George Washington Elementary students rehearse for Beyond Broadway performance

A group of young people, both children and adults, are gathered together in a gymnasium or performance space, some standing and others sitting on the floor, with a curtain or stage backdrop visible in the background.

Dec 12 2025

The show must go on! Fifth-grade students at George Washington Elementary School are practicing for their performances with the help of instructors from Dance Cavise as a part of the Beyond Broadway program. Students began rehearsing during the first week of December.

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On Thursday, students in Melissa Velez’s and Allison Goldentaier’s classes completed multiple run-throughs of their performances. Jenna Eberhardt, one of the dance instructors at Dance Cavise, guided the students through their steps, showing them different techniques to ensure a successful performance.

“The program's designed to be really accessible in terms of the language we're using,” said Ms. Eberhardt, “So they're learning stage directions, and it's really a lot of teamwork.”

“They love it. They're obsessed with it,” she continued. “And I think because the fifth grade does shows for the rest of the students, they look forward to doing it in fifth grade. They know what it is. They've seen it many times now and it's their turn, so they're excited.”

Click here to read about the Beyond Broadway performance at Church Street Elementary School last month! With support from the Friends of White Plains Public Schools, each elementary school in the district offers the program for fifth graders during the school year.

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Ms. Velez’s class will perform “Steam Heat,” from “The Pajama Game,” and Ms. Goldentaier’s class will perform “Friend Like Me,” from “Alladin.” Students are beginning to feel ready for their final show in January, despite many of them having very little dance experience.

“Sometimes we forget a little bit of stuff or we do it too quickly, so we have to restart, but most of the time it's good,” said James Solis Ramos, a student in Ms. Velez’s class.

“Some of us go on the stage, and some of us have different parts,” he said, explaining the performance. “Some of us duck down and the other people in the front perform, like Matteo, he goes in the middle and he screams on a very high pitch. And some people have solos, like me, Brania and Matteo.”

A major theme of the program is teaching students how to collaborate with each other. They need to work as a team with their entire class in order to have a successful performance. Even in one rehearsal, it was clear that the students were syncing up with their peers and improving quickly.

“We kind of learned how to work together to put everything in motion,” said Matteo Ausserlechner, who is also in Ms. Velez’s class. “We learned how to use better teamwork and how to do things better together.”

Students will perform for their younger classmates in January.

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The image shows a group of people, likely students, engaged in what appears to be a dance or movement-based activity in a classroom or performance space with rows of chairs in the background.

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The image shows a group of people, likely students, engaged in some kind of physical activity or dance performance on a wooden floor with curtains in the background.

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