Tony Awards choreographer Karla Puno Garcia offers the scoop on how the opportunity came together, and what it was like to collaborate with triple-threat host Ariana DeBose.

The summer performance season is already kicking into high gear with works that take a look back, a pop musical’s long-awaited Broadway opening, an intriguing collision of big-name collaborators, and more.

“My partner and I love, love, love sweet potato pie,” says TyNia René Brandon, who uses she/they pronouns. Although the soul food classic is closely associated with holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas, for Brandon, who plays Dolores and is a member of the ensemble in Broadway’s Some Like It Hot, it’s timeless.

Dancing across a hotel ballroom in small-town America seems a world away from performing on Broadway, but for some students, competitions and conventions are an important step toward realizing that dream. Skills honed at these events—the ability to quickly learn choreography in a wide range of styles and perform it immediately afterward—are valuable in securing work in musical theater.

The dominance of what I call the Broadway Body—the hyper-fit, muscular, tall, conventionally attractive, exceptionally able triple-threat performer (one highly skilled in acting, dancing, and singing)—became Broadway’s ideal body as the result of a confluence of aesthetic, economic, and sociocultural factors.

Brittany Nicholas’ onstage and offstage roles blend together in the informal opening of Broadway’s & Juliet. With the house lights still up, ensemble members saunter onstage with mugs and water bottles in hand, breaking the fourth wall by warming up in front of the expectant audience. When it’s Nicholas’ turn to enter, she does so holding a patterned binder, her authoritative role clear as she gives notes to her peers.

With Susan Stroman in charge of the new stage musical,­ opening this month at the St. James Theatre, the dancing will be front and center. Like Jerome Robbins and Bob Fosse before her, she’s a director-choreographer who should really be called a choreographer-director.

Three dancers and a physical therapist share their experiences navigating the energy output necessary for a high level of performance, the preservation of artistic integrity and the maintenance of a healthy, balanced instrument.