Lift Every Voice - Oral Histories - Lauren Anderson

LA: Ever since I was seven. Let’s see, we did the Nutcracker. I started in September, that December I was a ginger coming out, in the Nutcracker, from behind the skirt and I was the one that licked the lollypop and handed it to Clara. And I remember going on stage and not being nervous. Ever since that day I’ve been a wreck. I’ve been nervous. I mean, I can’t imagine, if I’m not nervous before a show something’s wrong, something’s wrong. But it’s a good nervous, it’s not like (sound), it’s like (sound), you know, the stomach is kind of quivering a little bit and the adrenalin is pumping. But I will never forget how that felt to perform, to go on stage and just (sound). There’s nothing like it; there’s nothing like it. Well, teaching is almost like it, for me.

CC: How so?

LA: Well when you really teach, not just give a class, but teach, like you put, teaching is what--putting an idea out there, the student grasping it and applying it. That’s teaching. Now if you, you can give a class and if they don’t get it, you just gave a class, you didn’t teach. But seeing them grasp it and get it, and the, what feels so good is to see them realize that they get it and see the excitement. And getting it consistently, ah, there’s nothing like that. There’s nothing like that, that’s just, especially when, you know you’re giving them the right thing, the right tool to get them, like to how to do a turn consistently every time. Just (sound) or on the music (sound), you know to have someone feel that that didn’t feel it before. And to try to transfer that feeling into them, that is just amazing when that happens. It’s almost like performing for me.

CC: When did you start teaching?

LA: You know, Ben was really bad because he, he said, “Okay, why don’t you teach in the school this summer?” And I was like, “How am I going to teach? I don’t know how to teach.” Ben goes, “How many classes have you taken? You’ve taken class. You can give a class.” I’m like, “Okay.” And it had to have been when I was around a soloist or something so it must have been easily mid-80s. So I don’t know, I guess I’ve been teaching about 20 years, I don’t know. I have no idea, a long time. Easily a decade and a half, easily. Well, actually I was giving classes back then, now I teach, and I love it. I love it. Because, I mean, why hold all this knowledge? There’s nothing I like, I’m not saying that I’m all knowledgeable and all-knowing, it’s just nothing like experience and I’ve been dancing for twenty-three, twenty-four years. So I’ve got just plain old experience whether it’s a good experience or a bad experience, I’ve got experience so I’ve gone through something to know halfway what I’m doing. So there’s no reason to horde it and that’s how the classics have been passed down is through people who’ve done them. So it’s like my duty. It’s not my duty because a duty is like something you’re asked to do but you don’t really, necessarily want to do. It’s my calling, to teach and to give it back. What am I going to save it for? I have no reason to save the fact that I can walk on stage and go like this. Why save that? Why not pass it on to someone to try to feel that? I have no reason to save that. What am I going to do? Give it to my son? He doesn’t need that to live life, you know.

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