By Jackie Demaline
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Who's the best song-and-dance man in Cincinnati? No contest, Eric Santagata.

But you don't have much time to catch his act. Santagata, who wowed College-Conservatory of Music audiences last year starring in both The Boys from Syracuse (as one of twin Dromios) and The Wild Party for the musical theater department is a senior now and his final University of Cincinnati role is in On the Town as sailor Gabey (played in the movie version by Gene Kelly.) It plays Thursday through Sunday in the Patricia Corbett Theater. (Information and reservations: 566-4183).

On the Town, almost 60 years young, is a musical valentine to New York City by Leonard Bernstein, Betty Comden and Adolph Green. Set in WWII, three sailors on 24-hour leave sing and dance their way through Manhattan and the neighboring boroughs looking for - and finding - love in some very unexpected places.

On the Town, and winter musical The Mystery of Edwin Drood, are both ensemble shows, chosen specifically to showcase the remarkable talents of the musical theater Class of 2004. See these hopefuls now; you'll be seeing a lot of them later in New York.)

Santagata, who holds part of a team gold medal in a world tap dance competition (held in Berlin, 2000), laughs that he's been singing and dancing "for as long as I've been breathing. (I was a little bit of a terror as a child.)"

Unbelievably, he didn't start formal dance lessons until after high school. The Connecticut native was a gymnast and, after fracturing two vertebrae and spending 10 months of his high school senior year in a body cast ("22 hours a day") he turned to dance, which turned out to be terrific physical therapy.

What does it take to be a dancing man? "It takes a lot. It does. When I was younger" - he's all of 22 - "it was so intense, trying to soak up as much technique as you can. It took a lot of hard work and discipline and still does."

Some of his days can approach 16 hours - academic classes in the morning, jazz class, working with his classmates on their all-important senior showcase ("I'm a massive fan of my class"), breaking for dinner, getting to evening rehearsals early "to focus" and rehearsing from 7 to 11 p.m.

Santagata says that despite that world championship he wasn't sure he took himself seriously as a dancer until his first summer at the prestigious Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera (where he's spent every summer since freshman year).

"You learn a show every week and a half, and while you're performing at night you're rehearsing the next one during the day." When Santagata was tapped as a dance captain it meant learning all the blocking and choreography and everyone else's track (so he could teach it, if necessary). "I thrived on it."

There have been, not surprisingly, many offers to join shows. (He never auditioned for any of them. It's just that the Broadway industry is a small one and people talk.)

Staying in school has been "a tough decision, but I knew being here was a blessing, something inside me was driving me to stay here. Being at CCM is giving me a competitive edge."

Most of the show folk have understood, too, and told him to give them a call when he finishes his studies in March.

These days, "Life is coming at me pretty head on. I'm excited to get out there and do it."