At the age of seven, Karina Taylor attended her first acting camp, \u201cApplause,\u201d located on Manhattan\u2019s Upper West Side. What began as simply a hobby quickly evolved into a deeper passion. Taylor\u2019s transformative experience at Applause enabled her to discover true affection for the performing arts and created a pathway to self-expression. The stage became a safe haven for her and a guide through the challenges in her life. Taylor shares, \u201cI get an adrenaline rush on stage, so I have more fun performing than nerves\u2026I guess it helps that you can\u2019t really see the people. In the audience, it\u2019s pitch black so I have fun.\u201d From the excitement of embodying a character\u2019s life and sharing their story, to the lasting friendships that come with the commitment, acting and dancing quickly began to fill Taylor\u2019s life with joy and direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dance was the means by which Taylor learned a crucial life lesson: resilience is key to success. In seventh grade, she was faced with what could have easily been a lasting setback. Taylor was rejected by an advanced dance company she had trained for months to join. But her energy and commitment was undaunted. Taylor has an unwavering devotion to the art, acting as a constant reminder of her willingness to put in whatever time was necessary to achieve her goals. She recalls, \u201cI made the choice to work harder than I ever believed possible to earn my spot next year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As Taylor stretched her abilities, she drew inspiration from her support system, including her instructors. Her dance teachers since she was in 6th grade, Kristina and Max, emerged as lasting sources of motivation. Kristina\u2019s untamable efforts to continue dancing while battling health challenges revealed to Taylor the resilience needed to overcome personal challenges. She shares how, \u201cDespite people telling her she wouldn\u2019t be able to dance because of conditions out of her control, Kristina didn\u2019t let this interfere with her career and that was really inspiring.\u201d For Taylor, Max represented the possibilities of a professional acting career. She says, \u201cHe was on Broadway in ‘Beetlejuice’ and <\/em>‘Spider-Man,’ so he\u2019s doing a lot of really fun stuff right now and it’s really cool to see someone living out your dream and their dream.\u201d These mentors, combined with the relentless support of her mother, have enabled Taylor to grow not only as a performer, but also as a person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Taylor has rehearsed with her mom, Kristalina, since she was young, and says that she has been \u201cextremely supportive and a great collaborator for years.\u201d Some roles Taylor has played include a man in “Guys and Dolls,” <\/em>Farquaad in “Shrek,” <\/em>the Witch in “Into the Woods” <\/em>and Miss Pennywise in “Urinetown.” They work together to learn lines, fine-tune Taylor\u2019s performances and help her to better embrace the character\u2019s role. Taylor explains, \u201cMy mom is a retired harpist, but she also plays the piano so she\u2019ll play in our living room while I sing for a few hours.\u201d She also recalls, \u201cMy mom will find clips of my character’s roles on Youtube and send them to me while I\u2019m in class and get mad when I don\u2019t respond.\u201d This experience has not only helped strengthen their bond but also adds another layer of meaning to each performance and role Taylor plays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As she moves between theater and dance, fictional roles and reality, Taylor finds herself embodying the roles she plays, using these experiences to strengthen her empathy for others and better resolve conflicts. She says that being forced to step into a character\u2019s point of view has \u201ctaught [her] to view life and other people\u2019s experiences from different perspectives.\u201d Being able to take a step back and consider an opposing viewpoint can allow for more meaningful conversations and overall, stronger communication skills. Each role forces Taylor to understand a character\u2019s triumphs and fears by listening first, and then thoughtfully responding. She voices, \u201cLast year I did ‘Mean Girls,’ and I think that helped me listen better because it\u2019s a show about bullying in high school and like popularity and peer pressure. Seeing this from an outside perspective and listening to older directors and teachers talk about things we\u2019re going through right now really made me think about all this from a more mature perspective.\u201d Taylor adds, \u201cIn auditions, you can\u2019t be nervous and shy so I guess this has helped me talk to people and do uncomfortable things. Playing different characters that you\u2019re not used to or telling stories you don\u2019t live through helps you see the character\u2019s perspectives and the bigger picture they\u2019re representing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Taylor shares how theater and its laborious requirements has fostered a strong work ethic. She adds, \u201cI really like staying busy because I feel like you can\u2019t fall behind or get lazy when you\u2019re really booked, so theater has really helped me in that sense.\u201d Taylor also highlights her efforts to balance her time, \u201cdoing things a week in advance and pre-studying for classes.\u201d When she was younger, Taylor shares how she struggled to manage the time commitment. \u201cI think it was a lot more difficult because I was doing it for the first time, but I feel like I\u2019ve gotten used to it. I ask for extensions sometimes. Sometimes I stay up really late.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Taylor is a diligent student and performer who is willing to put in the extra effort to be successful. For young artists, Taylor has a simple piece of advice: \u201cSetbacks are inevitable, especially as a teenager, but don\u2019t give up when it gets challenging or you won\u2019t get to where you want.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" At the age of seven, Karina Taylor attended her first acting camp, \u201cApplause,\u201d located on Manhattan\u2019s Upper West Side. What began as simply a hobby quickly evolved into a deeper passion. Taylor\u2019s transformative experience at Applause enabled her to discover true affection for the performing arts and created a pathway to self-expression. The stage became a safe haven for her and a guide through the challenges in her life. Taylor shares, \u201cI get an adrenaline<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341,"featured_media":11030,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[319,347,644,318],"tags":[],"coauthors":[553],"class_list":["post-11029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-community","category-features","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Screenshot-2024-12-26-at-2.39.03-PM-e1735213361731.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11029"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11029\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11031,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11029\/revisions\/11031"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11029"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=11029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}