Sadly, Jessica Lee Goldyn has had to give up full time teaching for us due to her performing schedule conflicts. Amazingly, for 2 years Jessica actually agreed to use her night off from A CHORUS LINE in NYC to teach Monday night Jazz classes at Worth-Tyrrell Studios! Thank you so much Jess! But, - be on the look-out, she'll be back teaching occasional Master Classes. She continues to be "Guest Choreographer" for our annual A CHORUS LINE.
Jessica opened A CHORUS LINE as Val to rave reviews and was moved to the role of Cassie (Donna McKechnie/Charlotte D'Amboise role) for the closing week of the show. Again, rave reviews. "Every Little Step" the documentary about the making of A CHORUS LINE features Jessica and is now playing theatres locally.
Before joining the staff at Worth-Tyrrell Studios, Jessica was on full scholarship with us studying Voice, Musical Comedy, Advanced Jazz, and Tap, and also found time to take advanced and intensive Ballet at New Jersey School. She was an assistant teacher for Children's classes by the time she was 11 and by 15 began teaching those classes. (Very, very unusual, - you'd have to know Jessica)
She received an annual arts scholarship stipend from the Children’s Foundation for the Arts, was a featured dancer in CAROUSEL at Papermill Playhouse, and played Clara in New Jersey Ballet’s Nutcracker there when she was a sophomore in high school.
After high school and literally weeks after becoming 18, she auditioned for "Fosse" and signed for the international tour. After a year on the road touring Europe and the U.S. (Danced at the Olympics), Jess returned to NJ, auditioned in NYC and got the role of Val in A CHORUS LINE performing in Akron, Ohio. (Making her a member of Actor's Equity)
Another year and Jess was back teaching Monday night Jazz. Well, until May when she went to Colorado to do PIPPIN. Then back to polish her students' recital routines and choreograph our own A CHORUS LINE before she went into rehearsal for the NYC A CHORUS LINE in June.
When ACL opened, Ben Brantley in the New York Times said: "... the one performer who unconditionally owns her role is Jessica Lee Goldyn, who as Val sings “Dance: Ten; Looks: Three,” an ode to the career-enhancing benefits of plastic surgery. Strutting her chassis with a breasts-forward walk, and speaking like someone who decided as a child that her role models would be Bond girls, Ms. Goldyn creates a deliciously credible study in self-invention."
Immediately after ACL, Jessica starred in "On the Town" at City Center in NYC opposite Tony Yazbeck (her fiancee) and again in CRAZY FOR YOU at Maine State Music Theatre last summer. Link to Playbill Pictures of CRAZY FOR YOU. She's now scheduled to play "Tiger Lily" in Papermill Playhouse's upcoming PETER PAN. Link to PETER PAN on Papermill's Site. Link to Peter Pan blurb on Broadway World.
JESSICA LINKS:
Broadway World's Photo Flash about Peter Pan
Broadway World's release about Peter Pan
JESSICA photos with "On The Town Cast" - Playbill
JESSICA on CBS Evening News
Also Click on Jess's Clips in "Related Videos"
Original Story in the DAILY RECORD
