Miss Nina, a Brooklyn resident and children’s musician, has been very busy recently. This April, she released her second kids’ CD, Sha Doo Be Doop…and she became a first time mom! Her voice is absolutely beautiful and I love her approach: music for kids first, grown-ups second. My kids have been jammin’ to her new album recently! She should definitely be added to your dance party rotation- you and your children will not be disappointed!
I got to discuss all things music and life with Miss Nina and I was most interested in hearing how Nina got into this genre having not been a parent and how her experience playing to kids has changed since she found out she was expecting. Here’s what she had to say:
Music has been a part of my life as long as I can remember, but my main means of expression was dance.
I dabbled in piano when I was younger, and always yearned to play the drums (but for some reason believed they were “for boys”), so generally I stuck to dance – all forms. Ballet, Jazz, Tap, Theatre, Hip-Hop, Modern, you name it. ( In fact, my desire to play drums translated into a very natural ability for tap dancing.) I danced in a local dance company while growing up in Wilmington, DE and then studied it at college.
Flash forward to my early 20s after getting my degree in Dance Management (a mix of Dance & Arts Mgt) from Oklahoma City University, and a gig as a dancer for Carnival Cruise Lines, I moved to NYC to pursue a career in dance and musical theater. So, of course, I got a job waitressing. And come to find out, although I’m great at service, when it comes to carrying trays and drinks and clearing tables, I’m a terrible waitress.
I’ve always had an ability to connect with young children, loved to babysit and often had thought that if I wasn’t so interested in being a performer, I might like to teach preschool. And so I found this great “survival” job at a place called Wondercamp! (which no longer exists but was on 23rd Street in Manhattan). It was an indoor playspace for children, and I was an activity leader – I would act out stories for kids on the Mainstage, lead interactive dance parties, karaoke and even host birthday parties. I, honestly, loved this job. In fact, at one point I was so fortunate to get a job in the European Tour of 42nd Street and one day, in the midst of our 3 month run in Berlin, I told a friend of mine, in very hushed tones, that I missed my job in NYC. !! How could this be?! Years and years of dance training and weight probation and auditioning, and I finally have a professional job in musical theater, and I miss my “day job?!?!’
After Berlin, I continued to purse my dreams of career in the performing arts, but somewhere along the line decided to go to grad school for Educational Theatre. I graduated from NYU with a Master of Arts and went on to be a Teaching Artist in several companies, toured schools across the country playing the nurse in an educational production of Romeo & Juliet and continued auditioning. And temping. Because, well, neither the field of Education or Theatre nor the two combined commands that great a salary!
So, I found myself wanting to reign it all in – instead of going in a million different directions, find a way to do one job, that I really enjoyed, using all my talents and abilities (or most of them), and I found myself soon employed as a teacher and eventually the Manager at Gymboree Play & Music in Manhattan teaching children 0 to 3 years old.
I did indeed love it there. At one point, I took over teaching the Saturday morning classes at the Upper West Side location. And it was there that I had my first epiphany. I particularly loved the Saturday morning feel. Often both the moms and the dads would accompany their child to class, and so Saturday mornings were all about families and togetherness. Yes, everyone was tired from their work weeks, but all very happy to be there with their children. Coffee cups in hand, shoes off, socks on, we all played together. And then came “parachute time.” One morning we were all sitting in a large circle, as we always did, and I was leading us all in a very rousing rendition of Old MacDonald and I remember thinking, “Is there anyway that I can do THIS with my life? Whatever exactly this is?”
I was still a few years away from writing songs and picking up the guitar, but that was the beginning of me getting a sense of what I wanted to be doing and who I wanted to be serving. Performing and auditioning in the show biz world was feeling so self focused and about “getting.” I was performing to get a job, get kudos, get an agent, get ahead, etc. Yet, at Gymboree I loved the “break” from all of that and being able to turn outward and really sing and perform FOR others, to connect, to create community and to just spread joy.
I was soon offered, seemingly out of the blue, a job to teach at a private preschool – and as I was reading some of our favorite stories in my mommy & me classes, I started hearing melodies to them. So, I met up with a very talented musician friend of mine, Doug Silver, and would sing him these books and ask him to play the tunes that I was hearing in my head. That was the beginning of the songwriting, and out of those songs, my first CD, Singing & Dancing Together, was born. (I never have gotten the rights to record some of my first book songs, but they at least set me on this path!)
Just before that CD was being released I picked up a pink guitar (though I had tried to learn to play several other times in my life) and started bringing it to class to accompany me on some of basic 2-chord kid songs, like, The Wheels On The Bus, etc.
And slowly, from dancer to teaching artist to teacher to songwriter, this whole Miss Nina thing has developed, where aside from teaching at the preschool I also entertain at events and private playgroups around the city.
And as my guitar playing has improved (with the help of a great teacher here in Brooklyn, Matt Schlatter), I’ve been able to move away from humming tunes to others to write for me, and write my songs, myself. It’s been such a gift to be able to develop myself, musically, in my adult life while still serving the audience that I feel most passionate about – young children and their families.
So – how has my experience playing to kids changed since I found out I was expecting?
Well, I suspect that once the baby arrives it’s going to change again. I have a feeling I’ll be writing some songs for and about my little girl very soon. But as an “expecting mom” my experience playing to kids and their families has changed in terms of my empathy toward the mothers!
Not that I didn’t have it before – but my focus has always been very much on the children, and making sure that the children get what they need from the adults around them, and the adults modeling how to participate, be part of group, be part of a community and how to have fun for their kids!
And then suddenly, there I am, pregnant…. and exhausted! So, I started realizing that my expectations of the moms at my classes and events, who are often pregnant with their second or third child while attending with their toddler, to be present, and model appropriate behavior, etc. was kind of intense! Until now I didn’t really understand just how tall an order it was for them to simply be present without getting sick! Or while really needing to sleep! And just how real “mommy brain” is.
So, I’d say I’ve lightened up a bit in that sense. I’m happy that I am providing family entertainment and an opportunity for everyone to be together and just relax, because often that’s what everyone needs most. The adults may sing-along, or they may quietly chat to the mom next to them about a pressing matter – and now I’m fine with whatever they need to do. More than anything I want my music and performance to be a source of joy and fun and a way to experience community – and so being an expectant mom has helped me to perhaps chill out a bit!
Honestly, I don’t know that this internal change is that obvious to anyone on the outside. I don’t think any of the adults ever found me to be difficult. But what’s changed more is my ability to not be as bothered by less-than-attentive adults while I’m performing, and that, therefore, does not throw off my performance or ability to teach. As long as everyone is getting what they need and enjoying themselves, I’m happy to entertain them.
Find out more about Miss Nina or get a copy of her cd here: