Each month, Jason Fortner spotlights one or more musical theatre composers and/or lyricists, offering his own unique perspective on the songwriting legends of musical theatre. Send your comments/questions on this column to happgood@aol.com.

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Summer's almost over, and as the last days of the season fly by I got to thinking of a favorite summertime activity - dancing. This got me comparing the various ways specific dances and the notion of dancing have been featured in Broadway musicals over the years. So put on your dancing shoes as we take a glide across the floor, for as NICK & NORA sang in the Charles Strouse / Richard Maltby Jr. musical of the same name, Is There Anything Better Than Dancing?

First up are our location dances…Should we join Maria & Tony and the Gang(s) for the highly energetic Dance At The Gym in Bernstein & Sondheim's WEST SIDE STORY? Or should we conserve our energy and barely move a muscle in the Ascot Gavotte in Lerner & Loewe's MY FAIR LADY? Of course, MY FAIR LADY also features the Embassy Waltz, a chance for all the ladies to swirl in their Edwardian finery. Maybe we should dress down a bit and go with Anna to The Big Check Apron Ball in Bob Merrill's NEW GIRL IN TOWN? Rodgers & Hart had people Dancing On the Ceiling in both EVERGREEN & SIMPLE SIMON while for the trio in Hamlisch & Kleban's A CHORUS LINE, everything was beautiful At The Ballet.

If we're feeling in a penitentiary mood we could do The Cell Block Tango in Kander & Ebb's CHICAGO or dance the Pickpocket Tango in Albert Hague & Dorothy Fields' score to REDHEAD. If blind dates with lonely hearts club pen-pals are your thing, you can always sing the Tango Tragique from Bock & Harnick's SHE LOVES ME or if you're in a more modern mood, you can perform the Tango: Maureen from Jonathan Larson's RENT .

For some Broadway characters, they can't live without dancing, like SINGIN' IN THE RAIN's Don Lockwood who exclaims that he's Gotta Dance in the Broadway Ballet or Helen Gallagher's title character in Styne & Hilliard's short-lived HAZEL FLAGG who stated You're Gonna Dance With Me, Willie! In Styne & Cahn's HIGH BUTTON SHOES Nanette Fabray, as Mama Longstreet, asked the musical question Papa, Won't You Dance With Me? and got the whole cast moving. For the title character in Kreiger & Lorick's THE TAP DANCE KID Dancing Is Everything and he'll go to great lengths to prove it while exhilarated Eliza Doolittle musically proclaimed I Could Have Danced All Night in MY FAIR LADY. Of course, you have to be careful what you wish for, for the character of Victoria Page in Jule Styne & Marsha Norman's THE RED SHOES literally danced herself to death, although only for 5 official performances.

In Flaherty & Ahrens opening number for the tropical themed ONCE ON THIS ISLAND, the characters sing We Dance and explain that all of life's challenges can be overcome through rhythmic movement. In another place and era, the Chorines in Warren & Dubin's 42ND STREET explain that the best way to confront your problems is to Go Into Your Dance (Or if you follow Madame Arcati's advice in Hugh Martin & Timothy Gray's HIGH SPIRITS you can Go Into Your Trance instead!) In the Wright / Forrest / Yeston GRAND HOTEL Flaemmchen asked the musical question Who Couldn't Dance With You? while characters in both CRAZY FOR YOU and Rodgers & Hammerstein's THE KING & I asked the musical question Shall We Dance? And in one of the most energetic examples in recent years, the entire plot of Tom Snow, Dean Pitchford & Co.'s FOOTLOOSE centered around dancing and it's uplifting effects on a populace, even in the middle of nowhere.

As for the dances themselves, they are as wide and varied as Broadway history itself. You might want to get out your Raccoon Coat and go "down on your heels, up on your toes" doing The Varsity Drag in DeSylva, Brown & Henderson's college opus GOOD NEWS. Or perhaps you want Ethel Merman to lead you in a dance, either as the character of Liz Livingston to teach you A New Fangled Tango in Dubey & Karr's HAPPY HUNTING or as Miss Sally Adams in Irving Berlin's CALL ME MADAM. In that show she led everybody in The Washington Square Dance, but a few years later, in what was to be Irving Berlin's last new score for Broadway, Anita Gillete led the cast in doin' The Washington Twist.

In the IRENE revival starring Debbie Reynolds everybody was doing The Riviera Rage while another golden oldie, Youmans & Caesar's NO NO NANETTE invited everyone to Take A Lil One Step. Maria Karnilova's character Signora Pandolfi invited all the boys to Do The Kangaroo in a rousing extended dance sequence in Schafer & Graham's BRAVO, GIOVANNI (featuring other dances such as the Black Bottom & Tango as well). Tom Lehrer invited everybody to join in doin' The Vatican Rag in TOMFOOLERY while the naive lyrics of The Pussy Foot in Leroy Anderson & Walter Kerr's score to GOLDILOCKS comes off as rather bawdy today. There's a dance on deck in Maury Yeston's TITANIC: THE MUSICAL, entitled Doin' The Latest Rag, although keeping your balance in Act Two could prove tricky. . If you have Fidgety Feet you can dance along in the Gershwin's’ OH, KAY! or you can join Florence Henderson in doing the Walla Walla Boola in the "Coconut Girl" sequence of Noel Coward's THE GIRL WHO CAME TO SUPPER.

If your feet aren't tired by now we can always see if we are Born To Hand Jive with the Pink Ladies & Burger Palace Boys in Jacobs & Casey's GREASE or we can learn to dance with Millie and the Brothers in the Goin' Courtin sequence of SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS. Of course, if you need dance lessons, Dolly Gallagher Levi is ready, willing and able to teach "33 year old Chief Clerks to Dance" in Jerry Herman's Dancing number in HELLO, DOLLY! While on the subject of Herman's dancing ladies, Mame Dennis sure cuts a rug in That's How Young I Feel in MAME, not unlike the high kicking antics of another brassy lady, stage star Margo Channing cutting loose in the But Alive number from Strouse & Adams' APPLAUSE. And we can't leave out those girls at the Fandango Ballroom, Nicky, Helene and the lineup give the sexy edge to Cy Coleman & Dorothy Fields' SWEET CHARITY, which later has the showstopping Rich Man's Frug sequence. Of course, you don't want to confuse this with an earlier Fosse dance, The Rich Kid's Rag from Cy Coleman & Carolyn Leigh's rollicking score to LITTLE ME.

Some musicals put dancing in their titles, such as James Shelton's DANCE ME A SONG or the first of the recent Vampire musicals trilogy, Jim Steinman's DANCE OF THE VAMPIRES. Andrew Lloyd Webber, Don Black & Richard Maltby Jr's SONG & DANCE broke it into two very distinct parts, with the second act filling in the dancing sequence. (Leading lady Bernadette Peters found other shows to dance in as well, but in the short lived Hamlisch/Zippel musical adaptation of Neil Simon's THE GOODBYE GIRL, poor Paula found she was always A Beat Behind.) Then there's titles like 2003's NEVER GONNA DANCE, which never got a chance, or the song I Won't Dance from the film version of ROBERTA (Music: Jerome Kern, Lyric: Dorothy Fields) and if you're not exhausted yet, we can end this piece with STEEL PIER, Kander & Ebb's dance marathon musical which continually commands that Everybody Dance…

Till next month…keep Dancing All The Time…like Susan in BIG…or Dancing Through Life like the full of Shiz students in WICKED…or…(I know the song in THE RINK said Never Be A Wallflower, but I think I'll sit the next one out!)