Chris Kuzia, YWCA New Britain
Meet Christine Kuzia, or “Miss Chris” to the thousands of families she’s graced with her love over the years! As the Performing Arts & Athletics Director at the YWCA New Britain, she’s nurtured generations of families for almost 45 years. She graduated from the Hartford Conservatory of Music and Dance, studied with Luigi and Ronnie DeMarco, was accepted to dance at Jacob’s Pillow and spent 7 years dancing professionally for the Connecticut Jazz Dance Company. She has choreographed musicals for schools and youth theaters in several local towns including New Britain, Berlin, Plainville, and Wethersfield. She’s been selected to choreograph for the International Arts festival in Russia through the Wheeler Regional YMCA (1991) and for Gary Craig’s “We are the Children” Christmas Day Benefit at the Bushnell Theater in Hartford, CT (2001).
While these accomplishments are impressive, what caught our attention was the way Chris uses dance and theater to connect communities, help young artists develop their sense of self, motivate seniors to move their bodies, and nurture this incredible sense of family through her love language—the Arts.
We had the great honor to sit down and talk with Miss Chris.
Who is impacted by the work that you do? Do you have a personal connection to this work?
What I love about this work is that it touches so many - children and teens from the ages 3 through college, inner city kids, kids who have lost parents, foster kids, and divorced families.
I was a fortunate kid. I grew up with two parents, had no divorce, and went to a Catholic school. I didn’t have the struggles that so many of these kids have. I had different struggles that made me the person that I am today. My mom was very ill most of my growing up. I was on and off living with my grandparents while my mother was in the hospital and my father worked. There were family dynamics too. Things were tough for my father with my mother ill, plus his assets were tied up in my mother’s health. Money was tight. My grandparents helped me so that I could take dance lessons.
Everybody has struggles. These struggles can make us weak or make us better. I think all of my struggles as a kid made me stronger.
The struggle is hard for some of these kids. You have to be that strong person for them to get them through. Somebody has to love them. Somebody has to show them love, get away from their troubles, and let them be kids. Let them enjoy themselves. Everybody has the right to enjoy themselves.
The personal connection is that I’ve been a kid who has struggled. I feel their pain. I think about what they’re going through. That has impacted me. I’ve always wanted to be an example for other people.
Why dance, what’s the connection for you?
My father. My father taught me how to dance. He inspired my love of dance because he taught me how to do the twist. Whenever we’d go anywhere and there was a jukebox, my father would put the money in, and then he and my mother would dance. They danced so great together (before my mom was ill). I always danced with him too. He’d say “come on, come on”. He would dance with me and I’d have to follow him. I loved it. I just had this thing in me that made me want to dance.
My dance teacher was Lillian Zamayduk. She was a remarkable woman who taught me so much about how to be a good teacher, a good businesswoman, and a good choreographer. You could be a good teacher but a bad businesswoman or a good businesswoman but a horrible choreographer. She really inspired me.
To this day, I always say it was my dad when I was a little girl and my teacher from age 5 through high school. I went on to the Hartford Conservatory for Music and Dance and majored in dance, then I would go back and bring what I learned new to her studio.
I know some studios take offense when a dancer goes to another studio, but I think if you look at it right, it’s a compliment. You’ve taken them as high as you can take them for their ability, and they need more. So I tell them, go spread your wings, fly, and always remember where you started.
While rewarding, purpose-driven work can also require significant energy from us. Do you have a self-care routine that helps you maintain balance?
You’re right. I am a person who gives, gives, and does for everybody else, but lately, I have been trying to do one or two things for myself. As I got older, I started thinking, “I deserve that,” “I deserve to spend money on me.” When the kids were growing up, anything extra went to them or to continuing my education in dance through masterclasses.
I love crossword puzzles. At night, I sit and do four, five, maybe six crossword puzzles until my brain has shut off, and then I decide I can go to sleep now.
My feet hurt. The older I get, the more my feet start to bother me. My daughter treated me to a pedicure. I loved it and now I go once a month. I also started facials. One of my former students opened a business that does facials, so I started going to her. Little things like that. As I get older, I’m learning to take care of myself. I think I’m young, in my brain I feel young …”oh you can do that”, my body is telling me “NO” (laughs)
Has there been a particular challenge in your own life, where looking back now, you realize it was a pivotal moment in your own growth journey?
COVID. How do you navigate through COVID? It made me stop and think. I’m not a person who gets scared, but I was scared. I really thought my career and everything that I had built was going to go. Never be there again. Things were looking very gloomy and scary. At night, I would have anxiety attacks. “How were we going to go forward from here? Was I still going to be able to dance? To teach? To choreograph musicals?” Everything that I had built was now hanging by this one thread, called COVID. It was one of the heaviest times in my life, watching my staff get laid off. I had to stay close to my teachers, so that I didn’t lose them. They were scared. For a while, none of us were working.
But I learned. I had to pull myself together for the sake of myself and my staff. I had to find a way to make the new normal work. As a team we came up with how to hold classes virtually, then a new way to sign the kids in and bring them up to their classes. We had musicals in the park and recitals in the bandshell. We had to reinvent what we do and how we do it, so that it was the new normal.
Coming back, I think things have changed. We think about things differently now. We also made things better in certain ways - more connection with parents as they enter the building, student teachers have more of a leadership role, using Facebook to communicate easier with families. It also got me thinking, “How can my program survive when I’m gone?” We created the Alumni Association, so our dance program continues long after me. I started doing alumni classes and raising money for the scholarship fund. I want them to carry on, to be the backbone that supports the teachers and scholarship fund.
COVID taught me what was possible and I think it’s only going to get better from there.
Community and mentorship are so important. Is there a particular person or persons that you’ve drawn inspiration from over the years?
I was very close to my grandparents and my aunt on my mother’s side.
My grandfather was a community person, and so was my aunt. They taught me (my parents were wonderful teachers too), but they taught me the importance of being involved in the community, supporting people, and giving back. My grandfather is in my head all the time. “Come on, you should go do that” That’s how I’ve gotten involved in the community, New Britain High, Plainville High, McGee Middle School, the Senior Center. We do our Thriller performance all over the place. It’s a lot.
It’s my grandfather, grandmother and aunt who always said to me, “Be a pillar. Be involved. Show support.”
That’s what I’ve learned from my grandparents and my dance teacher, I learned that you’ve got to be a part of all of these lives. You’ve got to be the home base. The mother to everybody. Except now they’re calling me grandmother (laughs). It’s a great feeling to be loved. You’ve got to show genuine love and respect for people in order for them to show it back to you.
What advice would you offer the woman with a whisper in her heart to lean deeper into her power?
Never let anyone tell you “No” or that “You can’t do that”. Don’t let anybody stand in your way.
You can do anything you want and set your mind to, if you’re passionate. You’ve got to be committed. Then watch and see what everybody else says now. Just don’t back down.
Do you know how it all started? The mother of a good friend of mine was teaching here. Then one of my teachers who taught a body movement class asked me to sub. I applied, got the position, and subbed. She decided not to come back and I stayed. I taught a few exercise classes. I subbed in the pool. Taught dance at night. I really only had adults in the beginning. Then this other teacher decided to leave, and I started teaching kids.
When I first started, I had twinkle toe classes. Feb 20th, will have been here 45 yrs. This worked for me. I got married while I was working here. I had 3 kids while I was working here.
I actually went into labor with one of my kids while I was teaching and waited for waited for my sub to arrive. My kids came with me to my classes. Now my granddaughter comes, she stays here, it’s a full circle. It’s a home. A home away from home.
