Friends of the Center for the Arts: How I Fell in Love with the Performing Arts

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In addition to many of its Great Performances at Mason, the Center offers a myriad of ways for young people to be introduced to the performing arts —from free school time matinees to Family Series events. Some Friends of the Center for the Arts recount their own first forays into the performing arts—from DJing air base radio in Newfoundland to former Rockette dance teachers to humoring an uncle's Humoresque...


   
It’s hard to pick a specific date or event as to when I first fell in love with the performing arts, but two or three “events” do stick out.  The first would be in high school when our Drama Club put on a

Play cover of Arsenic and Old Lac, with a crocheted doily and a bottle of poison, labeled with a skull and crossbones.

performance of “Arsenic and Old Lace.”  Seeing my classmates in costume and performing is a memory I will never forget.  The other key event would be when I went away to college.  There was a classical music station in Burlington, VT I would listen to while doing my homework.  It must have made a real impression on me as, six years later, I was a volunteer “disc jockey” with my own classical program on the American Forces Radio & Television Service at Goose Air Base in Labrador, Canada!

—Mark Roddy


   

My introduction to the arts started when I was 5 Years old when my mother enrolled me in a tap class because she thought it would be a good thing for a little girl to do.  I continued to take dance under the tutelage of a former Radio City Music Hall Rockette and then later expanded my dance experience to include jazz and ballet. While in high school, my chorus teacher came to me and said that I had been selected to choreograph our high school musical Oliver.

I have taught dance throughout my entire life for several dance studios in the area. I choreographed dances for my classes to compete in National Touring Competitions and we proudly brought home Gold Medals. I directed Summer Dance Showcase Shows and have performed in Fiddler on the Roof, Carnival and at Wolf Trap.  The performing arts and theater have had a major influence throughout my life. 

—Deberra Jones


           
I have fallen in love with the performing arts multiple times but haven’t divorced any. It had its beginning in third grade when my mother gave me a violin and said, “you will now learn how to play this instrument.” Her father was a violin teacher, and when he visited us occasionally, he would always play Humoresque, Op.101, No.7 by Dvořák.

I loved this piece and looked forward to his visits. However, I thought my lessons were a chore in the beginning. I didn’t want any of my friends see me carrying a violin case. My first teacher was a kind, elderly lady who taught multiple instruments. However, she instilled in me the basics. My next teacher was a member of my hometown orchestra, and when I attended my first orchestral concert to see/hear her play, my whole attitude changed, and I found myself liking to listen to classical music and yearning to one day perform in an orchestra. That day came when I was a junior in high school and joined the school orchestra. The highlight of my orchestra experience came when I played Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance for my own graduation.

Fast forward to 1975 when I arrived in the DMV area. My wife and I and several friends became annual season subscribers to the National Symphony Orchestra in the Kennedy Center. Listening to a live symphony orchestra perform became a joy that I have retained to this day. We also joined our friends in getting season tickets to the Virginia Opera at the Center for the Arts at George Mason University. I immediately fell in love with their performances and would travel to Richmond or Norfolk to see operas that we had missed when they played in the Center's concert hall. While in London for four years, we attended most of the stage performances in the West End theaters and became addicted to live performances of plays and musicals. That continued when we arrived in the DMV in 1975 as we joined with our friends (again) and became season subscribers to the Arena Stage.

Completing my love affair with the various genres of the performing arts occurred when our daughter started dancing and became a prima ballerina with the Santiago, Chile, Ballet Company, and then later with the Houston Ballet Company.

I will never forget her final performance in Giselle, where I was so proud of her that I thought my chest would explode.

We have seen her dance most of the classics, including Cinderella, Coppelia, Don Quixote, Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, and La Sylphide. My love of the performing arts is alive and well, even to this day.

Bob Warakomsky