The Arts
An Interview With Boulder City's First Lady Connie Ferraro
by Ev Chase
I have done interviews so many times before I should not be surprised by what I see and hear - for many different reasons. Normally I do not look forward to an interview with a surprise lest I become disappointed. No problem here - Connie Ferraro is a pleasant surprise.
How many people dream and how many people are able to follow that dream? Whatever the number, Connie Ferraro, at a very early age, followed her dream of being a dancer and found out she was not only a dreamer, but an achiever.
"Actually, I was extremely shy when I was little. When someone would come to the door, I would run away," Connie says. "But sometimes I would dance."
She couldn't have run too far and she must have shed her shy coat early on in life too, because at the age of six she was already taking dancing lessons.
"My parents thought it was one way to open me up," Connie says. "I had a choice between dance and violin."
Connie's choice and her focus during her school years was on dancing. That early choice set Connie on an unwavering career path of dancing and show productions lasting more than 30 years.
When Connie finished high school, she left her Pennsylvania home excited about her chosen career in dance and an eye on the best place to begin - The Big Apple.
"I knew after I graduated from high school I would be going to New York," Connie says. "I went to Manhattan to continued my dancing lessons."
Not only did she continue her dance lessons, but in time she began auditioning for Broadway shows and finding success in her chosen career.
"I did a lot of auditions, Broadway shows, and TV," says Connie.
Her entertainment experiences included Ed Sullivan, Don Amici, and Shirley Maclaine. It was during this dancing and production company career she started taking sketching classes.
"I did a lot of dancing. That was my whole life. But while I was dancing, I started going to the art student league to take sketching lessons.
"While I was sitting around waiting for the next dance number I was sketching everybody. That's how I started with painting."
Talented people will often develope talent in another areas and so be it with Connie. Her art talent may be traced to her father, who during her early years made a serious effort to gain fame and fortune as an artist.
"He took off from work for a year to exhibit," Connie says. "Although he exhibited a lot of his work in different galleries, he was not really successful."
But for Connie, an art career, although not yet approaching her dancing success, appears to be shaping up quite nicely.
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