Eva Espinoza-Almazar, intern
I began visiting the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum around the same time I started ballet, at the age of three. I immediately fell in love with the performing and visual arts. My family and I would visit the Museum almost weekly. Each visit began in the sculpture garden and concluded in Art Park, where I created crafts that I thought lived up to the exhibits I had viewed that day.
Weeknights were spent similarly, immersed in art through movement at the Central Wisconsin School of Ballet, my second home. I classically trained for sixteen years under Patrik Kasper and the late Madame Waltraud Karkar. Here, I was taught lessons in etiquette, discipline, and grace. Each of these, though seemingly tedious to master at the time, is a value that I will carry with me for the rest of my life. Not only did Madame Karkar give me a profound appreciation for the art of dance, but a knowledge that oftentimes beauty lies in the in between, the mundane. It’s a fleeting moment captured, then gone forever, the experience forever shared between the artist and the audience.
My favorite ever exhibition at the Museum was when my two worlds collided. Titled Painting a Story, this exhibition was unlike any other; it was familiar to me. Displayed where Art Park lives today, the costumes and props from the Central Wisconsin School of Ballet’s production of “Alice in Wonderland,”part of our Storybook Weekend performance, were displayed in glass cases. The teardrop costume I had worn months prior on stage to perform was encased alongside the decades-worn Alice dress I dreamed of wearing myself; it was truly a dream.
On my second day working as an intern at the Museum this summer, I was sorting through archived photos, and came across a small pile from an educational program nearly 30 years ago. On top was an image of Madame Karkar, and the succeeding ones were a series from a brief performance of the Kangaroo from our Carnival of the Animals production. These photos brought to my mind the pride I have to have known Madame Karkar, and a gratitude for the role she had in fostering my love of the arts in the Wausau community.
At the end of your next visit to the Museum, or a performance by the Central Wisconsin School of Ballet, I encourage you to take your time and reflect on the hard work and dedication of the artists who produce such beauty for our enjoyment, if only for a fleeting moment.
