The Hartt School opened the musical, _On Your Toes_, on Wednesdayw with its first performance in Lincoln Theater.

Alan Rust, director of the musical, proclaims, “It’s a musical and it’s really a grand celebration of probably the oldest form of human expression which is music, dance, and storytelling or theater”.

This show was written by Richard Rogers and Lorenz Hart in 1935, set during the Depression era. The show is about a student who attends a music school, and the student writes a jazz piece that they want to turn into a ballet, illustrating how the performing arts ultimately bring people together.

This show has a collaboration between the instrumental studies, dance, and theater sections of the Hartt School, with 120 Hartt students working on this production.

For the last fourteen years, Rust has pushed to do this show, and finally last spring, the Hartt School decided to do it because they felt that they had the right students to be able to pull it off.

_On Your Toes_ is a very rare musical for any institution to perform simply because of the levels of talent and expertise needed in order to perform this show.

“Because the University of Hartford has an elite performing arts school such as the Hartt School, we’re able to get the students to pull it off,” Rust says.

There are two more dates for the show, Friday October 24 at 7:30 pm and Sunday October 26 at 3:00 pm in the Lincoln Theater.

Tickets are free for students, faculty, and staff with a University ID. Tickets can be bought at the University Box Office by calling either 860-768-4228 or 800-274-8587. Tickets can also be bought at the box office website, https://app.arts-people.com/index.php?ticketing=uoh01.