By Jillian Risberg

She has a storied history in Broadway musicals, cabarets and rock concerts. For trained professional dancer, singer, actress Carrie Nagy, often dubbed a ‘one-woman show’ — performing is life.

But the pandemic changed everything. As days turned into weeks, then months, seeing her friends and colleagues in the music and theater business getting shut down with little hope of reopening was disheartening. 

It left Nagy feeling isolated and sad… that something had to give. 

“My husband’s job was affected as well. We needed to stay afloat as two performing artists raising a two child family,” she says. “I had to get creative, and quickly, (to) make this work.”

Nagy began offering early education music classes to structured studio style dance (ballet, jazz, lyrical, hip-hop/jazz funk) classes and even theatre arts, acting voice and movement classes from babies to adults outdoors, socially distanced options — so people could comfortably attend a class and let loose for a bit after being locked down.

“I love to bring a sense of normalcy and hope to kids being affected negatively due to lack of socialization,” she says. “The arts are so important, especially now.”

Nagy has choreographed all levels of performance from Professional, Off-Broadway to Regional and Community Theatre, including opportunities with Theatre Works Professional Theatre in NYC.

“I am excited to be teaching at least 10 classes a week now,” says the artist, of her Mommy and Me Music and Dance classes in Lincoln Park, as well as privately in homes and studios around New Jersey.

She spent seven years as a stay-at-home mom prior to COVID raising daughters Lily Jean, 8, and four-year-old Nina, and had started teaching again. 

“Once the kids were going to be in school (Sept 2020), I was going to make my return to the stage as a performer, as well as teaching full-time… or so I thought,” the artist says. “Instead I would become a full-time homeschooler. Now my girls come to work with me, as I teach. I also travel on location teaching at homeschooling co-ops and learning pods.”

This inspired Nagy to become a homeschooling mom herself, she says of seeing the kid’s social interaction, learning subjects through enrichment.

No stranger to giving back, she is always finding ways to create new programs and bring the arts to children, big and small. 

“I taught at schools such as Bach to Rock Music, Gymboree Music and Play, Ellis Dance Studio, Action Theatre Conservatory and New Jersey School of Dramatic Arts. I ran early education classes, children’s conservatory programs and summer intensive workshops,” says Nagy, adding that she had a residency in West Orange Public Schools theater arts and enrichment programs, and worked at most of the elementary schools, both middle schools and the district high school between 2004-2016.

She started her career as a professional dancer, working with a celebrity special events dance company, which is how she got to know many people in the performing arts and entertainment industry and found herself on an exciting journey. 

“I’ve had amazing experiences, such as dancing and singing solo ‘All That Jazz’ in front of millions in the center of Times Square, promoting Broadway’s ‘Chicago’ the Musical. I have been on stage with many musicians and bands as a backup dancer at live shows and concerts. I was even a featured dancer in Beyonce’s MOCAP 3D video game animation for ‘Single Ladies,’ Nagy says. 

So there couldn’t be better news for the artist than the opening of the Great White Way.

“I am happy to see Broadway returning and concerts happening again,” says Nagy. “The  show must go on.”

To learn more about Carrie, email: carrielinkdance@gmail.com.