ANYTHING GOES director Chyrel Miller has watched graduates of her dance program go on to take bows on cruise ships, national tours, and even Broadway.

Her own resume boasts elite dance training in Chicago, New York, and Paris. Miller began teaching at the university level when she was barely old enough to be a student herself and she has continued to master new styles. For all the rigor and exacting standards she has endured throughout her career, Miller makes sure that joy is at the center of her sessions.

“Community theatre is supposed to be fun, and you need to feel good about yourself when you leave. It takes a lot of courage to come to auditions and rehearsals,” Miller acknowledged. “The point is that no matter what they’ve got, no matter where they get to, by opening night when the curtain opens, they feel confident, and they feel good about themselves. It’s my job to make that happen, and they should never feel discouraged about what they’re doing.”

A childhood illness caused Miller to be clumsy, which her parents tried to correct through dance classes. At just four years old, Miller began her life of dance in a tap class at Barbara Fisher’s School of Dance on the 4^th floor of the Vandivort building next door to the Landers Theatre. Soon, she was spending all her spare hours dancing.

“Being an only child, the dance studio became my social outlet, my rehabilitation, and my learning. I lived there Monday through Friday after school. On Saturdays, I went in at 10:00 AM then got home about 6:00 PM in the evening. I did that all throughout grade school, all through junior high school. When I got to be 11 or 12, if you were good enough, Barbara took the students who were there to Chicago for the summer to study at the Ruth Page Ballet School. I got to go every summer.”

The Joffrey Ballet was opening a second studio in Chicago when Miller got old enough to audition. She faced three rejections, but eventually she was offered a position. “Finally, they accepted me. In my ending days of high school, I took off and went to study with the Joffrey ballet. I got to go there.”

After graduating high school, Miller was getting contract offers in New York, but she was looking for more stability and a longer career. She asked the late Dr. Wayne McKinney if he knew of any teaching jobs. The timing was perfect. One of three dance faculty with Missouri State University – then SMSU – had just left. The job was Miller’s on the spot. She began teaching and simultaneously earned her undergraduate degree in Kinesiology from MSU followed by a masters in Exercise Physiology from Wichita State University.

What Miller didn’t expect was the pivot she would make from classical dance to musical theatre. The late Dr. Bob Bradley approached her to choreograph MSU’s production of CABARET. Looking back, Miller laughs that she didn’t know the show, musical theatre style dance, or even the name Bob Fosse. She admits that her style was more ballet than jazz, but it led to more opportunities. Bradley asked her to move into the MSU theatre department and direct. She accepted, but she had one important detour, first.

“I took off and started studying in New York with every current jazz teacher that I could find, thus I found [Broadway legends] Ann Reinking and Gwen Verdon at Steps and went, ‘Who are you?’” Miller laughed. “Going way back to Barbara Fisher’s studio, I took a bunch of kids, and they and I went to Broadway Dance Center and had dance classes for a dollar with Gregory and Maurice Hines. I studied Fosse forever with anyone I possibly could.”

Miller has now directed nearly every famous Fosse title for Springfield Little Theatre. Her former students Deirdre Goodwin and Michelle Potterf even went on to roles in CHICAGO on Broadway. Goodwin starred as Velma Kelly and Potterf played Go-To-Hell Kitty and was a Roxie Hart understudy.

After the success of CABARET at MSU, Dr. Byrne Blackwood asked Miller what she would like to tackle next. She ambitiously said A CHORUS LINE, although the rights were just barely becoming available. To their surprise, their application was accepted for the first non-equity production. The pressure was on for Miller to really step up and impress. Former SLT Executive Director Mick Denniston arranged to see a final dress rehearsal. He recognized her incredible talent and called Miller the following spring, asking her to direct at Little Theatre.

“Mick and I ended up with a relationship that I will cherish for my whole life,” Miller smiled. “He was funny, he was weird, he was gutsy, and he had drive and energy like [current SLT Executive Director] Beth [Domann] does, only maybe ten times more. He was young. Beth was his Education Director. Chuck Rogers he had brought over from Missouri State as his tech director. Everybody that was there was young, including me, at the time.”

From there, Miller’s life became a whirlwind of MSU productions, SLT productions, Tent Theatre, and shuttling students to dance intensives in New York. From 1969 to 2000, she was always on her toes.

“I was around those kids constantly and The Landers offered me the opportunity to fulfill my raging desire to direct and choreograph shows,” Miller explained. “MSU gave me a show in the fall, a show in the spring, and two Tent shows. I was just hungry. I filled in with all the Landers shows. So, by the time I got to 2000, I finished up at The Landers Theatre with SOPHISTICATED LADIES in June. I retired at the University because I had started so young. I now had full retirement benefits, so I left, and when I had been in New York one summer, I found Pilates.”

While taking summer dance classes in New York, Miller was feeling the ache of stressing her body to extremes for decades. She had once suffered eight broken ribs and a broken back while performing a pas de deux. Her fellow classmates recommended she incorporate Pilates into her routine to alleviate pain. In 2000, the fitness regimen was just reaching America. Classes were one-on-one by appointment only. Miller attended her first session and loved it.

“I decided that’s what I wanted to do for a living, so I applied for a sabbatical from the University. Totally thought I would not get it. They gave it to me,” Miller said. “So, I moved to Toronto, which is where I needed to be, and studied for a year and got fully certified. One of the first fully certified Pilates instructors in the United States.”

For the next decade, Miller focused on building the first Pilates studio in Springfield. Even SLT Executive Director Beth Domann became certified in Pilates under Miller’s instruction. Business was booming when Miller decided to step back from the studio. Domann immediately beckoned Miller back to SLT. Of course, her triumphant return was a Fosse production.

“I came in and did CHICAGO in 2011. My only requirement was that Bill [Hale], and I get married in the intermission of Chicago and Beth marry me,” she laughed. “So, we did that, and I used the chorus girls of CHICAGO in their fishnets and bare midriffs as my bridesmaids, and I used the guys in their jazz pants and leatherette covered in oil and glitter as my groomsmen, and we filled The Landers Theatre with champagne.”

ANYTHING GOES brings Miller back to her roots of tap and she recruited a former student to assist with the choreography. Felecia Black specializes in classic big Broadway showtune tap dancing. Together, they created a spectacle that incorporates a talented cast with varying levels of tap experience.

“You can’t bring them in and give them something that makes them not want to audition and be scared and to say, ‘I can’t,’” Miller dictated. “That’s my philosophy on auditions for musicals and working with the people at The Landers. I find that if you pick up those people that literally have the nerve and the energy and vivaciousness to come out and do it, that in 16 weeks when the curtain goes up, you will look fabulous.”

Miller and Black make a ‘perfect blendship’ team and are proud of the cast of ANYTHING GOES going into opening night. Miller is confident that they are ready to ‘wow’ the crowds.

“You’re building a theatre audience. If they never do a dance number again and never do a show again, if they can come back and appreciate what’s on stage and applaud for those people, you’ve succeeded.”

ANYTHING GOES runs June 12 – 28 at Springfield Little Theatre. Tickets are available now.