- Five, six, seven, eight.
- [Jay] As the third of seven kids in a blue collar family
on the West Side, Randy Duncan says he was always
a little different than his siblings.
- (Randy) My brothers were all involved in sports.
I wanted to twirl the baton,
I wanted to jump Double Dutch and
anything that has movement in it that was pretty.
I enjoyed watching musicals on television,
whether it was Shirley Temple or whether it's
Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers
or something coming on PBS.
I just really, really love that.
I love the costuming, I love the lights.
I love everything about it.
One more time and then lift.
- [Jay] Taking classes was out of the question he says,
so his first lessons came from a surprising place.
- Bozo's Circus is on the air.
- [Jay] Like most Chicago public school kids in the 1960s,
Randy came home for lunch.
- You got an hour for your lunch break.
So I would rush home from school every day.
And at the 12:30 hour,
I knew they were gonna have their guests on
and I was hoping it was the acrobats.
- [Jay] Randy studied the acrobats,
every flip, twist and back bend.
- And I would go outside and try the tricks,
everything that they did.
- [Jay] Then came the movie that set the course
for his career.
- West Side Story came on television,
seeing those guys dressed up in just regular street clothes
and dancing and synchronization
and telling a story.
That is what I want to do.
- Up. Good. - [Jay] Randy was in
seventh grade and by chance, the following year,
he saw a notice about auditions for an
all-city high school "West Side Story."
- And the poster also said that, you know,
they were looking for acrobats.
Mind you, I didn't even know what an audition was.
I didn't really know the meaning of it.
Rise. Three, four, five.
- [Jay] More than a thousand students tried out,
many who clearly had a lot of training and experience.
Randy was sure he didn't have a prayer,
but in that huge auditorium,
he took a chance that changed his life.
- Something came over me to raise my hand
in the middle of all the, you know, a thousand folks
and say, excuse me,
I thought you said you wanted acrobats as well.
And they said, can you do any?
And I said, well, yeah.
And they said, well, come on up and show us.
So here I am with my little eighth grade self
get up there on stage.
And I started doing my acrobatics from Bozo's Circus.
Next thing you know, I'm a Shark.
One more time.
- [Jay] Randy's star rose quickly.
The choreographer of that show invited him
to train on scholarship.
He became a professional dancer at age 15 when he was
invited to join the Joseph Holmes Dance Company.
19 years with Joseph Holmes,
the last seven as artistic director.
- So I don't want so much arch in the air.
You know what I'm saying?
- [Jay] Now he's Chair of the Dance Department at
Chicago Academy for the Arts,
where he's been teaching since 1994.
- Okay guys, places for Stand By Me.
♪ Stand come on and stand ♪
They have a passion for doing what they do.
And they're very gifted, very talented, young artists.
All they want to do is dance.
And that's really, really where I come from
looking into those beautiful eyes and
seeing myself in their eyes.
They remind me of myself when I was their age.
Because I was their age when I first started.
♪ Come on and stand, stand ♪