Behind the Scenes: Ballet and Books' Collaboration with Columbia University's Ballet Ensemble

In this special Q&A, we sit down with the President of Ballet and Books' Morningside Heights chapter, Charlotte Suh, to discuss their recent collaboration with Columbia University Ballet Ensemble, which gave young dancers the opportunity to perform in The Nutcracker. This partnership opened doors for children who might not otherwise have access to such performance opportunities and embodied the organization's commitment to accessibility in arts education.

The Partnership

Dominique Turner: Could you tell us about how this collaboration with Columbia University Ballet Ensemble came about?

Charlotte Suh: Columbia University Ballet Ensemble reached out to us - their President, Charlotte Vaccaro, said, "We've heard about your organization and we're really committed to outreach. We'd love to do a partnership, and we have this opening for your kids to serve as party guests and mice in our production of the Nutcracker."

More than ever, we're attuned to the fact that these kids probably wouldn't get a performance opportunity like this. So we were thrilled at the opportunity.

DT: How did you prepare the children for this performance opportunity?

CS: We had a day where we tried some choreography on the kids and decided who was old enough to do what, since it's hard to have three to five-year-olds on stage for much longer than five minutes. We were surprised - they actually handled it all in a very mature way.

We reached out about additional funding for costumes, which was a massive help. Costume expenses can be a concern for many families. It was really nice to be able to provide everyone with costumes that made them feel empowered and happy.

DT: Were there any particularly meaningful moments during this process?

CS: I had a few parents reach out to me worried that their children wouldn’t be able to perform given the costs of costumes and ballet slippers, and it was really meaningful to be able to tell them, "Everything about Ballet and Books holds true for these external collaborations too - no spending money on their part at all."

Pretty much all the kids ended up doing the Nutcracker performance since it was optional. There was a lot of buy-in and the parents were thrilled about it.

Meeting Children Where They Are

DT: How did you handle children who might not have been developmentally ready for a stage performance?

CS: We wanted it to be as stress-free as possible for parents and kids. We've had a few kids with selective mutism in our program, which means they don't speak to people outside their immediate family.

More specifically, we had several children who were anxious about the performance--their parents, while thrilled at the opportunity, were unsure if their kids would feel comfortable with being in front of a larger audience and in a new environment with new people. 

To quell the kids’ fears, we really tried to foster their confidence and let the parents know, “We don't know if they'll feel comfortable in the end doing it, but we have costumes for them and we're going to rehearse as if they will do the performance.”  

We left it flexible so that if a mentee wanted to bail the minute before they go on stage, that was fine too. We just want every mentee to have the experience of rehearsing with a group.

We take their feelings quite seriously, even at this stage, and give credence to all of the insecurities or moments of empowerment. 

DT: That approach gives children a lot of autonomy and freedom to be authentic to how they’re feeling. 

CS: Yes, we treat them as autonomous beings who are making real decisions about how to contribute to the community that we've built. I think treating them with that degree of maturity, even though they're so young, has actually kept them more engaged.

They're a lot better now at telling us, "I'm uncomfortable with this. I can't dance right now. I need to go sit over there. Can you go sit with me and then I will dance when I'm ready." I'm constantly in awe when they do that! 

The Performance Experience

DT: What was it like working with the Columbia University Ballet Ensemble?

CS: It was great. They were really encouraging. With college dance groups, the rehearsal process can be quite serious, so it was wonderful to have them be so gentle and playful with the kids.

We had all of our kids come to their dress rehearsal at an external studio so they would get acquainted with everyone who would be on stage with them. Clara and Drosselmeyer got to know the kids before they were on stage.

It was pivotal to embed them in a serious rehearsal environment and say, "This is how professional dancers approach performance, and you're just as important. You're right here with them." The kids got to sit and watch the rest of the rehearsal too, which the parents really enjoyed.

DT: Do you think this experience on a bigger stage helped the children's development?

CS: Definitely. I think it showed them that all of the work they do in class is really important. They got to feel like little professionals. Parents have reached out to me saying the kids are so excited to come back because they still talk all the time about how they were in the Nutcracker.

There's this little boy [name redacted] who still talks about being a mouse in the Nutcracker. The experience of them getting ready together in their costumes and the excitement before going on stage - I think it really actualized the practice for them because we usually just have class in that little basement space.

Meeting Diverse Needs

DT: Ballet and Books serves a diverse community. How do you adapt your programming to meet different needs?

CS: It's really important to understand the totality of each child's experience. Our program is such a small snippet of their lives, but people are coming to it for very different reasons. Some people are treating it as necessary childcare because they have other very young kids. Some people are using it as enrichment that they otherwise would not have in their current school setting.

Once you understand the context of what they're bringing to the table, it helps you target your interactions better and make them feel comfortable in the space.

DT: How do you handle language barriers with such young children?

CS: Early on in our programming, we had a two-year-old boy who only spoke Japanese. His mother was intent upon having him participate in programming, hoping it would aid his psychosocial development. However, we recognized right away that his experience would be limited by this language barrier–it aggravated the anxiety that already came with being introduced to a new environment without his parents. 

That experience really led us to reflect on how we could foster a more diverse mentor pool that could best meet children’s cultural backgrounds. For example, we have a child who wants to be a professional ballet dancer and really only speaks Spanish. We started pairing her with mentors who can speak to her in both Spanish and English. This semester, those mentors–Enrique and Marco– have been marveling at how much her English has advanced as well!

We had someone apply whose kid only speaks Dutch. And I said, "We don't have a Dutch mentor yet, but we're working on it!”

Looking Ahead

DT: That’s New York for you! What are your hopes for Ballet and Books going forward?

CS: I think for me, it's definitely expanding to a two-class format. We're so saturated with interest from families - we're getting 50 applications for like 20 or 25 spots. We have a lot of mentors, a wait list for mentors, and many dance teachers. There's all this interest, and we have kids aging out of the program who we don't really want to say goodbye to yet.

I think it would be great to have a three to five-year-old class and a six to nine-year-old class. Hopefully when we get up and running with our new community partner and have more space, we can accommodate around a hundred people instead of a 60-person operation.

DT: Are there other collaborations in the works?

CS: We're really excited to spearhead more collaborations moving forward. We're actually in talks right now with a preschool in Morningside Heights about doing a collaboration with their two to four-year-old classes.

We've also applied for student club recognition through Community Impact at Columbia, which is exciting not just because of the funding aspect, but because they set up a nice apparatus for community engagement work. It embeds you in this nice network of other Columbia University clubs that are focused on Morningside Heights and Harlem.

DT: Congratulations on graduating this month! As you transition away from Ballet & Books (we’ll miss you so much!), what have you personally learned from your experience?

CS: Thank you! I've learned that service looks very different from family to family. I'm hoping to go into pediatric medicine, so this experience really helps me think about the idea of service even in a medical context. You have to sit and listen to each person's story first and then figure out how your role fits into that.

With these children, we've learned to make them feel like their voices are important and that they are autonomous and can tell us exactly what they want. That has helped all of our mentors be more empathetic and more useful to these families.

Charlotte Suh, Morningside Heights Chapter President

Ballet and Books is a non-profit organization dedicated to combining dance education with literacy development for children from diverse backgrounds. Our Morningside Heights chapter is one of several across the country bringing accessible arts education to communities that need it most.

Photos from the Columbia University Nutcracker performance are featured throughout this article. For more information about our programs or to support our work, please visit our About Us page on our website.