December 2016 | Grassroots to Mainstream

In a hot and humid gym on the Mercyhurst University campus in Erie, Pennsylvania, teacher Jon Lehrer was putting some 30 young jazz dance students through their paces. As Lehrer, a former dancer with Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago and founder of Lehrer Dance, extolled plié as “the single most important step for moving,” the dancers appeared to take in this knowledge and experiment with it.The occasion was Regional Dance America’s 2016 Northeast Festival, held June 2 to 4, 2