Hilliard’s Kellie Drobnick dances with Rockettes, ‘West Side Story’
On the stage of the Radio City Music Hall, she’s one of the Rockettes; on movie screens everywhere this winter, she’s one of the young women who dances with the Jets.
But back in her home state of Ohio, Hilliard-born-and-raised dancer Kellie Drobnick is known as a graduate of the NorthPointe Dance Academy in Lewis Center who has made good.
“A lot of the younger dancers really, really look up to Kellie, and maybe remember her when they were really little and she was a senior,” said NorthPointe artistic director Barb Coman, who taught Drobnick from the age of 8 through high school. “She has quite a following at the dance studio.”
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It’s easy to see why Drobnick, now 27 and living in New York City, has a bit of a fan club: In early November, she debuted as a newly minted member of the Rockettes, the famed troupe of high-kicking dancers whose “Christmas Spectacular” is performed each holiday season at Radio City Music Hall.
And right now, she can be seen in movie theaters around the world in Steven Spielberg’s new version of the Broadway musical “West Side Story” as a Jet Girl, one of the dancers — girlfriends of the gang the Jets — featured in the musical’s famous gym dance scene.
(Drobnick isn’t the only Greater Columbus native in “West Side Story”; Gahanna native Mike Faist has a starring role as Riff.)
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Kellie Drobnick: A passion for dance
Drobnick’s banner year is the culmination of a lifelong love of dancing.
“It’s something that I had a huge passion for at a young age,” Drobnick said in a recent interview with The Dispatch.
Her parents, Jerry and Shelley Drobnick of Hilliard, sound a bit overwhelmed by it all. In November, they traveled to New York to see her as a Rockette(before the Rockettes, citing the pandemic, canceled their remaining performances of the season on Dec. 17).
“It was one of the biggest thrills to see her in the show,” said Jerry Drobnick, who works in technology at Hilliard City Schools.
And the proud parents, joined by about 15 friends, saw “West Side Story” the night it opened in early December.
“Honestly, I had tears when I watched it (and) tears when I saw her name on the credits,” said Shelley Drobnick, a teacher at Darby Woods Elementary School.
Kellie Drobnick says that she started dancing as a way to emulate her older sister, Kasie, who was already taking dance lessons. (The Drobnicks also have a son, Michael.)
“I would just watch outside of the dance room,” Kellie Drobnick said. “They put me into classes at the age of 3, and the rest is kind of history.”
She started at Dance Connection in Hilliard, and by the time she made her way to NorthPointe five years later, it was clear that Drobnick’s passion for dancing was no passing fancy.
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“You know how they talk about star quality?” Coman said. “It sounds so funny now that she’s been in a movie, but I’ve been saying this about Kellie since she graduated. There was something special about her.”
But Drobnick, a graduate of Hilliard Davidson High School, did not take the path of many future performers by focusing on her talent to the exclusion of ordinary adolescent activities.
“We also worked really hard for her to have an outside life,” Shelley Drobnick said. “She was a cheerleader and she was in student council.”
Yet early trips to dance competitions in New York City cemented young Kellie Drobnick’s career goals.
“She said she was going to live in New York City, she wanted to go to Juilliard and she wanted to dance,” Shelley Drobnick said.
Check, check and check.
Setting the stage for dance success
In 2012, Kellie Drobnick moved to New York to attend the Juilliard School, where she studied dance. After graduating in 2016, she pursued every opportunity that came her way. She appeared in a national touring production of the musical “Dirty Dancing” and then danced for choreographer Twyla Tharp.
“(Tharp) expects so much out of you,” Kellie Drobnick said. “I feel like I was the best dancer when I worked for her, just because of her eye for dance and the knowledge that just pours out of her.”
Then, in November 2018, Drobnick went up for “West Side Story,” a long process that involved dancing, singing and reading lines over multiple auditions. She wanted badly to be in the movie, but, as a seasoned pro, she knew the odds were steep.
“In New York, you just have to audition and forget about it because you audition for so much, you can’t dwell on all the auditions,” she said.
Getting the call for ‘West Side Story’
But in February 2019, the phone rang. The movie would begin shooting in the summer, and she was going to be in it.
“It was a life-changing phone call,” she said.
Drobnick, whose character is named Mamie, is one of 12 Jet Girls. During workshops and rehearsals ahead of filming, the dancers worked with choreographer Justin Peck (tapped by Spielberg with reimagining Jerome Robbins’ original choreography) and a certain Oscar-winning director who would pop in.
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“Steven would come in and just give his feedback,” Drobnick said. “He is the most genuine human — so down to earth.”
When filming began, Spielberg, who had never before made a musical, was enthusiastic about what the dancers were doing.
“We would finish a shot and he would scream, ‘That was fire!’” she said. “He was so excited about it, which made all of us … just so giddy.”
Although Drobnick had appeared on camera before, she received some words of wisdom from the director of “Jaws” and “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.” During one shot, Spielberg asked her to look directly at the camera. Drobnick added a little flourish that turned out to be unnecessary.
“I did this little thing with my eyes, where I look down and up,” she said. “(Spielberg) was like, ‘No, just stare into the camera.’ That opened my eyes. Sometimes simple is better.”
In August, amid the long, pandemic-related delay of “West Side Story” reaching movie theaters, Drobnick auditioned for and won a spot in the Rockettes.
“I got the call a week later, which was definitely quicker than I got the ‘West Side Story’ call,” she said. “It’s one of the most challenging things I think I’ve ever done — schedule-wise, the amount of kicks you do in a show. … You just feel like a superwoman once you get through it all.”
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Although her Rockettes season was cut short, Drobnick hopes to be asked back to the troupe when auditions take place in April.
In the meantime, “West Side Story” is still in theaters, and Drobnick is looking for her next opportunity.
“I know eventually I want to do Broadway,” said Drobnick, who considers herself primarily a dancer but who has been taking voice lessons since graduating from Juilliard.
“My voice teacher always tells me I’m going to book something just for my vocal skills,” she said. “I don’t know that I would ever get to that.”
Then again, between the Rockettes and the Jets, she’s done pretty well for herself so far.
“I just like to put myself out there for everything,” she said, “and audition and see where the wind blows me.”
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