jane smith

Thanks I come bearing gifts.

Not a lot of people know that in addition to being a great actress Claire is also an accomplished dancer. She started dancing as a little kid at Dance Theatre Workshop and in off-off Broadway productions called "Happiness" and "Punk Ballet". She also participated in something called "Kids on Stage" where she choreographed her own dance.

In 2005 she returned to dancing in a solo piece off-Broadway at NYC's PS 122. It was called Christina Olsen: American Model. It was about the subject of the famous Andrew Wyeth painting "Christina's World". The model for the picture was the artists neighbor who suffered from a progressive muscular disorder that paralyzed her legs and weakened her arms. The piece focused largely on Olsen's inner life. (click each thumbnnail for a full sized image)




A few months later Dance Magazine did a feature on Claire where she talked about preparing for the project and how she approached it differently from acting, as well as how dance informs her acting Dance Magazine – If it's happening in the world of dance, it's happening in Dance Magazine.
Here's the photoshoot


In 2007 Claire and her childhood best friend, Ariel Flavin (who also happens to be the choreographer's daughter) joined forces for another piece at the same performance space with the same choreographer. It was called Edith and Jenny apparently as kids Claire and Ariel both appeared in student short films where they played characters named Edith and Jenny. PS 122's website describes it like this:



And of course if you'd like to see Claire in motion there is always this adorable Gap commercial that she appeared in alongside her Evening costar Patrick Wilson.