Growing up around circus performers, celebrities and Broadway performers is not a common experience for high school students, but for senior Skyler Herrick, it is the only childhood she knows.
Although Herrick was born and raised in Chapel Hill, she spent many chunks of her childhood in places like New York City. Beyond just getting to experience different places, Herrick was exposed to many different people, including celebrities. According to Herrick, these encounters have left her with many stories to tell.
“When I was five, Steve Martin held me,” Herrick said. “Then one of the biggest things is when I was seven, my dad did an off-Broadway show…. This guy named Randy Quaid was in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, he’s now a huge criminal but back then he was a star. He basically babysat me—they hired him to be in the show and he would babysit me at rehearsals and we have pictures and stuff. He ended up slowly ruining the show by changing lines and beating [up] the people that were in the show. They had to get bodyguards and all this stuff. It’s so weird seeing those pictures of him holding me.”
More recently, Herrick got to spend time with Mariska Hargitay, the actress who plays Olivia Benson on the long-running NBC drama, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
“[Hargitay] actually took me to go see ‘Hamilton,’” Herrick said. “I have a bunch of really weird connections. That was really cool, and I got to go backstage at ‘Hamilton’ with her. We walked off the stage afterwards, and since I was with her, everyone starting clapping.”
Beyond having connections with people in the acting and musical industry, Herrick also spent a summer among the Big Apple Circus performers.
“The summer before ninth grade, my dad got a job with the Big Apple Circus to write the music for them, and he had to live in New York all summer, so I went and lived with him on and off,” Herrick said. “We became really good friends with all of the circus performers and the people who took care of all of the animals, and they let me help them take care of the animals. I got to hang out with all of the circus performers. We almost adopted a retired circus pig named Newman, but we couldn’t figure out how to drive him all the way back home, so we didn’t do that. That was really cool actually living with the circus, like running away to the circus. It was cool to see how they lived and experience that.”
Herrick was able to experience all of these things because of the career paths of her parents. Her father is in a band and writes music for different shows or films. Her mother is an artist and was also in a band. Growing up around these influences has shaped Herrick’s interests, as she hopes to pursue dance as a career.
“My dad is in a band called the Red Clay Ramblers, but he also writes music for musicals, so he basically composes music for a bunch of random stuff, whether it’s a musical or a film, anything really,” Herrick said. “He’s done a few things on Broadway, especially when I was younger, so that’s what I was saying about getting to live in New York for months at a time. That’s really exposed me to the arts world in general and made me realize that’s what I wanted to do.”
One of Herrick’s good friends, senior Caroline Lougee, also attributes Herrick’s interest in the arts to her childhood.
“I’ve known Skyler since freshman year, and I think that her family and all of her great connections and growing up around two really great parents helped to shape her want to pursue a dance and musical theatre related career,” Lougee said.
Herrick can pinpoint her aspirations to a specific moment.
“I remember when I was seven…[my parents’] band did a show called the Carolina Jamboree, and I was really young and had never really danced before, like no professional training or anything like that,” Herrick said. “I would just go sit at rehearsals and watch the dancers. I was like, ‘Wow, that’s so cool,’ and that’s when I realized that’s what I want to do. Just being around my parents, they’re always having me do random stuff like sing a little something for a demo that they’re doing, or anything to really exposes me to the arts.”
Although her parents chose a musical path, Herrick got involved in dance, and she intends on majoring in dance and minoring in musical theatre at UNC-Greensboro. After college, Herrick hopes to move to New York or join a dance company.
“My dream is to become a Rockette, so I’m going to do their summer intensives while I’m in college,” Herrick said. “[I want to] do a little of everything: dance companies, maybe musicals, but I really want to be in New York. The thing about dance is you have to be young, so once I hit like 30, maybe 35, I’ll probably teach. That’s the thing about UNC-Greensboro, they have a K-12 licensing program, so I’ll probably end up teaching at a school when I’m older.”
Herrick has been dancing since she was seven, both competitively and at Northwood. She has gone to several summer dance intensives through the Joffrey Academy of Dance in New York City and also the North Carolina School of the Arts.
“When I attended the Joffrey musical theatre intensive, I got to go to so many shows and be taught by people that are in shows,” Herrick said. “That was so cool, and they were really inspiring. I feel like knowing performers that are currently on Broadway and in musicals is really cool because I can get information from them and know what it’s really like firsthand.”
Despite her professional training and competitive dance experience, Herrick’s involvement in the dance program at Northwood has its own benefits.
“I love having that dance family [at my studio] and focusing on my technique, but when I came here, it was a whole different kind of dance, not the style, but it was about everyone working together to make something, not just me as an individual trying to perfect what I was doing,” Herrick said. “I think that showed me how much I love the family of the arts in general and how creating something together is so exciting. So thanks to Northwood dance for that.”
– By Chloe Maynard