High School Musical premiered on the Disney Channel 20 years ago, on January 20, 2006. To celebrate, Dance Spirit is speaking with some of the films’ key dance figures to examine HSM’s impact on dance and pop culture at large. Next up is a Q&A with KayCee Stroh, who played the iconic role of Martha Cox, aka “Pop and Lock Girl.” (Fun fact: Stroh graced the cover of DS in November 2008!)
In 2005, KayCee Stroh had been having a year. The dancer-choreographer, then living in Salt Lake City, UT, was 21 years old and recovering from knee surgery and a blood clot in her calf. She’d been teaching at studios around Salt Lake Valley when she ran into choreographer Bonnie Story, with whom she’d worked a few years before.
“She said, ‘KayCee, I was just thinking about you! I’m doing this little untitled Disney project, and the director said he wanted all kinds of dancers,’ ” Stroh recalls over a Zoom interview. “As a thicker girl who faced so many no’s and intense body shaming my whole life, it was rare to hear something like that.”
At that point, Stroh faced what she describes as a “fork in the road.” Despite having barely started dancing again, she decided to bring some of her students and audition. Little did she know that it would lead her to booking a role as one of High School Musical’s most beloved Wildcats.
How did you get the gig?
It was the craziest audition I’ve ever done. I was one out of 500, just to be backup dancers. Normally you get a few counts of eight, but [assistant choreographers] Bonnie and Chucky [Klapow] kept teaching more and more. A lot of kids were struggling, and because I was a dance teacher, some of them asked me for help. Unbeknownst to me, Kenny [Ortega, HSM’s director] walked by and saw me teaching them. He was impressed with that.
After my group ran the piece, Kenny grabbed my hands, looked me dead in the eyes, and said, “I love you. You’re different.” To this day, I still get emotional about that. It was a turning point in my self-esteem. In my career. Until then, I had always struggled with the concept of why God gave me this desire to perform when other mentors had told me I didn’t have “the body.” This thing that had always made me feel out of place was the one thing that day that made me shine.
And then I didn’t hear anything for, like, two weeks!
That must have been maddening!
It was torturous! At that point, I was taking one of my competitive teams on a cruise to California. I was literally boarding the ship when my mom called and said, “Don’t get on the boat! Jeff Johnson from casting said you have a callback.” I couldn’t just abandon the kids, so I called Jeff, who said he’d talk to Kenny. Kenny’s response was, “It’s okay. I’ll wait for her.”
He had also picked one of my students, Andrew Winston, which was amazing. When we got back, we had the quickest callback ever. I’m not kidding: “Read the script. Here’s the camera. Okay, go do it.” I made up the “pop and lock and jam and break” choreo on the spot.
Two days later, I got the phone call from Jeff saying to be on set in three days. Everyone else had already been rehearsing and learning the dance numbers. I was the very last hire.
How did filming go from there?
Rehearsals were quick. Kenny said to do everything just like I did in the audition—lots of “Stick to the Status Quo” is me improvising. And to sing really loud, because the track was prerecorded, but he wanted my voice to come through on the mic.
Since I was a late hire, they hadn’t scripted Martha into anything but that moment. But when they sent the dailies to Disney, they loved it and asked to add me into other spots. So the night before shooting “We’re All in This Together,” I learned the choreo from a video Bonnie sent me, and when we got to set Kenny put me in the front. In that moment, I was grateful for my years of competitive-dance training!
How do you view Martha’s evolution across the series?
My role continued to grow. But more importantly—and what I feel so grateful to Kenny and Disney for—is that I think they saw what I wanted to tell young women and kids. I didn’t grow up seeing people like myself on TV. But from the first to third film, Martha goes from this shy, timid character all the way to head cheerleader. I still get messages from people who say, “I almost quit dance because I didn’t look a certain way. But then I saw you up on that screen, so confident and happy!”
My body was never talked about in any of the films, which was rare in the 2000s. It was just, “We love Martha. She’s a part of the team, and look at her shine.” I wanted other girls to know that talent doesn’t have a waist size. I’m very grateful that I got to be the vessel to tell that story.
Do you have any favorite dance memories from the franchise?
HSM 2 was so fun. We were kids with dreams who’d just had their big break, and the people wanted more! In a rehearsal for “Work This Out,” Corbin [Bleu] and I were playing around and tapping (we’re both trained tap dancers), and Kenny saw it out of the corner of his eye. So now you’ll see there’s a little moment between Chad and Martha where we do some drawbacks, wings, and toe work.
Another moment was during HSM 3, when we were exhausted and wrecked. We’d all gotten into a long line to massage each other’s shoulders, and when Kenny saw that, it became the roller coaster in the graduation scene. That number was so bittersweet. Those tears were real.
What about any challenging moments?
Dancers will appreciate this: During [HSM 3’s] “A Night to Remember,” when we put on our prom dresses, Kenny said the character shoes we’d been rehearsing in just didn’t look right. Wardrobe bought us shoes in a different color, but every dancer knows what it’s like to put on a brand-new pair. Oh, my goodness, we were dying. Our feet were bleeding between takes. But looking back, it’s one of the most rewarding numbers to watch. We were so much tougher than we thought! (And you know what? Kenny was right. The shoes looked much better.)
How do you see HSM’s legacy?
To me, the true legacy of HSM is that it made musicals cool. So many people, especially boys, used to be terrified to try out for their school musical. Just a few days ago, I saw my nephew debut as Coach Bolton in his high school show. Plus, there weren’t many projects that provided that much work for dancers. Think of all the talent that came out of HSM. I don’t come from a particularly wealthy family. My father was a truck driver. HSM changed the whole trajectory of my life.
It was like catching lightning in a bottle. As actors, you dream of creating something special that will become a classic for generations to come. What’s so beautiful about those films is that there was something relatable for everyone. There was a character you saw yourself in.
I want dancers of all shapes, sizes, and colors to know that there is a place for them. Fans often say, “You walked so the rest of us could run.” I can’t think of anything that would mean more to me than that. Dance is for everyone. I will die on that hill.