A Valentine's Day release with two incredible artists, Jody Reynard and David Bushman! Immensely talented and incredibly humble, our guests this week talk about the road to Broadway for each of them.
JODY REYNARD has been dancing non-stop for almost 30 years!! He has taught musical theatre/Broadway dance classes at dance studios, intensives and educational institutions around the country. He attended the Cobb Center Excellence for in the Performing Arts outside of Atlanta, GA and graduated with a dance major. He then earned a BA in Theatre with Music minor from Kennesaw State University (where he also helped to establish the first dance ensemble, Wings) all while performing with The Atlanta Shakespeare Tavern, The Atlanta Opera and Georgia Ballet. From there, his regional theatre career began with dancing roles in the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, On the Twentieth Century at the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, CT and Mame at the Papermill Playhouse in Millburn, NJ. Soon thereafter he caught the eye of the late Ann Reinking at an open audition and made his Broadway debut in Fosse, dancing featured specialties such as “From the Edge,” “Rich Man’s Frug,” and the “Take Off with Us” adage. Other credits include the Broadway companies of Summer: The Donna Summer Musical, Legally Blonde, Taboo, Saturday Night Fever and the national touring companies of Camelot, Kiss Me Kate, My Fair Lady, Memphis and Chicago. He served as swing and dance captain for the new musical, Roman Holiday, in its pre-Broadway tryout at the Golden Gate Theater in San Francisco, CA. Jody has worked as an assistant choreographer for Denis Jones, Josh Prince, Alex Sanchez and Darren Lee. He can also be seen dancing behind six-time Tony Award winner, Audra McDonald, in the movie musical, Hello Again! Some of his favorite roles include Darren in Take Me Out, Paul Happiness in Thoughts of a Colored Man, Ken in Smokey Joe’s Café, featured dancer with the NY Philharmonic, Omaha Symphony & South Dakota Symphony Orchestras AND substitute instructor of jazz & tap at Wagner College in Staten Island, NY. Jody is also a proud Core Company Member of Quick Silver Theatre Company.
DAVID BUSHMAN began his professional career in classical and contemporary ballet. He received a BFA in Dance from University of North Carolina School of the Arts. While still studying there, David was asked to join the professional company, North Carolina Dance Theatre (NCDT, now known as Ballet Charlotte). He traveled the country with NCDT and danced leading roles in works by the great George Balanchine and the company’s director, Salvatore Aiello. He was then invited to audition for FeldBallets/NY (now known as Ballet Tech) and was hired into the company. For the next three years, he was featured in the vast repertoire of Eliot Feld. David then went on to dance for Les Grands Ballets Canadiens in Montreal, Canada. There, he danced works by renowned choreographers Jiri Kylian, Nacho Duato, Ohad Naharin and many others. Since retiring from concert dance, David has been associated with the hit revival of CHICAGO since 2003. He performed in the first French speaking productions, in Montreal and Paris, and the US National/International touring company. In 2013, he was invited to set the choreography for the US Tour and continued to do so until 2019. He has also set the CHICAGO cho
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