An Interview with the Creator of Crafterina

I have a feeling that a lot of you know little girls and boys who love both ballet and crafts. And if you do, then I have a feeling you will especially enjoy hearing from our special guest today -- Vanessa Salgado! Vanessa is an accomplished dancer, dance educator, and visual artist who has combined her unique talents to create Crafterina -- who, you will find out in the following interview with Vanessa, is much more than a character in a book!

How did you come up with the idea of Crafterina?

After teaching children's dance classes across New York City for a number of years, I always seemed to encounter the same question from parents: what can we practice at home to make my child a better dancer? My answer always surprised them: don't practice the classroom exercises at home -- instead, expose your child to the arts, encourage them to play, read stories together, and share with them a love of dance. Eventually, after realizing that parents may need a bit of help encouraging creative thinking and moving at home, I was inspired to combine my dancing, illustrating, and teaching skills to create Crafterina.

Crafterina is a storybook, craft book, and dance lesson in one. When I was developing the character, I wanted to inspire young thinkers and movers to use their imaginations to create art and learn more about the world around them. I understood great value in interdisciplinary learning, and I believe Crafterina’s Read-Create-Dance approach is the secret to achieving our inspiring tagline of CREATE YOUR DREAM. This is the big lesson behind Crafterina: you can be anything you want to be and you have the power to make it happen!

Crafterina is such a unique idea! When you were creating her, did you envision how the book and the crafts might be used in a home setting?

The book was designed to unite parent and child in a creative quest at home. It is perfect as a nighttime story, or as a weekend dance and craft activity. By using simple household craft tools and supplies, children are encouraged to create crafts and use their imagination to go on dancing adventures. Embedded in the text are simple do-it-yourself craft instructions, making it easy to create crafts together as you read. 

The storybook and website are also an excellent tool and resource for dance educators. We hope to inspire more teachers to encourage creative thinking and moving in the classroom and at home. For more tips on how the book and crafts can be used, please visit our website: www.Crafterina.com. 

I noticed that Crafterina is also unique in the way she looks, especially the fact that she doesn’t have facial features. What was your reasoning behind this?

As the storyline developed, I felt it was important to create a character that all children could identify with. Our society has an immense focus on facial and physical beauty. The true beauty in the art of dance is not what one’s face looks like, but rather how the body is able to communicate through movement. The Crafterina character also embraces diversity and spreads a message of universality. To further this belief, we offer the Crafterina book in five additional styles so that all children can imagine they are the main character -- a creative, bright, beautiful, and talented artist!

Each child has a voice and a gift to share with the world. As grown-ups, our responsibility is to encourage young minds to believe in themselves and follow their dreams. We need more positive thinkers, role models, and leaders creating our world. Crafterina is a character to inspire a love for the art of dance in all readers and to spread the message that EVERYONE CAN DANCE!

That's a very inspiring message, and one that all children can embrace...especially when it involves crafts! Speaking of crafts, do you have a best-selling or most-popular craft? They all look like so much fun!  

Our Playtime Tableau has become a very popular craft and is very easy to create. Simply visit the Crafterina Etsy Shop to purchase and download one instantly. Once the craft is printed upon two pages of cardstock paper, carefully cut out and fold the backdrop and dancing characters to make them 3D. This particular craft is not only a fun toy for children. It also inspires thinking like a choreographer. Playing with the idea of symmetry, asymmetry, and stage directions, children learn from an early age how to create patterns and formations.

I like your idea of having crafts that go along with the Crafterina book but also having extra crafts available for purchase. So many possibilities this way! Would you have any recommendations for picture books that some of the extra crafts could be paired with?

I absolutely love using picture books to enhance learning for young dancers. For example, Nutcracker season is right around the corner. The Crafterina Etsy Shop is full of Nutcracker tableaus, puppet theaters, and masks to help bring this storybook ballet to life! One of my favorite picture book versions of The Nutcracker is a gorgeous pop-up book by Nick Denchfield with illustrations by Sue Scullard. The pop-up paper construction makes the story come to life!

Another series of popular ballet crafts are our Carnival of the Animals puppet theater, masks, and coloring pages. My favorite version of this whimsical tale is by Classical Music for Kids, with commentary by Barrie Carson Turner and illustrations by Sue Williams. The book even comes with a CD of Camille Saint-Saëns’ famous Carnival of the Animals score. 

For my third and final book recommendation, I'd like to highlight the board book Little Green by Keith Baker. A short and sweet story, this book is an excellent tool for dance educators looking to introduce the idea of pathways in a fun and imaginative way for their young students.

These all sound great. I've actually been wanting to get my hands on a copy of Carnival of the Animals for a few years now, so you have inspired me to go find a copy soon! Before we go for today, is there anything else you would like us to know about Crafterina?

I am working on new illustrations and crafts everyday and hope to spread the importance of creative dreams even further. I hope that my sharing of love for art with others may inspire many more young Crafterinas to follow their hearts and create their own dreams!  

I'd love for people to connect with Crafterina online via our website, our Etsy Shop, Facebook, and Twitter to become a part of our dance and craft community! Also, the Crafterina children's book is available on Amazon.com, Etsy, and iTunes for the iPad. 

Thanks so much for allowing me to interview you, Vanessa. I've loved learning about Crafterina and being inspired to be more creative!

Vanessa Salgado is a professional dancer and visual artist based in New York City. She can be seen performing with CONTINUUM Contemporary/Ballet and has also taught many little dancers throughout Manhattan, primarily at the School at STEPS on Broadway and at the Joffrey Ballet School. Vanessa is a graduate of the world famous Alvin Ailey/Fordham University BFA Program at Lincoln Center. She also holds a Certification in Dance Education from the Dance Education Laboratory at the NY 92nd St. Y, Harkness Dance Center. Her earliest memories involve story time with her dad, creating with her mom, and attending weekend ballet class alongside her sister, Donna. Her interests in visual art revealed themselves wholeheartedly in high school as she simultaneously trained vigorously for the professional dance world. As she transitioned into her college days and into her professional life, her incessant doodles and crafting have remained a source of wonder for those around her. For more about Vanessa, please visit www.VanessaSalgado.com. 

Petite Feet: An Interview and DVD Giveaway!

1-DAY EXTENSION: DVD GIVEAWAY NOW OPEN UNTIL 11:59 EST ON MONDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2012. READ ON FOR MORE INFORMATION!!

Choreographer, performer, and dance educator Liz Vacco guest posted a few months ago about how she uses the picture book Silly Sally in her children's dance classes. Perhaps it's because of her strong background in theater, but Liz is no stranger to using storytelling in dance! Liz has even created a children's story of her own -- The Story of the Dancing Dolls -- and incorporated it into a new DVD called Petite Feet to teach the fundamentals of ballet to children. 

Well, Liz is back with us today to answer a few questions I had about using storytelling in dance -- both through picture books and through the Petite Feet DVD. Liz is also generously giving away a copy of the DVD to one lucky reader who comments on this post. Read to the end of the interview to find out the details!

Thanks so much for agreeing to an interview, Liz! For a little bit of background, how long have you been teaching dance for children? And how did you get started?

I’ve been teaching dance to children regularly for 11 years. I spent my first year after college in New York City waiting tables while pursuing my acting and dancing career. The restaurant where I worked was downtown and was affected by 9/11. After some time off while the restaurant was being rebuilt, I realized that I did not want to go back to waiting tables. I had reassessed my values and knew I wanted to share with children the very things that I love -- dance and theater.

How long have you been incorporating different types of stories into your classes?

From the beginning, I believe. Because of my training as an actor as well as a dancer, I have always been drawn to the expressive aspects of dance -- be that expressing a feeling or an entire narrative. I quickly saw that my young students were equally excited when the emphasis of class was on expression and storytelling. 

As we know, children make no secret about what their favorite things and activities are (and their least favorite, too), so I knew pretty quickly that I needed to include a story in class every week. Throughout a class, we still stretch and learn vocabulary and age-appropriate technique, but the students always know they will be rewarded with a story at the end.

What are the benefits of using picture books in your classes? 

Sometimes, as a teacher, it’s a lot to have a new story in your head every week. I’ve memorized a bunch of stories, and I’ve created a handful as well, but every so often it’s nice to have the words right there in front of me. I think having illustrations to reference makes it fun for the children as well. The process of taking in an image and then transferring it into their bodies is an important exercise and a first step toward becoming creators of art. It’s what I continue to do to this day when I create original work based on texts with my multimedia performance company Immediate Medium.

Any challenges to using picture books?

The biggest challenge is often just a question of coordination -- dancing while holding the book and not losing my place, and also maybe holding one of my little dancer’s hands at the same time!

Are you drawn to any picture books in particular? If so, what makes them special to you?  

I love to use From Head to Toe by Eric Carle at the beginning of the semester, especially with my littlest students. After years of teaching, sometimes I take for granted the fact that this could be a student’s very first experience in a movement class, or any class for that matter. From Head to Toe lets us take it slow and step by step, exploring each body part and its movement possibilities. By the end, we get up on our feet and really move through space, which is always a great finale. The always vibrant Eric Carle illustrations and animal imagery really help engage the children as well.

You mentioned that From Head to Toe is a great book for your littlest students. Do you think some picture books are better suited for your older students?

I teach children from 18 months to 12 years old. I think picture books are most effective with my students ages 2-5 years. Within that range, there are definitely certain books that are more appropriate for 2-year-olds than for 5-year-olds and vice versa. 

I love using From Head to Toe, We're Going on a Bear Hunt, and Mouse Paint for 2- and 3-year-olds. Silly Sally, which requires dancing backwards, and It Looked Like Spilt Milk are great for 4- and 5-year-olds. For dancers 6 and up, I tend to focus more on stories from the classical ballet canon (when it’s a ballet class, of course). Occasionally I show the students a photo from a ballet or an illustration inspired by the ballet before we choose roles and dance the story in a more drawn-out fashion.

Thanks for answering so many questions about picture books! To change the subject a little, how did you come up with the idea for the Petite Feet DVD?

I think after the tenth or so parent came up to me and said “You should really make a video of your ballet class,” I knew I couldn’t put it off any longer. Parents also often told me that when they videotaped open classes or recitals, their children would watch them over and over again at home. 

I wanted Petite Feet to be more interactive than just a still camera capturing a dance class or performance. I wanted it to include all the elements of one of my classes, and especially the story, but I wanted it to feel like the kids at home were as much a part of the class as the kids in the DVD. Making the DVD was a great opportunity for me to invent a new dance story as well -- and now I use The Story of the Dancing Dolls in my classes regularly.

How do you recommend the DVD be used? And by whom?

I think the DVD is great as an introduction to dance for brand new dancers, and it also can be a supplement for children who are already enrolled in dance classes. A lot of parents of my current students tell me that when they have to miss a class, they make up for it by using the DVD at home. 

I have also received feedback and occasionally photos from many families around the world who’ve purchased the DVD, and there are some stories that really warm my heart. One family in Japan lost their home in the tsunami but stayed to help rebuild. When they couldn’t find a class in the small town where they currently live, they bought the DVD and sent me such a grateful email. So I recommend that the DVD be used by anyone who feels inspired -- and the more the merrier, for sure!

Wow. That is a really incredible story, Liz. Thanks for much for sharing it. And thanks, also, for giving our readers a chance to win their very own copy of the DVD. 

If you'd like to enter the giveaway, all you have to do is leave a comment on this post telling us what role storytelling plays in your life or the lives of your children or students. The giveaway will close on Sunday, September 30, 2012, when we'll randomly pick a winner. Good luck!

Author Interview: Ballerina Allegra Kent

Thanks to Holiday House (the publisher of the new picture book Ballerina Swan), I have a very special interview to share with you today! I recently had the pleasure of speaking on the phone with the book's author, Allegra Kent, about her experiences both as a children's author and as a prima ballerina.

Ms. Kent joined the New York City Ballet when she was just 15 years old and danced many famous roles created for her by choreographer George Balanchine over the years. She retired in 1981 but has stayed active in the dance community, most recently teaching ballet at Barnard College in New York City, where she resides.

Although Ballerina Swan is her first book for children, Ms. Kent is not new to the publishing world. After she retired from the New York City Ballet, she wrote two books for adults--The Dancer's Body Book, which was published in 1984, and her autobiography Once a Dancer, which was published in 1997 and re-released in 2009. I hope you enjoy the following excerpts from my conversation with the sweet, lovely, and legendary Allegra Kent...

In addition to your wonderful career as a dancer, you are quite an accomplished author. What similarities, if any, have you found between dancing and writing?

When I write, I try to make my sentences pirouette. Words can create an atmosphere or scene, and writing actually has a lot of movement and musicality in it. It should sound like music. It has rhythm and description that are visual. You can see the action that is happening. And of course dancing has all those qualities, too.

I read that a real-life swan was part of the inspiration for Ballerina Swan. Can you tell us a little more about that?

I was watching a swan swimming on a pond, and I thought, oh my gosh, ballerinas want to dance with swan-like qualities. There are so many swan themes in ballets—maidens who become swans, Swan Lake, and The Dying Swan, which was such a signature piece for Anna Pavlova. And I thought, oh, what if a swan wanted to become a ballerina? It was a kind of reverse relationship, and the swan became a character in my children’s book.

Before we go on, I want to share a YouTube video of you and your editors, Grace Maccarone and Pam Glauber, talking about your idea for the book. I think my readers will also enjoy seeing the three of you perform a port de bra together in the video!

Now back to our interview! So there are two dance teachers in the book—Madam Myrtle and Miss Willow. And then there’s a choreographer named Mr. Balletski. How did you come up with the names of these characters?

Madam Myrtle has a little bit of a severe sound. Not totally, though, because there’s a wonderful tree called the crape myrtle that’s gorgeous. Madame Myrtle is an excellent teacher, but she has an exacting approach to the art and a narrow view of who should be in ballet class. Miss Willow of course is willowy, and much more pliant than Madam Myrtle. She is a tree—a willow that flows in the breeze, like a weeping willow. She’s much more accepting of a creature who looks so different but does have the desire to dance. And then we have Mr. Balletski, whose name is ballet and Balanchine mixed together. The ski at the end gives it that Russian name. Like Nijinsky.

The students in the book audition for a school performance of Swan Lake, and many of them are both eager and fearful to find out if they were given a part in the ballet. Did you draw from any personal experiences when you wrote about the audition?

Actually, I never had to audition. Balanchine just chose me. He looked at the students in the School of American Ballet and invited me to join the New York City Ballet. I was 15. This was 1953, and I’d never been in any kind of school performance, recital, or anything. I had no experience except in the classroom, but I worked very hard in rehearsals to be as good as I could be. 

I noticed that the book is dedicated in part to the memory of Balanchine, who you say “understood unusual casting.” Do you feel you were...

Unusual? Well, Balanchine liked my style, and that made me unusual to him. And he created some fantastic roles for me. He cast me in a dance called The Seven Deadly Sins. And also a dance called Bugaku. And also as a sleepwalker in La Sonnamula. Balanchine once choreographed for a circus as well--a little interlude for elephants. These were really young circus elephants, and the music was by Stravinsky. So he did believe in unusual casting.

Did you have any role in choosing Emily Arnold McCully as the illustrator for the book?

Actually, I walked into my editor Grace's office and saw some illustrations on her sideboard. I said, I love these. Could this person be my illustrator? And Grace said, well, that’s Emily Arnold McCully. I just don’t know if she’s available. It was so serendipitous. She wanted to do the illustrations, and somehow she fit me into her schedule. I love what she did with them. They’re so much what I envisioned, except not exactly because everyone has his or her own imagination. I especially love that first page, where the swan is looking in the window. The double spread. The city. The pond. The little ducks. And then the plants that grow around the pond. Emily is superb.

I noticed that Emily Arnold McCully’s dedication in the book simply says “ For Allegra.” Is she referring to you?

Yes. Oh my gosh! When I saw that, I was thrilled out of my mind. We didn’t interact on the book’s illustrations at all, but I did meet her. She had actually never drawn a swan as a character or drawn ballet dancers before, but she loves ballet and loved the work of the New York City Ballet. I was so moved and touched that she dedicated the drawings to me.

I have one more question I’m curious about. I read that you don’t perform anymore, but do you still dance?

I actually don’t dance anymore…although I do dance in my living room and when I cook! And of course I teach, and I watch dance performances. When I swim, I dance in the swimming pool—port de bra, grand battement, plié, relevé, all the movements. And then walking down the streets of New York City, you have to have a sense of choreography!

Thank you so much, Ms. Kent, for sharing your experiences with me and my readers. It was so nice to talk with you! And thank you to Holiday House for an advanced review copy of Ballerina Swan and for helping me set up my interview. Holiday House has also put together a nice package about the book and its creation here. 

This post is also part of the kidlitosphere's Interview Wednesday. If you're interested in reading more interviews related to children's literature, pirouette on over to The Flatt Perspective, where Lizann is hosting this month!