Dancing Dreams: The Inspiration Behind A Blossoming Theater Career

Hi, I’m Carissa Garen, and I’m a swing. Hi, I’m Jasmine, and I’m a swing. Hi, I’m Sam, and I’m also a swing. In The Great Gatsby, what made you want to pursue theater? Was there a performance or a person? My first show was The Lion King. I was like, probably like under 10, if around there. And I mean, it was wonderful to just see so many, like, black and brown people on the stage. And I was like, oh, I can do that. And I’ve always loved, you know, to sing and to dance, this is just the perfect combination of all of that. I grew up basically out of the womb, dancing and singing. My mom is. That’s my inspiration. She was a dancer her whole life, and we own two dance studios, our family. My first show I saw on Broadway was Gypsy. See, when I was 4, and we got to go backstage cause we had a friend in the show, and I was obsessed. And my mom said. I came home and was doing some of the dance moves at 4 years old, and my mom’s like, oh, no, here we go. I’ve been obsessed over since I was a competition kid growing up. And I got scouted out by a talent agent at a dance competition. And I had no idea of what. Anything she was saying. Then it just happened upon me. I went to an Audition. And got cast, and I did not know what I was doing. And, um, I made my Broadway debut when I was 11 with our choreographer, Dominic Kelly. Seeing him and the other performers in that show made me realize that that’s exactly what I wanted to do. So it feels very full circle. So you. I’ve been in this industry for almost 20 years. That’s crazy. What Broadway show is this? One that we’re working on. Five. Holy smokes.