Lift Every Voice - Oral Histories - Lauren Anderson

LA: You can feel the energy, you can feel the energy. You can feel, especially in the beginning because when we first started doing shows Ben was like, “Okay, I’m walking into the student matinee, because a lot of the kids are Black. They have never seen ballet, or people of color that have never seen dance.” I said, “Okay, great.” Then I became a principal. That’s like, well, you know, you kind of have the new people doing those shows. Ben still said, “Do you mind doing these shows?” because and I said, “Absolutely no, no problem.” And like, when you go to Miller Theater, most of the people are people of color, so he’d try to have me on just because when you see someone that you can relate to, you’re more interested in it, period.

Like a bunch of Chinese people will come see the Chinese acrobats. You’ll see a bunch of Chinese people in the audience. I mean there’ll be Black people and White people, too, but you’ll see a lot of Chinese people there. You might not see so many Chinese people at Peter Pan, do you know what I’m saying? Things like that. So, and that’s true. It’s not like a racist thing, it’s just the truth. So actually
if there’s going to be a bunch of Black people in the audience, Ben wants, like, “We want you to be on so that they can see you in, a Black person in a positive way. You’re doing the lead in Sleeping Beauty,” or this or that or the other. And who says Aurora’s White? Okay. Now, I say, “Well, it does say that Alice is White. She has blonde hair, she’s a White chick, you know, with a blue dress.” “Yeah, but all those other Fairy Tales, they don’t describe anybody, the color of their skin.” I said, “Well you’re right.” You’re right with that, so, you know, art is not a color. The only color in art is on canvas, an artist puts on a canvas.

Other than that it’s just a bunch of emotion and music and stuff. It’s a bunch of stuff. Lights and mirrors or whatever, smoke and mirrors or whatever, but it’s stuff. And it’s positive stuff and it’s classic. So, that’s how I think I can use my role modelness and that’s how I accept it is if I can make anything positive in a kid’s life in any way, then yeah, I accept this role model thing full on. And it’s great to go to the green room and see this little kid going, (indicating) you know, when I’m in a tutu or whatever, or getting to see, to see it up close to where it’s reachable. I want them to know that I am reachable; I’m touchable, I’m not make-believe. Then it’s like, “Well, then I can do it, too!” Ta-dah! We’ve done it. Then we’ve gone somewhere, we’ve actually touched somebody. Because that’s not like we’re saving lives here, bringing a ballet dancer, but if I can kind of take a couple of wrinkles out of someone’s face or just help someone chill or relax or help someone to have a good feeling or just be something positive going on in this crazy world. I guess there’s some, there’s a purpose for what I’m doing.

Disclaimer:
“Oral Narrative as History.” Students received class credit for this work, and were under the supervision of Dr. Martha Norkunas, director of “The Project in Interpreting the Texas Past.”

Every effort has been made to transcribe the audio recordings exactly. On occasion a word, or phrase, was difficult to hear and this is indicated by a question mark in brackets.

Interviewee:
Lauren Anderson

Interviewer:
Clare Croft

Date of Interview:
September 9, September 10, 2006

Place:
Wortham Theater, Houston, Texas

Recording Format:
Audio: Edirol digital recorder, Uncompressed wave file
Video:
Mini digital videotapes

Camera:
Erin Murphy

Transcriber:
Shannon Morris