"Dance with passion; dance with purpose," said Roddy Kennedy, a cast member of the popular Broadway play Hamilton.

Mr Kennedy stood before students at Lisa Mennilli's Dance Academy in Newtown, for a brief visit and dance workshop Monday night, September 26. During his visit, he led students through the choreography behind the multiple Tony Award-winning hip-hop musical celebrating Alexander Hamilton, one of the country's Founding Fathers, founder of the nation's financial system, its first secretary of the treasury, as well as founder of the Federalist Party, the United States Coast Guard, and The New York Post newspaper.

As different age groups crowded the floor to face him, Mr Kennedy stepped over to a stereo and played "My Shot," a song about the young Alexander Hamilton arriving on the shores of New York, declaring his ambition and throwing his lot in with some young revolutionaries. He then led them through its fast-paced choreography and sang the lyrics.

"I am young, scrappy and hungry, just like my country, and I am not throwing away my shot, I am not throwing away my shot," the song, and students, chanted.

Regarding their dance and performance efforts, Mr Kennedy said, "It shouldn't take a speech" to inspire them. "It's within all of you."

They should think of their dance academy experiences as a growing place, he said.

"Think about how much you'll grow," he encouraged them.

Students should approach each day, each dance lesson, with an open mind, he said.

"Go in with the mindset that you're going to learn something today," he said. He also advised them to learn a broad base of dance forms. "Musical theater today is a fusion," he said. For students pursuing a possible career, he said, "You have to continue to train, and in all different art forms. You don't have to pick one thing; don't stop writing if you become an actor, do both."

Following the workshop and a quick break, Mr Kennedy sat with students and talked about his career, from summer workshops growing up, and his training in theater, drama, choir, and the arts through high school, then college. Following school, he "jumped from gig to gig," he said, and one day finally received a call to fill a role on Broadway.

Regarding the auditioning process, the cuts, the callbacks, the need to learn many songs and dances, he said, "The hustle is real. You've got to love it. You can't think of anything else."

Standing in a corner and taking pictures of her students during the workshop was dance academy owner Lisa Mennilli. She said that the chance for her students to learn the choreography and have a meet and greet with Mr Kennedy was "exciting." Her students also took the opportunity to talk with him about being in Hamilton, which is "such a hype right now, and it's almost impossible to get tickets and that's for a year away on Broadway."

So many of her students aspire to do musical theater, she said.

"To them it's mesmerizing with every word and song and motion," Ms Mennilli said. "This show is just taking over everything and it's great and gives them something to focus on."

Monday's workshop offered them "a learning experience - learning hip hop with contemporary style," she said. Her students are "jazz and musical theater and tap - these are big musical theater kids."

How was she able to get Mr Kennedy to Newtown?

"I know somebody who knew somebody type thing," Ms Mennilli said, having worked through a series of connections she had. "It was almost impossible to get someone from Hamilton."

Mr Kennedy was originally scheduled to be in town a week prior, but had to postpone.