Sing out, Louise!

The performing arts build confidence through discipline—and fun

“Music draws people together, and it’s something you can participate in your entire life. You are never lonely if you have music.”

By Janis Hashe

When The Best Christmas Pageant Ever opens at the Chattanooga Theatre Centre, the Montague family will be front and center.

Mom Kristina, daughter Chapin, 13, and son Max, 9, all have major roles. This is the first time the family has acted together, and according to Kristina, it just seemed to be destiny.

“My auditioning was a spur of the moment thing,” she says. “I knew I would be there anyway, so I decided to read.” She was cast as Grace Bradley, the female lead, and Max was cast as her son Charlie. Chapin plays Alice Wendleken. “She’s prissy and full of herself,” says Chapin.

The Montague family has a generations-long association with the CTC—its Circle Stage is in fact is dedicated to Mildred Montague and a great-great-grandfather was one of the theatre’s founders.

“Both Chapin and Max have a passion for acting,” Kristina says. Chapin explains, “It gives me the freedom to do stuff onstage I can’t do normally. And you make a lot of new friends.”

“I like being someone else,” Max agrees. “And I just like being funny onstage.”

Both Montague kids have been in multiple shows at the CTC. ”It fosters great independence,” says Kristina.

Development dance

The professionals who run performing arts programs agree with that assessment.

Ballet Tennessee has three outreach programs for children ages 3-6 with an enrollment of approximately 160 children, according to co-founder Anna Baker-VanCura.

“Dance is a brain-body activity, meaning it develops both physicality and cognitive skills,” she says.  “Research shows that movement at an early age is critical for early childhood development.  In dance class, we tap into children’s innate ability and love of movement to develop motor skills, creativity, musicality, muscle strength, and flexibility.  At the same time children are learning basic skills such as listening, following directions, sequencing, leading, following, and taking turns.  Older children in higher level classes learn problem-solving, communication, and time management while developing artistry and technique.”

Lindsay Fussell, a local choreographer and dance teacher who teaches multiple dance classes for children at the CTC, the Center for Creative Arts and elsewhere, many based on Anne Green Gilbert’s “BrainDance” methods.

“I teach children as young as 3,” she notes. “Creative movement and dance help with focus, confidence and coordination.”

At the Chattanooga Ballet, director Bob Willie’s 400 students range from age 3 through college-age. “I like to quote Martha Graham,” he says. “She said, ‘Dance is first a discipline.’ What we find is that most of our students are also exceptional in academics.”

The Chattanooga Theatre Center Education Director Chuck Tuttle points out, “Theatre is about ensemble. You’re working together with other people. It gives kids the confidence to speak out.”

“Theatre is not by its nature educational,” he says, “but it’s about ‘What if?’” Pointing to the series of “alphabet plays” that the youngest Youth Theatre students create themselves, he adds, “Play is the greatest learning tool in the world, and that is what we make—a play.”

Confidence through performing

Even—in fact, perhaps especially—a shy child can benefit from the chance to perform.

“Dance class is a safe and positive environment that is ideal for a shy child to explore different ways of opening up.  Many parents in our programs have cited increases in confidence from their children as a benefit of dance,” says Baker-VanCura.

“Parents are often very surprised. I’ll hear, ‘I can’t believe what he or she is doing now,’” says Willie.

“Failure is good,” says Chuck Tuttle. “Rehearsals involve a lot of failures and we make it a little better each time by allowing ourselves to fail.”

“Dance is an excellent activity for boys as well as girls,” Baker-VanCura emphasizes. “We have boys at different levels in our programs and they all tap into the energy and athleticism of dance.  In our Dance Alive program, we have a separate boys division that was an integral part of The Mustang Project this past summer.

Don’t forget the magic of music

Among the many opportunities Chattanooga’s kids have to grow through music, one of the best is the Chattanooga Symphony Orchestra’s Youth Orchestras.

Founded in 1949, the orchestras have more than doubled in size over the years, and now include a symphony orchestra, a philharmonic orchestra and an Etude String Orchestra and Prelude String Orchestra. String students of any age may audition with a private lessons’ teacher recommendation. Percussion, winds and brass students must be between the ages of 12 to 20.

For more information, contact the CSO Youth Orchestras Manager Steve Tonkinson through www.chattanoogasymphony.org, or call (423) 267-9011.

Aiming for lifetime learning: music and theatre at GPS

Mary Baxter is the director of orchestras and an instructor of instrumental music at GPS. The comprehensive music programs at the school involve all students at middle-school level, she explains, and include opportunities in vocal and instrumental music.

“For example, we have three levels of string classes,” she says. “There’s also a middle-school string quarter club, the McCallie/GPS honors orchestra, the invitation-only Tango String Ensemble and the International Music Club,” among many possibilities. Seventh graders have a chance to participate in a choir with McCallie students.

“Music is the universal language,” Baxter says. “Students learn about cultures from all over the world. I find making music together is very community-building.

“Music draws people together, and it’s something you can participate in your entire life. You are never lonely if you have music.”

GPS also provides students the chance to play alongside professional musicians, she says, mentioning among others the Shaking Ray Levi Society co-founder, percussionist Bob Stagner.

The young musicians venture into the community as well. Baxter points to the middle-school string quartet’s trip to the Tennessee Aquarium to participate in “caroling with fish.”

“Our students have gone on to participate in many advanced programs,” she notes proudly. “But most of all, music makes you feel wonderful.”

Catherine Borden is GPS’s theatre manager, a member of the fine arts faculty and a teaching artist. She directs two shows per year at the school, in addition to the upper and middle school musicals, which are in coordination with McCallie.

“We ask ourselves, ‘How can we design a curriculum in which the arts add depth to academic experience?’” she says, acknowledging, as did all those interviewed, that arts experience bolsters study, organizational and life skills. “We are dedicated to developing mind, body and heart.”

The enthusiastic Borden clearly loves her work, especially the “non-cut” plays in fall and spring, in which every child who auditions will be given a part. “I write the middle-school plays myself,” she explains. “You can have 94 kids on stage, along with 20 running tech.”

She also coordinates the winter one-act program, in which the plays are student-directed, as well as acted—and sometimes student-written as well.

The theatre students, like the music students, often have community opportunities as well. “For several years, our students participated with READ 20, reading with young learners to encourage early literacy,” she says. “In theatre, we are building readers as well as artists.”

Yet another point of agreement among all the teachers interviewed: Involving a child in the performing arts requires a lot of commitment from both the child and the parents. But the driving, the long hours of afterschool and weekend rehearsals can ultimately mean a lifetime of loving the arts—and many life skills benefits besides.

Sidebar: Watch the kids soar

•The Chattanooga Theatre Centre presents The Best Christmas Pageant Ever December 9-23 on the Main Stage, and the Youth Theatre will present The Emperor’s New Clothes December 2-18. Visit theatrecentre.com for tickets and more information.

The Chattanooga Ballet presents The Nutcracker December 9 and 10 at 8 p.m. and December 11 at 2 p.m. Three casts with more than 180 children perform. Visit chattanoogaballet.net for more information.

Ballet Tennessee presents The Nutcracker with a cast of 70 dancers, December 16 and 17 at 8 p.m. and December 18 at 2 p.m. at the UTC Fine Arts Center. For more information, visit BalletTennessee.org

• The Center for Creative Arts will present Tarzan the Musical  in February, choreographed by Lindsay Fussell. More than 30 students will be involved in the special show, presented in cooperation with Disney as a test of new material. To contact Fussell about classes she offers, visit lindsayfusselldance.com