Creativity in the time of COVID: An Interview with Claire Kretzschmar
We are all too aware of the challenges and isolation of the past year and a half, especially for performing artists whose careers were put on a seemingly indefinite hold. But in the case of SAB alumna Claire Kretzschmar, staying socially-distanced in her family home in North Carolina allowed her to discover a new inspiration. With a bit of dance flooring and help from local musicians, Claire created an entire performance series dubbed the Tiny Garage Show. We were thrilled to catch up with Claire to learn more about her career and how she turned a challenging year into a performance opportunity:
I began dancing when I was 5 years old and my parents put me in a tap class and eventually a range of other dance classes including ballet. They just put me in classes I really enjoyed, and when I was in middle school one of my ballet teachers suggested I audition for SAB’s Summer Course, and I got in! I really fell in love with the Balanchine style, and returned for three more Summer Courses before I eventually came for the Winter Term.
I really loved variations classes because I felt like you got to apply everything you learned in technique class in a really curated way, like how to dance to the music and articulate your feet. I always loved the musicality of the Balanchine technique.
Starting my career was a whirlwind. When I started with New York City Ballet as an apprentice, I remember being very nervous and quiet but also so happy to see friendly faces in the studio. It wasn’t as scary as I had thought it would be in my head. It was difficult to pick up all the choreography I needed to in the beginning, but I loved performing.
The past year has been a rollercoaster. Living in NYC when the studios closed was such a challenge — we don’t exactly have a lot of space so it was hard to do any kind of physical movement in my apartment. So I went home to North Carolina to be with my parents and my sister. When I started taking NYCB Zoom classes online, I was taking them inside my parents’ garage. I set up marley in there and held on to the bar of a treadmill. I usually left the garage door open because it was so much nicer dancing towards the green trees and birds outside instead of straight at a wall. One day, my mom asked if some of our neighbors could come watch me take class, and so they brought their lawn chairs and came and watched me take class in the morning, and then we talked a little bit afterwards. They were so thrilled about it. A little time later, I was telling one of NYCB’s costume designers about it, and he suggested having shows from my garage. That sparked the Tiny Garage Show!
We’ve had four installments of the show in North Carolina so far, usually featuring about an hour with piano, dance, and sometimes song. We also did a run of Nutcracker garage shows right before the holidays in which I used students from the North Carolina School of the Arts and choreographed new variations to Tchaikovsky’s music.
I think the garage shows are going to continue. It would be cool to travel with the Tiny Garage Show! I had one this July in Saratoga, and I have other ideas but they’re not fully fleshed out yet.
Right now, I am just excited to do some of the rep that we have scheduled at NYCB for the fall season. As cool as it is to be leading and creating the garage shows, I do just like being the moving body and soul when I perform with the Company.
See your friends and peers as inspiration rather than competition. Let the people around you be positive forces instead of negative forces in your mind. There can be a lot of comparison that happens today because of things like social media, but seeing my friends as inspiration has really helped me to value each dancer and value my own strength.