- [Narrator] Welcome to Kalamazoo Lively Arts, the show that takes you inside Kalamazoo's vibrant, creative community and explores the people who breathe life into the arts.

(energetic upbeat music) (energetic upbeat music) - [Announcer] Support for "Kalamazoo Lively Arts" is provided by the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation, helping to build and enrich the cultural life of greater Kalamazoo.

- [Narrator] On this episode of "Kalamazoo Lively Arts," Cathleen Huling looks back on her career as Artistic Director for the Ballet Arts Ensemble, and her last performance of the "12 Dancing Princesses," which she wrote with her father.

And now Taylor Gudbrandson, Artistic and Executive Director of the Kalamazoo Children's Chorus, talks about the history of the choir, the incredible trips the kids have taken, and the skills they learn.

(gentle ensemble music) (jaunty ensemble music) - My name is Taylor Gudbrandson, and I'm the Artistic Director of the Kalamazoo Children's Chorus.

(jaunty ensemble music) - Right, Kalamazoo Children's Chorus.

- Yes.

- Who are the children?

- We have children from all over Kalamazoo County, and outside of that, so the greater Kalamazoo area, we have 3rd graders through 12th graders.

So when you say Children's chorus, you might think younger kids, but we have advanced singers as well that are at their end of their high school career, about to go into college, and sometimes even for music.

- Tell me about the word chorus.

What are these kids doing?

- Well, a chorus is a choir, so we come together, but a lot of our kids come here because we're more of a family than just an ensemble, right?

We get to sing music, we say from Broadway to Bach, so we like to do a lot of different kinds of music that speak to different backgrounds and to different kids so that hopefully in the concert they find, you know, at least one piece that really speaks to them.

So it's kind of like a sacred, cherished place.

- Well, you sing in public in front of people.

- Yes, we do.

We have very brave kids.

(laughs) - Take me back to the beginnings of the chorus.

- KCC started in 1980, and it was founded by a local music teacher, her name was Jean Fry, and she saw a need in our community for choral music, and excellent choral music for our children.

We have 60 kids that sing with us right now, and at this point, we still have the same mission to create excellent music and to do it in a way that we can come here and celebrate and be joyful, and it's kind of like an escape from the rest of the week.

- How'd you get involved?

What's your background?

- Well actually, I sang with the Kalamazoo Children's Chorus when I was in high school.

I started in 10th grade, so for three years, I got to come and sing every night, or every Tuesday night with the KCC.

And then this was really the place where I decided I wanted to be a choir director and I wanted to be a children's chorus director.

It's a different atmosphere, a different kind of culture than maybe in the public school.

Everyone who comes to us really wants to be here, and because of that, you can have such high standards and really work towards those goals.

I had just a great time being here and being on the other side of things, seeing how things work from behind the curtains, I guess you could say.

- So you have a show coming up, what's gonna happen on stage?

- [Taylor] Our concert is titled "Magic in the Air," and this is celebrating 100 years of Disney.

So all of the songs that we're singing are taken from beloved movies that, for generations, have been sung throughout our houses.

- Are your kids reading music or have we committed to memorization?

- Oh, at the concert, we will be memorized so that we can dance and have the full experience, but yes, they read music when we're rehearsing, so it's kind of like a language skill that they're working on, as well.

This is their passion.

This is something that they put their whole heart and soul into, and it's extra, it's an extra commitment.

So the kids that come here want to be here.

- I love anything that involves hanging out with the KCC family.

- I am probably one of the most excited people to be here.

I just love performing, especially performing with other people.

It just makes such a joy in my heart.

- I think my favorite part is getting to sing with all my friends.

- I like seeing all the younger ones grow into their voices and realizing what they can do, and watching them become more comfortable and confident in themselves.

- I always say everyone can sing, you just have to find your voice, and we have excellent teachers.

So our introductory level, our Songbirds, is directed by Randi Simons-Miller, and she is a choir director from Portage Public Schools, and she's phenomenal with the kids.

So there's a lot of exploring your voice and finding what you sound like and how to fit in with the other group.

- Miss G, just always, like, especially with the little ones, she knows exactly how to like, get them involved and get them to like, learn things.

And with the older ones, she's still able to have fun, but also able to encourage and push us and give us, like, challenging pieces, but then we'll end up loving them.

- The most important thing they've taught me would to be to like, sing as a group and accept everybody and all voices.

(gentle orchestral music) - Talk about the collaboration within the Kalamazoo Arts community.

- Yeah, so our biggest goal this season is actually community collaboration.

Last season, our goal was to get outside of our community and see the world outside of our town.

And so we focused our entire season on MLK and attended the We Have a Dream Choral Festival in Washington, DC, and we were able to, on Juneteenth, sing at the MLK Memorial and participate in a concert at the Kennedy Center, performing musical works that support MLK's legacy.

And so we thought, how can we build into our community the same way that we've built into our kids and allow them to show what we've learned?

And so luckily, we've had a lot of other organizations reach out to us saying that they were interested in collaborating.

So we are collaborating this season with the Kalamazoo Concert Band and the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra.

- And what about the experience for the kids for this collaboration, but this performance in a bigger venue than what may just be at a smaller presentation?

- Yeah, it's important to sing where your roots are.

And Chapel Hill has generously given us this space, this beautiful space that we can rehearse and perform in.

But it's also important to go out into your community, other places, to find audiences that don't always come here, but maybe we'll find you somewhere else.

And part of that is also for the kids.

Singing in a church is much different than singing in a concert hall.

So at Chenery Auditorium, you know, the stage is larger, it feels different, the acoustics are different.

When we go and work with other ensembles, it's kind of, we get to learn from them and see what their experiences are and what could work for us, and know that there's not just one way to do art, right?

- Give me an example of maybe an experience you've had where either a kid's nailed a solo, or they've hit the high note, or the crowd has given a standing ovation.

What brings memories to you?

- Well, the first thing that comes to mind, last season I gave one of our pieces to the older choir, Rising Voices, a piece in German, and we sang "Waldesnacht" by Brahms.

And it was a really tricky piece for them to work on.

Learning a new language is always hard, but also it was acapella, it was in three parts.

And when we got up to perform it, it was so beautiful.

And this happens to me a lot, I guess, at a performance, I find myself like, tearing up when I'm making eye contact with different kids.

And that was one of those moments where I found myself getting choked up because it was probably one of the strongest pieces on our concert because they had to work so hard for it.

And I just remember, it wasn't the showy piece, right?

It wasn't the finale number that is probably in the audience's mind, but for the choir and for me, the connections that we made just on stage in that moment, it was a special time.

And so parts of the concert are always those parts, probably things that the audience don't know, but the kids and I, we know what it took to get there.

- Keep doing well with those young voices.

- Thank you.

(bright upbeat music) (gentle orchestral music) - [Narrator] And now Cathleen Huling looks back on her career as Artistic Director for the Ballet Arts Ensemble and her last performance of the "12 Dancing Princesses," which she wrote with her father.

(gentle orchestral music) - Cathleen Huling, where were you 40 years ago?

- I had just moved to Kalamazoo from Grand Rapids.

I sought out a place to dance, which was Ballet Arts.

Jerry James was the owner of the school then.

She started this youth ballet company, so I got involved with it right from the very beginning, back in 1982.

So I started out dancing and then I did some choreography, some teaching, gradually became Ballet Mistress, and then in 2001, became the director.

(gentle orchestral music) - To present day, what's it like to know that you're experiencing a 40th anniversary, and hind of the end of a reign?

- Well, it hardly seems like 40 years.

I think that's part of one of the wonderful things of being involved with the youth, because it keeps you young.

- How would you describe Ballet Arts?

Who are these dancers?

- The ensemble is made up of anywhere from between 18, 20, 22, young ladies.

They have to audition to get into the ensemble.

They are students of ballet, of course, for many years, it's a very strict discipline, they have to be well-trained, they have to achieve a certain skill level in order to get into the ensemble.

These kids have been dancing, most of them since they were, you know, four or five years old and study very hard.

(jaunty orchestral music) - I am Ashlyn Coburn, and I'm the oldest of 12 princesses.

- How does it feel just having come off a weekend of performance?

- It's awesome, honestly.

It's such a good experience to be on stage like that.

It's just so fun to be a part of that.

- And how would you describe how the weekend went?

- I'm happy with how the weekend went.

It was bittersweet for it to be Ms. Huling's last show, but it was awesome.

- What's it like under her direction leading up to the show?

- It's great, it's such like, an amazing opportunity, what she gives to us to be able to rehearse and put on a show as young dancers.

It's great, yeah.

- [Shelly] What's your history with Ms. Huling and the Ballet Arts Ensemble?

- I've been dancing at Ballet Arts since I was about six years old, so 10 years now.

And Ms. Huling has guided me all the way from pre-point to now.

- Wow.

And where do you go from here?

- From here, I hope to continue dancing.

I'm only a junior in high school right now, but I would love to keep dancing after this.

(gentle music) - Describe what we see with the "12 Dancing Princesses."

- Well, you see, first of all, a very lovely group of dancers in beautiful costuming and gorgeous colorful sets with an orchestra down in the pit in the front.

My father, Dale Crooks, composed the music for this ballet.

Ah, I had such a good time working with him on this.

You know, I need a waltz, dad, for this, and I need some scene music here, and I need maybe a mazurka over here, and so we put together this story and I choreographed it, and then Harrison Orr wrote it for our orchestra and we performed it in 2010 with the KSO.

Very, very special, and it was very timely, because he passed away very soon after that performance, but he was able to enjoy the creation of it with me.

And listening to his music played by a symphony orchestra was, I think, very, very special.

So I could think of nothing better to do for my final concert as artistic director than to revisit that ballet.

(bright orchestral music) - "The 12 Dancing Princesses," give me a favorite scene.

- Well, there is a scene where the young gentleman, the gardener, meets one of the dancing princesses.

This is the love interest in the ballet, and they perform a beautiful pas de deux, a waltz.

And what's special about this dance is that the waltz was music that my father wrote for my mother before they were married.

And so I put that in the ballet and I made that part of this little scene between the two.

So that was a special moment.

(gentle orchestral music) (gentle orchestral music) - What do your dancers get from this experience with you and your team?

- These children learn a discipline.

The demands that we have of them physically are challenging.

While they're in a structured environment, they also are encouraged to be creative.

So, so important for the development of these young people.

And I say it over and over again, because our alumni, vast majority of them, of course, don't go on to be professional dancers.

That's not why I'm here, to produce professional dancers, but rather, it helps prepare them for whatever they end up doing.

It gives them self-confidence, poise.

They can be in front of people, they can be up on stage, they can be in front of an audience.

It gives them all of that, too.

- I'm Ella Cammond, and I played Eleanora, who got married in the end of the show.

- How has it been performing and rehearsing right up to this point, knowing that it's Ms. Huling's last show?

- Yeah, it's been so fun.

I'm actually a senior, so this is my last show, too.

But yeah, we've been at the studio a lot the past few weeks, so we've been working hard, but it's all worth it.

It's been really fun.

- [Shelly] When did you start and why did you start this?

- I started dancing when I was super young, but then I moved to Ballet Arts when I was in middle school, and I just like, wanted to focus more on ballet, and I think Mrs. Huling's done a really good job of like, just teaching me throughout the years.

- How would you describe Ballet Arts Ensemble to someone who is new to it?

- I think it's like, a really like, positive environment.

And we all are such hard workers, and I think Mrs. Huling pushes us to be our best, and just like, it's just a good environment overall.

- How will you use the skills you have learned here in your later years?

- I think hard work is a lot of it.

It's just been so much like, of my week every week, just dancing.

So I think of time management, just like, everything.

So yeah, I think it'll help me a lot in in the future.

(lively music) - What do you want 40 years from now for the ballet?

- I hate to see the classical ballet art form disappearing.

We're forgetting our 17th century beautiful roots of classical dance.

I don't wanna see that lost.

When I teach the ballet, "La Sylphides," I teach the girls an art form that was established hundreds of years ago.

The way they hold their bodies, the discipline that it takes to maintain poses.

When I teach pas de chats, beautiful ballet, it's all about precision, it's all about artistry.

And so while I'm all in favor of contemporary and doing your own thing and making, you know, all of the different takes that we have on "Swan Lake," for instance, even "The Nutcracker," I don't want us to lose our roots, I don't want us to lose that wonderful history that we have, and I wanna see it in the classroom.

(bright dance music) - You have a last class, we'll say today, what do you do Monday morning when you know that your job has been well done here?

- I have a lot of pride in what I've done.

It's been very hard to make the decision to quit, because I think I'm probably the best teacher now that I've ever been.

Well, I could be around teacher, I've had teachers who are teaching from a chair on an oxygen machine, but I didn't wanna go that far.

So I just feel like this is the right time.

(audience applauding) - Why support the arts in Kalamazoo?

- Well, because of all of the things I just said in developing the human body, the human mind, the imagination, the creativity, the self-discipline, all of those things are so important for young people.

And with the collaborations that we do with other arts organizations in the community, our relationship with the KSO is just incredible.

The opportunity for our dancers to perform with live musicians is so special.

And I tell them this all the time, because it's very unique that these kids get an opportunity to dance with live music, as opposed to recorded music.

Our relationship with the Kalamazoo Children's Chorus, they perform in our "Nutcracker" as well, so these young, beautiful singers are there, singing, accompanied by the symphony, and our dancers are dancing on stage to their singing.

I mean, those kinds of relationships are important for all of us.

(gentle music) - My name is Macy Pong, and I was the Diamond Fairy in "12 Dancing Princesses."

- How would you describe Mrs. Huling's work with you?

Will you be missing her once she's off and retired?

- Oh, of course.

She's very interactive and she has just pushed all of us, and she has made me the dancer I am, and she's definitely made an impact on all of the dancers in the ensemble, so it'll definitely be hard without her.

(gentle ensemble music) - You might get some hugs and some tears.

Congratulations to you, Cathleen, for a job well done.

- Thank you.

(bright lively orchestral music) (audience applauding) (gentle bright orchestral music) (gentle bright orchestral music) (gentle bright orchestral music) (gentle bright orchestral music) (melancholy orchestral music) (gentle bright orchestral music) (lively upbeat orchestral music) (lively upbeat orchestral music) (lively dramatic orchestral music) (lively upbeat orchestral music) (lively upbeat orchestral music) (lively upbeat orchestral music) (lively dramatic orchestral music) (lively upbeat orchestral music) (lively upbeat orchestral music) (audience applauding) - [Announcer] Support for Kalamazoo Lively Arts is provided by the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation, helping to build and enrich the cultural life of greater Kalamazoo.

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