Helping Put Everyone’s Best Step Forward

There is one part of the Roger de Coverley dance that makes Erika Schindele laugh every time she teaches it to new cast members, or does her yearly refresher course for returning actors in A Christmas Carol.

Along with her roles as Sally, the Toy Lady and one of the Scavengers, Schindele is the dance captain for the Charles Dickens classic, adapted by Jerry Patch. This means she’s responsible for ensuring one of the most entertaining scenes of the show—the Fezziwig party and its signature Roger de Coverley dance—stays true to the production’s original choreographer, the late Sylvia Turner.

There’s plenty that comes with that role. There are plenty of other marvelous moments of intricate choreography in A Christmas Carol. Schindele plays a big part in making that choreography look as natural as it does. But what is it about the Roger de Coverley that makes her laugh?

“I chuckle every time I teach the skipping part, because skipping is a lost art,” she said. “Have you ever skipped?”

Schindele has a skip in her step whenever she returns for the annual holiday tradition, now in its 44th year. This is her 13th season in the production, beginning her 2011 debut as Belle. She played that role for 10 years, before taking her current roles in 2022.

The dance captain duties came in 2017, as Turner’s health began to fail. Because Schindele has been dancing nearly all of her life, through grade school, high school, UCLA and into a stage and TV career, she was a natural choice—even if she hasn’t been an “official” choreographer outside of school plays.

There is a seamlessness to the movement of every dance, from the opening number to the closing festivities at Fred’s party. Everything has a natural motion—without seeming forced—and every one of those dances advances the story in an entertaining fashion.

That’s the job of a dance captain.

“You’re not the choreographer, but you’re someone in the cast who can maintain the integrity of the dancing once the show opens,” she said. “You’re there to assist the choreographer, but since Sylvia is no longer with us, I’ve taken what she’s done and honored that. You’re responsible for the integrity of dances and if something needs to be fixed or worked on, the dance captain can facilitate that.

“We have had some new elements added, during the opening and a waltz and I’ve helped with that. … We’re honoring the choreography that’s set, but (director) Hisa (Takakuwa) has trusted me with some new things.”

Schindele oversees all of the dances, but she loves talking about the dance that features the skipping—the Roger de Coverley. It’s one of the most upbeat, smile-inducing scenes in the production and Schindele’s voice gets as upbeat as the scene when she talks about it.

“It’s so fun to do and so fun to teach. I look forward to this in rehearsals every year,” she said. “It’s such a lively part of the show.”

Named after a fictional character in Joseph Addison’s and Richard Steele’s The Spectator, the Roger de Coverley is an English country dance; think an 18^th century line dance. It features moves familiar to American square dancing, and an American offshoot went by the name “Virginia Reel.”

Dickens gave the Roger de Coverley its most famous stage and he also brought the dance into his Pickwick Papers. But he didn’t have a literary monopoly on the dance. William Makepeace Thackeray’s short story, The Bedford-Row Conspiracy, used it. So did Emily Bronte in Wuthering Heights, George Eliot in Silas Marner, Harry Thompson in This Thing of Darkness, Washington Irving in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent, D.H. Lawrence in Sons and Lovers and Anthony Trollope in Can You Forgive Her?

It’s that reliance on dancing to further the story and her love of teaching it that puts the skip in Schindele’s step every year. The freedom Takakuwa gives her to build on Turner’s choreography with new moments, such as the waltz at Fred’s party that closes Act 1, and the charge she gets introducing the steps to new cast members every year give Schindele a purpose she can’t wait to share.

“I find it fun to help kids learn their lines and put their bodies in the present. To do choreography or create it that helps further the story, I think is really fun,” she said. “Music and dance and singing elevate the storytelling. When I’m choregraphing, the storytelling is first and foremost with me, making the choreography integral to the story.

“… At the Fezziwig party, the audience is excited for it. Everything’s crackling and bubbling. Everyone’s excited and what’s left to do but dance together?”