Polka Dancing and Performing: Fleur Kuhta
Fleur Khuta is a sophomore at OHS, a student ambassador, and is passionate about all forms of art. Here, we get to know Fleur better and graze the surface of her lifelong pursuits in the arts.
Pixel Journal: What exactly do you do in the arts?
Fleur: Anything and everything, really! My main focus is performing, though. Most of my interests revolved around the theatre--singing, dancing, acting; basically anything that I'm allowed to do to help put on a show. I run the Pixel Players theatre group here at OHS where I keep track of a lot of elements of the production that's going on (and potentially act, if there's room!). It's interesting to me how in theatre, a huge group of people all bring their particular elements or skills to the stage to make a scene or song come to life in a cohesive manner. It's breathtaking when it goes just perfectly.
One of the more unique arts I practice is Polka, which is Polish folk dancing. I'm in a dance group called the Pokolenie Dancers, and we perform all over--pretty frequently with Jimmy Sturr, who many people think to be the "modern king of Polka." It's pretty thrilling to be able to perform with someone who is so high-level in a genre I am so passionate about.
PJ: How long have you pursued your artistic endeavors?
F: I remember when I was little, I would watch movies from the golden age of Hollywood, and I always said I wanted to be like Katherine Hepburn or Esther Williams or Judy Garland when I grew up. I have a stuffed penguin that I got when I was too young to remember, and my family named it Astaire because he looked like he was wearing a tuxedo, and (at least I’ve been told) I loved Fred Astaire so much. I think I requested my first dance class when I was around two, so I’ve been performing for around twelve years. Wow…it’s weird to think about how big a piece of my life it’s always been.
I know that the intensity with which I practiced and performed has definitely increased, though. The older I get, the more I fall in love with performing, and the more I feel as though I want to devote myself to being the most skilled that I can possibly be. Theatre is the thing that immediately crosses my mind when there’s nothing else occupying it—I just love it so much, it feels as though it’s a part of me. I’m listening to show-tunes while I’m writing this, which kind of proves my point, I think.
PJ: Are there things in your life that influenced your artistic personality/type?
F: My mom used to play me Broadway soundtracks from the 1970s—Pippin, Hair, Jesus Christ Superstar, all of those. It really formed a lot of my ideas about what theatre is. I hadn’t even seen a lot of the shows they were from, but I could understand the plot, and the emotions, which taught me about using my voice as an actress, and the range it could reach.
The first show I fully recollect seeing (not just as a wispy memory) is Hair, which definitely affected me a lot. The production is rather non-traditional, and breaks the fourth wall so many times that one could lose count. At the end of the show, the actors pull some audience members up onstage to dance, while fake snow rains from the ceiling. The feeling that I got in that moment, being in the scene the actors were creating, wasn’t just an act they were putting on—they were getting to the hearts of their characters, and making me, dancing slightly awkwardly in a very modern dress on a stage with fake snow, feel as though I was sitting in central park during a snowstorm and wearing love beads. Being able to create that atmosphere is something I hope to be able to do one day—to pull my audience in like I was pulled in back then.
PJ: Have any of your shows/performances stood out to you, and why or why not?
F: The first show that I had a fairly large part in was this play from the 1920s called Machinal. It’s super intense, and a pretty serious show for a 13 year old who hadn’t been in an actual show for around five years. It was my first year at Buck’s Rock, which is a performing and creative arts summer camp, and I didn’t know anyone there at the time. We started rehearsals on the third day of camp, and I remember feeling as though the cast was a family from the minute we met each other. It was a small cast, only around 15 people, and in the three or so weeks that we put on the show, we got so incredibly close that I felt as though I could count on them for anything.
The moment that really stood out to me, though, was taking the bow for that show. It was one of the biggest audiences I’d ever performed for, and seeing some people standing up and clapping, to show me—no, to show us, the cast, our family—that we’d done a good job, was so incredibly thrilling. We get cast cake after the shows, and I was just crying of happiness that it went so well and sadness that it ended and I just felt so bittersweet that I couldn’t even eat it. I now regret this decision, of course, because I passed up perfectly good chocolate cake.
Whenever I feel as though maybe theatre isn’t the thing for me, or I don’t love it as much as I once did, I just remember what that felt like, getting a standing ovation and knowing I’d never acted better in my life, and I remember why I go through all the hassle that theatre can be. It’s home for me.
PJ: How did your arts influence your decision to come to OHS?
F: With OHS, I can figure out a lot of my own scheduling, so I can use what times work for me to do homework, and use the other parts of my day to rehearse or perform. For instance, this weekend I’m performing at a gigantic Oktoberfest with my polka group. We dance six times over two days, but there’s a lot of downtime in between performances. With OHS, I can use this time to work on next week’s homework, instead of having to have done it on the weeknights, over the past week, when I’ve got dance class. I’ve got flexibility and control over a lot of my own schedule, which gives me an incredible amount of freedom. It’s honestly exhilarating to be able to pursue such an academically enriching program while also being able to do art at the times that I want to.