Kenny Ortega: The man behind every step of 'High School Musical 3'

By Lee Hernández

Thursday, October 23rd 2008, 12:00 PM

World-wide teen phenomenon “High School Musical” is back friday with the third — and allegedly final — installment of the Disney series.

“It’s a big and wondrous celebration of the final chapter of ‘High School Musical’ as we know it,” says director-choreographer Kenny Ortega over the phone sounding a little nostalgic.

“Many of them came to me as kids,” he says of young stars Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens, who have worked on all three “HSM” movies with him since 2006 and in the last one, are in their senior year of high school.

“It’s been so wonderful to watch them grow into themselves,” says Ortega, 58. “It’s kind of like being a schoolteacher watching kids return each year.”

With starlet Selena Gomez gone from from the cast, there is no one of Latin heritage in “HSM3,” with the big exception of Ortega himself, who has Spanish ancestry.

Gomez told the Daily News in March that she turned down the lead role in “HSM3” because “after Disney, I want to be taken seriously for many years,” but Ortega says he didn’t offer Gomez the role.

“We didn’t approach her - not to my knowledge,” he says, but adds that it’s possible someone else did.

“There may have been casting directors that put out a feel for her,” he says. “I love Selena. She’s a darling and I would love to do something with her sometime.”

In “High School Musical 3: Senior Year,” the students of East High participate in typical senior-year activities like preparing for the big basketball game, staging their final spring musical, going to the prom and trying to find a way to say goodbye to friends and love interests after graduation.

Ortega admits his own senior year wasn’t anything like the movie’s.

“I was working in theater, so I didn’t get to go to my prom,” he says. “This movie was kind of wonderful in that I get to go to prom as a second visitation.”

Born and raised in Palo Alto, Calif., Ortega’s parents were also born here but his paternal grandparents were from Spain.

Although he directed the 1993 film “Hocus Pocus,” starring Bette Midler, and episodes of TV shows “Gilmore Girls” and “Ally McBeal,” Ortega is best known for some of Hollywood’s most memorable dance sequences.

He choreographed actor Gene Kelly on the 1980 film “Xanadu” and Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze’s steamy moves in 1987’s “Dirty Dancing.” Other 80s teen hits include “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” and “Pretty in Pink,” starring Molly Ringwald.

Now, Ortega is re-teaming with Efron for a remake of the Kevin Bacon dance classic “Footloose,” due out in 2010.

Ortega says his Spanish grandmother, Juana, gave him the vision for his choreographies.

“She would do flamenco in the kitchen while cooking migas on a Sunday morning, and I remember the sound of her heels kicking against the linoleum in the kitchen,” he says.

“That passion and excitement for life has had an impact on everything I’ve done.”

Two weeks ago, when Ortega made a promotional visit to his grandmother’s native country, he was given the royal treatment.

“I love Spain, from Zaragoza to Barcelona to Madrid, but I have never been there for a project that created this kind of reaction,” he says.

“The fans were shouting my name at the red carpet. For me, returning to this place that is my family’s place, and that has such importance to me, and to feel this adoration,” he says, “was very moving.”

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