The Winger » Where does it all Start?

Where does it all Start?

October 23, 2007 at 1:44 am · Filed under SLOAN, dance, music, art, technology, arts funding, school, gary sloan, government, introductions

KRISTIN SLOAN
New York City Ballet
New York, NY USA
BIO | POSTS

Me when I was little, getting shot by my dad.

So the other night I wrote a post, asking everyone what they find interesting or engaging about a dance performance, or what would draw them to see a dance performance that they wouldn’t otherwise have sought out.

But let’s go even further back…

What was your first introduction to the arts, or to dance - apart from just observing the world around you? (I’m keeping it loose here)

Was it in school? Were you taken to a performance by your school, did you play an instrument in school, did you study a musician, choreographer or other type of artist which then lead you to discover dance or another art form?

If you didn’t have such arts exposure in school, do you think that if you had it would have changed your interest or involvement in the arts?

Do you think there is a way to change the current tide in the US, and convince the government - or whoever it needs to be - to put more funding into arts education in school, not less?

If everyone shared their stories about how they were first introduced to art or dance (school, family, friends, or some other outside force) could it make a difference?

Here’s some ramblings from me as I sit here typing…

I remember adoring art class in school. I couldn’t get enough.

I remember going to art museums with my parents and on field trips as a little kid (I feel like those experiences still remain as some of my earliest vivid visual memories).

I remember loving music classes. I played the saxophone… Lugging around a saxophone case that was as big as I was in 3rd/4th grade. I played until 6th grade I think - I changed schools and went from a cool jazzy teacher who challenged us, to another teacher who didn’t.

I remember my dad bringing me on photo shoots (involved or just watching) or showing me how to make prints, and thinking it was so amazing to be able to create such beautiful things with subjects and light.

I remember my school going on a field trip to see The Nutcracker, and thinking it was neat that my classmates got excited about and had a better understanding of what I was already doing after school by that point.

I remember my mom playing classical music in the car, and while first thinking it was annoying, starting to develop a taste for styles that I enjoyed more than others (and beginning to feel that WGBH in Boston played it too safe!).

I remember my mom taking me to Boston Ballet performances back when they were still at the Wang Center. I loved seeing the orchestra members warming up before the show, and loved getting to see a lot of the same dancers each time we went.

On another note - I remember my 6th grade class having access to Macintosh computers. They blew my mind. I in turn begged my parents for something similar… my first computer was a Mac Classic, and spawned my (and my family’s) ongoing love for well-designed technology.

That’s just some of my random personal experiences. Everyone comes from a different situation, has different memories, different influences, and different things that got them excited about art and/or dance. The fact is that as a kid, school, family and friends are your entire life. What you are exposed to during that time can have a big effect.

What’s your story or experience?

Did school programs have much play in your exploration?

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Kathy said,

October 23, 2007 @ 2:08 am

I just discovered this blog, and what a blog post to read as my first one here! I am a school librarian and a dancer at heart (although tap is my thing). I think that the lack of the arts in schools is sad. Last year I had my 5th grade students do a research project on a famous person in the arts (artists, musicians, choreographers and dancers). It amazed me just how much these kids didn’t know. My parents were not artists, but exposed my brothers and sister and me to the arts, plays, musicals, concerts as well as the opportunity to take dance lessons and music lessons. My ten year old daughter is a dancer and she loves music, art classes and going to see a show. I pay for her dance lessons and have the means to take her to museums and performances, but so many people do not and if they do not teach the arts in public school, how will these kids learn about these things? The arts should not be something only for the privledged.

As far as my first memory of my exposure to the arts, dance class at Miss Dawn’s School of Dance at the age of 3!

jennifer said,

October 23, 2007 @ 2:16 am

I used to be fascinated by gymnastics during the olympics when i was young. so, my parents tried to sign me up for gymnastics class when i was 8 at the local gym. the classes were full, so we were put on the gymnastics class wait list. meanwhile, my mom thought maybe the ballet studio would have space for us while we waited for space to open up at the gym…it did, and this is where the obsession started.

school programs had nothing to do with my introduction to performing arts, except maybe for our high school musicals. music programs at my schools were much more established.

Evan N said,

October 23, 2007 @ 2:25 am

A few random thoughts:

When I was 3, my dad would put classical music on in our living room and I would just twirl and jump and run around, and my parents realized I would benefit from some sort of structure - so off to ballet class I went! Most of my interest in dance stemmed from out-of-school experiences. I was lucky enough to attend NYCB performances on a regular basis and have a teacher who danced with NYCB, and that really inspired me to continue taking classes and be a better dancer.

From the ages of 7 to 18, my main “after-school activity” was ballet, and I always felt sad that dance wasn’t a part of the school curriculum. In addition, most of my friends were on sports teams, so while they got to bond with each other after school, I went off to dance classes, mainly with girls from a variety of different towns. Unlike sports teams, dance as I experienced it (at the very strict school I attended) was not a team-effort activity; so there weren’t many opportunities to bond with the other dance students. Fortunately dance felt like much more of a community activity once I got to college.

In 3rd grade, everyone had to read a biography of someone they admired and report on it. I read a children’s biography of Maria Tallchief, and for my report, I dressed up in a Firebird-esque tutu and performed the last two minutes of Firebird (my own original choreography, of course). It was a big hit and I had a blast dancing around my 3rd-grade classroom!

Bridgett said,

October 23, 2007 @ 2:30 am

My earliest arts memory was when I was four and my mother took me to see Edward Villella dance “Prodigal Son.” I also saw Patricia McBride, but I can’t remember anything about that except that she had the most exquisite tiara I had ever seen. I was all about the sparkle. We sat very close to the stage (I still remember the brush of the shoes) and it may have been the first time that I had seen a live orchestra — members of the Cleveland orchestra, and I can’t remember who was conducting (probably Lorin Mazel).

School programs were good for bringing in theatre and music (especially instrumental music), but not dance and rarely did we go to museums. Luckily, my mom was very interested in art, music, poetry, drama, so that was what our family did for fun.

glenn reeder said,

October 23, 2007 @ 2:55 am

K
great question, for me I always had an interest from the outside but never took a close look at it until I dated a dancer. to like something from afar is much different then understanding the effort & dedication that goes in to what you are seeing. only after seeing first hand the pain & sacrifice that was required to be a dancer did i truly start to enjoy the true art of dance.

Rob said,

October 23, 2007 @ 3:00 am

My first introduction to the arts was probably through Mr Rodgers or Seasme Street or something PBS like that, but my first interactive experience was choir in first grade. I was hooked into singing after that, and did it for the next 12 years via public school choirs. Dance, hmmm, I think I remember watching The Nutcracker on TV when I was a kid around Christmas and asking my mom why no one talked I didn’t actually take a ballet class til I was 19. But I did watch that Nutcracker on channel 5 for years.

kristin sloan said,

October 23, 2007 @ 3:06 am

come to think of it, when i was too little to remember, my parents used to put on music and i would dance like crazy when I couldn’t sleep

emma said,

October 23, 2007 @ 3:34 am

I remember taking my first ballet lesson at a local park’s rec center. My teachers name was Erica and she had a way of teaching that was strict yet fun and nurturing. After she moved, my mom enrolled me at a “proper” dance studio where I took jazz and ballet from ages 5-10. At the same time I was also playing either softball, basketball or soccer, which meant me changing in the backseat from my tights and leotard into shorts and cleats. But at age 10 when it came time to choose, I went with dance.
Ages 10-12 and then 14-16 I danced with a ballet folklorico company and it was probably where I learned to be independent and grew up a bit.
School programs really had nothing to do with me falling in love with dance, I think the only time I danced at school was in high school when I took ‘modern dance’, which really it was a bad version of watered down jazz, awful awful I can’t believe no one has said anything.

Megha said,

October 23, 2007 @ 3:57 am

that was your best entry ever. I love you. xo

veronica moretti niebuhr said,

October 23, 2007 @ 5:04 am

Hey thanks for always never letting us forget.
Well, my dad used to sell Italian records (78’s) door to door. I found the music so passionate. My Mom also always made me watch pbs in the non-cartoon hours. there was always a ballet on. I wanted that. I loved classical music. i was always “making’ dances. I always made a show in my house. My parents had no clue, they had no interest in it. Carla Fracci. I new when I was a baby, I had to do it like that. I never got to do it until I was 7! Officially that is. It is still that simple to me.

veronica moretti niebuhr said,

October 23, 2007 @ 6:06 am

I think my comment got lost…..i tried to start a dance club in high school. Not a lot of interest. I ended up being the teacher.( my typing teacher was very encouraging) mostly my parents varied musical intersts were very inspiring. and what I saw on pbs.

kathy said,

October 23, 2007 @ 12:01 pm

Great questions. I think If everyone shared their stories about how they were first introduced to art or dance it would make a difference. It would not only inspire conversation and increase general awareness of the importance (and far reaching scope) of the arts, but I’d be curious to see if those with inclinations and strong memories of the arts in their childhood were raised in homes where the arts were valued and a part of their lives.
I always loved drawing and painting, creating things. I don’t remember seeing my first ballet. My mother tells me I saw ballet on TV when I was 4 and said “I want to do that”. First ballet lessons quickly followed.
I have vivid memories of dancing in the living room. Using the back of a dining room chair for a “partner”. I “made up dances” using my sisters and visiting friends. God bless them, they always complied when I said “let’s make up dances!”. I actually still remember some of them.
Seeing NYCB Nutcracker at age 8 inspired a now life-long love of Balanchine and City Ballet. I loved the sound of the orchestra warming up, the “zip” of the curtain going up for some ballets, the first chords of “Serenade”.
I loved Karinska’s costumes (and just the name “Karinska”!) Marzipan and Dew Drop were my favorites.

My parents are both artists (graphic designers). My Dad used to photograph my ballet classes when I was little. These photos are valued favorites of mine now.

My school experience involved the visual arts far more than performing arts. Though, I saw my first Broadway musical (Grease) and subsequently more musicals through a school summer program.

Eddie Villella was a big influence. He appeared with Patricia McBride and other CIty Ballet dancers in venues around the NY Tri-State area when I was little. (late 60’s early 70’s) He appeared on TV in an episode of “The Odd Couple”. I remember that people who didn’t necessarily know much about ballet, knew about Edward Villella.

Arts in the public schools is so important. It can be the catalyst for life’s passion and purpose. Being exposed to creativity has got to be one of the most exciting things…as evidenced by The Winger.

Thanks Kristin!

Alannah said,

October 23, 2007 @ 12:43 pm

Well neither of my parents were verymuch into the arts. They were both athletes. They did do alot of thing s with the arts though for my siblings and I.

My dad did play the violin for awhile when he was in highschool so listning to him play the violin on holidays was my first intro to music. LAter my mom had us start taking piano lessons and I took lessons for 8years.

Art as far as visually when I was little I was in school,not homeschooled, and there were several feild trips to art museums that I rememeber. My mom also had us do many “art camps” during the summer where we were intruduced to diffrent types of artwork and taught.

Dancing I started when I was five. My mom had bought me books with the ballerinas in them and we had the video of the Nutcracker with Maculay Culkin. It was my favourite! I had a CD with the music and wouldput on my own one-girl shows, alone with no audience, or I’d try to follow along with the dancers I saw on the television. I was also inspired by Shirley Temple. I wanted to tap dance like her. I ended up not likeing tap and have found my self with ballet as my focus.

Musicals were also something my parents have greatly supported. I’ve been to more musicals than I can count and watched tons of old videos. I loved Fred and GInger, I tthought it was so cool, how they would dance together so beautifuly. The musicals greatly inspired my love of performance.

Zoe said,

October 23, 2007 @ 1:18 pm

\First off I have to say, I am a mother of a 14 year old dancer - a very passionate one at that and nothing gives me greater pleasure than watching her dance and seeing the passion in her grow as she grows and matures, especially because I have loved dance since I was a child- I mean she could have been a soccer player, right?!!!

I have loved dance since the first time I saw an old black & white Fred & Ginger movie on tv and from that point I was hooked and could not get enough. Fred Estaire was my idol. I begged my parents for lessons, and danced until I had my first child. I wll always be a dancer in my soul even if my body can’t dance anymore. I hear music and I feel dance,. We always had music in my house, all kinds. and we were always performing “shows” for my parents., even if I did only let my little brother do the “commercials” - haha.

Thanks for a chance to look back, life is good!

bill said,

October 23, 2007 @ 7:24 pm

My mother is an artist. When I was in grade school she was finishing up her B.F.A. at a school with a strong theater department. Even with three small children she was doing set design and costumes, often at the dining room table. So we kids always drew/painted/made messes - all OK. Dance was simple - she showed me a picture of Edward Villela with boxing gloves on and said “the best dancers are just as strong as the best boxers or football players.” After that, I was always open to dance and ended up a fan.

Paul said,

October 23, 2007 @ 9:35 pm

As a child, growing up in Hawaii, my parents would take us to a beach house on the North Shore. There was a hammock tied between two coconut trees. One day, I borrowed my Dad’s polarized sunglasses and lied down in the hammock. I was staring at the ocean and I became mezmerized by what I saw, a vision of white sand merging with a light blue ocean that got darker to the horizon colliding with an insanely blue sky. I had, for lack of a better term, a visual orgasm, an experience that transcended just sitting on a beach. Unknowingly at the time, this experiece would contribute to shape my life as a photographer in NYC.

SanderO said,

October 23, 2007 @ 11:25 pm

I am from the generation where the arts were taught in school, and I attended a good high school. My mother fancied herself a painter and had some painter friends and so we would be hauled off to art openings at little galleries allover Long Island.

My best friend was a musician, and he played trumpet and took composition lessons from a “composer”. He went on to lead a few orchestras and when we were young we used to go into NYC to listen to concerts and to Tanglewood in the summer.

I never liked pop music very much and always listened to classics.

As an adult I lived next to a Dance June Lewis, a small modern Martha Graham spin off in a loft. I got to know the dancers, dated a few, one worked for me part time and I went to all sorts of dance recitals and I occasionally went to see ballet, Paul Taylor and so on.

About 15 years ago I became more interested in opera and then began to attend and decided to give ballet another look. I loved it and it is now one of the most wonderful experiences of my life - to see ballet and to learn about it. With the internet I found all sorts of interesting things about ballet and opera which enrich the experience… including this incredible blog that Kristin as put together.

I’ve been attending art museums and theater all my life and became an architect which is almost part of the arts… it can be… but mostly it is mundane stuff. Many of my college friends became quite successful in the “arts” as actors, musicians and so forth… Who knew? I don’t have any contact with them any more.

But obviously I was exposed to all the arts all my life and find creative artists terribly inspiring and generous in that they share their talent, hard work, and brilliance with the rest of us.

Aren’t we lucky?

hal said,

October 24, 2007 @ 5:26 am

My first exposure to dance was when I was 8 and went to the legendary Charlie Lowes dance studio for tap dancing. At the time we lived in the south Bronx and a close friend and our mothers would travel downtown to 53rd Street to the Charlie Lowes studios. We did this for two years and then moved to Bayside. The long trip in became more than our mom’s would endure so my dance career ended at age 10 - 56 years ago!

But I always loved dance and movement - even went to see NYCB when I was young and single - even took out a girl who was a NYCB dancer - don’t remember her name - it was 42 years ago. My wife’s parents were long time NYCB fans - having had season tickets from the early City Center days. They started to take us as well and even bought series tickets for us. We currently maintain 6 subscriptions - 2 seats on one Thursday night series and 4 tickets for the other Thursday subscription. So we have the legacy of fantastic seats (center of the 4th and 5th rows of the orchestra) and NYCB is become one of the great pleasures of my life.

Daniel said,

October 24, 2007 @ 8:07 pm

Waiting for the school bus when I was 6, my older brother would get bored and would hit me. One day I told him a story, and he listened and stopped kicking my ass! It was powerful, watching him listen to my every word, his fists in his lap. Now I write plays. No one hits me. Art is good for the shoulders and upper arms.

tonya said,

October 24, 2007 @ 8:29 pm

That’s cute, Daniel!

Scott said,

October 25, 2007 @ 2:41 am

I was 4. My aunt asked me if I woudl ike a piano. I said yes. She took me to her teacher and I recall listeing to her play “Mary had a little lamb.” I touched the keys and repeated the simple tune. My fingers have touched a piano every day since. I can’t imagine likfe without music.

Jen said,

October 25, 2007 @ 4:59 am

I just saw the iPhone commercial which lead me to this great site! When I was little and we lived in a small Ohio town, my mom enrolled me in a ballet class. I’ll always remember our recital costumes - pink, sequined, and frilly, with hats that looked like huge baby bonnets - and that the older girls furtively snuck us into their dressing rooms and dolled us up with make-up. That was wonderful and made us feel so special. My teacher, however, told me and my mom that I would be waaaaay too tall to have any have any future in ballet. Being overly sensitive, I was discouraged and sort of fell out of dance after that (and sure enough, I ended up almost 6 feet tall with all the grace of an elephant on rollerskates!) But when we moved to California when I was 9, even though money was extremely tight, my mom always managed to take me to see at least one performance by the SF Ballet every season, and we also saw any touring ballet company that came to town. Watching those beautiful and amazing dancers with my mom inspired in me the love of ballet that those lessons somehow didn’t. As my horizons expanded in college, so did my love of all forms of dance.

I also remember as a kid being mesmerized by the Nutcracker on television each Christmas, and immediately ditching my pjs for the tutu and tiara that Santa left under the tree for me when I was 7!

lexy said,

October 27, 2007 @ 5:04 am

My first real experience with ballet came at the age of five when my mother took me to see a production of the Nutcracker performed by the London Royal Ballet. I was so taken with the whole thing. My mom remembers me dancing the entire time in the aisle. : ) Even the usher, as we were leaving the theatre, commented on my enthusiasm. haha It must have been the costumes and the scenery that really captured my attention at the time, but even more particularly, the bakers who flew in on wires. Probably still, in my mind, one of the best productions of the Nutcracker that I can remember.

Today, I find inspiration in Russian dancers such as Uliana Lopatkina and Svetlana Zakharova.

Erin said,

October 31, 2007 @ 1:11 am

I believe my mom asked me if i wanted to take classes, because I was so fascinated by the nutcracker that we went to see every year. I was only in K so, no school influence.
PS I’m in that nutcracker now!

Katherine said,

November 8, 2007 @ 4:05 am

I just found this now, but what a great blog! I don’t really remember my first exposure to dance. My mom said that I jumped down the stairs when I was little, and she and my dad decided that I needed a way to let out my energy. I don’t think either of them figured I’d stick with it. Once I started, I couldn’t stop. I STILL haven’t stopped. My schools never had any sort of dance program, so there was no influence from there. Now my sister just turned 3, and she wants to dance like I do.

martha said,

November 8, 2007 @ 10:40 pm

Zoe-Did you ever think to start ballet again? I have loved ballet forever, I think my mother took me to the nutcracker and that started it all. I took my daughter to PNB as a very little girl, alas, putting on tights was too much for her-she studies acting at Cornish now. I danced until I was very pregnant with her (only lessons, and parts in a local very amateur company.) About 4 years ago, I desperately needed exersize and started lessons again! After the first day of lessons, I could not walk. I had to swing my leg out from the hip to step on it! Now, believe it or not, I am 49, and starting on pointe all over again! It is so rewarding. I am learning better technique, I go to class twice a week, I am obsessed, and I am really happy to be doing what I love even though I was never even near proffesional! Give it a go! Besides, you probably need a little time for yourself. Martha

Michael said,

November 10, 2007 @ 1:38 am

I am the father of a six-year-old girl. We can’t remember when it started for her, and you would think we could remember back not that far.

I think she was born with the dance in her.

She has always taken joy in movement, and no gift ever made her more complete than the leotard with attached tutu that her grandmother got her when she was two.

I wish I had written down the name or saved the program from the first (indoor) performance she attended, when she was three and a half. It was a Saturday night and New York was all but shut down from a blizzard that day. We lived two blocks from Lincoln Center and we were all going stir crazy. She put on her leotard, and then her snow suit over it, and we slogged over to the New York State Theatre, where I paid for a pair of seats in the Fifth Ring.

She sat transfixed for all the performances. During intermissions, she pranced up and down the aisles.

I like to imagine someone went home that night and answered “How was the ballet?” with “It was good, but best dancer was the little girl in the aisles.”

We have tried to expose her to other forms of dance, but nothing captivates her interest like classical ballet.

Today she is part of SAB’s first ever class of six-year-olds.

JuneBugg said,

December 12, 2007 @ 6:54 pm

Hi Guys, (coming to you from the Deep South, Louisiana)
We had lots of school plays throughout my elementary, jr high and high school years. Plus my mom was a music teacher and she would drag me to everything, the opera, the symphony, local plays and recitals. She even took me to NYC in the 70’s and I saw Broadway productions as well. To me, the art world is my life! and i love every moment of it! Even at 40, its still something I want to do. I want kids to more knowledge of this world we (dancers, actors and singers) love so much. I’m thinking of starting a dance troop and hopefully I along with my dancers can bring more knowledge of this classical world I love so much and show them how much it is a part of everyday life.

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