It wasn't quite Broadway but it was darned close recently, as H. Frank Carey High School's famous kickline ¬ the Pirettes ¬ put a bunch of "pee wees" through their paces in an all-morning dance clinic the group held in the school's gymnasium. This effort culminated in both groups performing together to raucous applause at halftime of that afternoon's Seahawk football game. The clinic, now in its third year, is designed to introduce kickline dancing to the area's youngsters, encourage community service among the high school girls and raise money for the Pirettes.

"This is a wonderful opportunity for the Pirettes to learn leadership skills in life and also have a terrific, fun day," said Lorraine Rudy, a Carey special education teacher and the Pirette advisor.

The clinic began with an early morning training session, in which the various Pirettes and "pee wees" broke down into smaller groups to train. There were about 20 Pirettes working with 40 pee wees, ranging in age from 6-11 years. The youngsters came from four area grammar schools: John St., Polk St., Washington St. and Covert Ave.

The little girls wore name tags, black sweats and complementary oversized orange T-shirts that read, "I Danced With the H. Frank Carey High School Pirettes." A few of the smaller girls' shirts came down well below the knee. Many of the pee wees were color-coordinated, wearing orange scrunchees and hair clips.

As for the training, it was both hard work and great fun. Two or three Pirettes worked with a group of about eight or ten youngsters, showing them the proper steps and different dance techniques, all to a medley of songs from the movie Grease. For instance, 11th grade Pirettes Kristin McKeown, Julie Schmid and Denise Zawoloka worked with nine young girls with names like Nicolette, Rebecca, Elizabeth and Stephanie. At one point, Kristin McKeown went down the line of girls, adjusting one girl's head, giving another encouragement, modeling a dance position for a third.

In the afternoon, both groups performed at the halftime of another Carey football victory in front of a crowd of hundreds. Mrs. Rudy announced each grammar school one by one, which produced a cheer of pride from the audience members affiliated with that school. The performance, which came after the Carey band concluded, lasted only about two minutes but will last in the hearts of the proud parents and older siblings for a long time. The crowd oohed and aahed as the pee wees did their best to follow the routines they had learned that morning, led by the Pirettes who modeled the dances nearby to the strains of Born to Hand Jive and other songs from the hit Broadway musical Grease. The dancing climaxed with a standard Pirettes-style kickline, with both groups kicking arm-in-arm and in unison with.

As the pee wees raced off the field at the end of the number, the excited look on their faces made it clear that the day had been a rousing success, both for the pee wees and the Pirettes.