says, "I've tried to educate myself in the specificity of each style. It's been a year spent in research--traveling to find specialty dancers, conducting workshops, huddling with Jerry Zaks, the production supervisor, to review material, and constructing the evening to have a dramaturgical flow." At one point, Swing/ literally takes off, with two of the dancers, Beverly Durand and Bentley, flying across in harnesses, thrust into swinging aerobics by partners Aldrin Gonzalez and Fowler.

One expert at virtuosic stage flying is former Olympic gymnast Cathy Rigby, who has been appearing in the musical Peter Pan on and off for nine years and concluding each performance with a spectacular zoom out over the audience. Rigby finished her most recent Broadway stint last August but she wasn't idle for long. After a little R&R in La Mirada, California, where she has her headquarters, she began a national tour that will continue through February.

Under those boyish looks and adventurous postures, however, she's more a Mrs. Darling than a boy who doesn't want to grow up. "I have four children," says Rigby, "and we're always looking for stuff to do, something special. That's why I believe the show is a magical celebration, just like The Nutcracker. It doesn't matter if you've seen it often. It's a tradition."

Rigby turned to acting after her success as a gold medal--winning gymnast. "I had no childhood," she says. "I spent eight hours a day in the gym. But I had twelve years of ballet. It was my biggest asset during my gymnastics career. I always believed that it was incredibly important to have a ballet background. I stress that to people. Unfortunately, the sport has become a little more trick-oriented, and I miss some of the grace that goes with it, the turnout, the line. At the age I am right now, forty-five"--unbelievable!--"I would've had injuries had I not had a ballet background. I'm not just lucky. The numbers we do in Peter Pan [re-created from the Jerome Robbins originals by Patti Colombo] are very difficult. Without that ballet training, there's no way I could do some of the pirouettes, kicks, and jumps. There needs to be a sense of knowing where your body is at all times. Flying is the easiest part because someone else is doing the work. You just have to hold the positions."

For Rigby, a five-foot, 102-pound package of energy, keeping in shape is no problem: "A little warm-up, some aerobics before the show. With four kids, eight shows a week, and all the publicity, I go home, take a hot bath, and go to bed."

As for the future, Rigby plans to go out again with The Unsinkable Molly Brown, which she's performed before with great success. Unsinkable is an apt adjective for this pint-sized athlete.

Hilary Ostlere is a senior editor of Dance Magazine.