Tyne Stecklein: a quick study with a strong work ethic, this commercial dancer has made strides in Los Angeles

Dance Magazine, Feb, 2008 by Wendy Garofoli

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With crisp delicacy and a soft, pliant quality in her movement, Tyne Stecklein weaves in and out of a tricky showcase piece at the L.A. Dance Magic national competition in Las Vegas. Her long limbs seem to stretch beyond her 5'5" frame, and she dances with a maturity that belies her 19 years. But within Stecklein's softness lies strength and power. Despite her age, in the past year she has navigated the highly competitive dance landscape of Los Angeles with surprising success.

Getting dance gigs in Hollywood has stymied even some of the most seasoned dancers. Yet Stecklein has managed auditions matter-of-factly, trusting in her training and experience. Her all-American looks, coupled with her poise and technique, quickly won over Disney executives. Within a month of moving to L.A., she booked the national tour of High School Musical. (Disney had parlayed its enormously successful television movie into a 42-city tour.) For weeks, Stecklein danced exhausting aerobic choreography by Chucky Clapow alongside the show's stars, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale, and Corbin Bleu. Her Disney streak continued when she was cast in the TV movie sequel, High School Musical 2. She filmed in Utah for nine weeks with a handful of other lead dancers.

Yet Disney's cameras aren't the only ones that love her. In the past year, Stecklein landed a dance contestant slot on CBS's popular Dance Revolution, a role in the pop group Gym Class Heroes' "Cupid's Chokehold" music video, and performed as a ballet dancer in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, an upcoming feature film starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett. In addition, she's landed a print job for Varsity Spirit catalog, a New Year's Eve show at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, and a scene in a new as-yet-unnamed Will Ferrell movie. In it, she'll join John C. Reilley and another girl in a rousing rendition of Vanilla Ice's "Ice Ice Baby," choreographed by Marguerite Derricks.

Stecklein credits her ability to snag such diverse opportunities to her training at Miller's Dance Studio in Aurora, Colorado. At the encouragement of her mother, a dance teacher at the studio, she began lessons at 3. By the time she was 8, she was performing on the studio's competition team, eventually winning such top honors as New York City Dance Alliance's "Outstanding Dancer" award (several years running) and National Teen Miss Dance at the 2002 Spotlight Dance Cup competition. Stecklein studied as many dance styles as her studio offered: jazz, ballet, tap, modern, lyrical, pointe, and hip hop. "Tyne adapts to a wide variety of different dance styles," says the studio's company director Cheri Janz. "I've had dancers who are ballerinas, and when they do hip hop, they look like a ballerina doing hip hop. With Tyne, when she does hip hop, she looks like a hip hop dancer. When she does lyrical, she looks like a lyrical dancer. She's a sponge."

As Stecklein entered her teens, her focus turned to ballet. She began taking additional classes at International Ballet School in Littleton, Colorado, bringing her dance schedule up to nearly 25 hours of class a week. "She put ballet as her priority, and it paid off because her technique is beautiful," says Miller's Dance Studio director Sabrina Helma. Her teachers describe her dancing as energetic and passionate. "She never marked her dancing--ever," says Janz. "She really loves it and lives it."

Stecklein graduated from high school a semester early to join L.A. Dance Magic as an assistant teacher. She toured 16 cities with the company, demonstrating for convention classes and performing in a faculty show each weekend. The connections she made also helped her land an apprenticeship with Mark Meismer's L.A. company Evolution, and a spot as a principal dancer in Justin Giles' Dallas contemporary group Soul Escape. "She's a smart dancer and knows how to use her technique to her advantage," says Giles.

Soon after moving to L.A., Stecklein realized that she wanted a commercial dance career. She found it paid to keep up her training. "It maintains my focus and helps me stay prepared for whatever auditions might come my way," she says. "I've seen dancers cram in last-minute ballet classes because of an upcoming audition. I don't have to do that because I consistently take ballet, jazz, contemporary, and hip hop classes so that I'm ready for any type of audition at any time."

Since moving, she has thrown her energies into studying a variety of dance styles at three major L.A. studios--EDGE, Millennium, and Debbie Reynolds--sometimes ending up at all three locations in one day. After only a year in L.A., Stecklein shows a keen business sense in not only recognizing her youthful appeal, but zeroing in on where she's most viable. "I would love to end up going to New York at some point, but I just feel that as a younger dancer, there is more work in L.A. right now," she says.

Perhaps the lure of brushes with celebrity also keeps her intrigued. Although Broadway and concert dance are long-term goals, Stecklein dreams of the coveted pop tour job. "Being able to tour with artists like Justin Timberlake or Janet Jackson--that would be huge!" she exclaims. After all, Stecklein's had a banner year, and she can afford to dream big.