Heather Blom's Tryst With Tutus

by Alison Lang (BJ '07)

When Heather Blom (BAH '10) went for an interview at The National Ballet of Canada in Toronto, she thought she was applying for an internship position.
She ended up being hired on the spot as a coordinator for a historic new project that combines her love of event coordination, community outreach, communication and performance.
"If someone had asked me to dream up my ideal job, this would be it," says Blom. "This is my graduate dream come true."

Blom is currently Coordinator for the Tutu Project - an interdisciplinary, interactive art project leading up to the exhibition of some of The National Ballet's most historic "archival" tutus in June of 2012. The idea was originally conceived by Blom's boss, Jennifer Zimmerman who works as Senior Manager of Special Events. Blom's position is multi-faceted: She is collaborating with artists and community groups to create new tutus for display purposes and is also working to promote and draw interest to the exhibition itself through these collaborations. She also works on the Ballet's special events (like their annual Mad Hot Gala fundraiser) and supports the organizer of the Gala, Senior Development Officer of Special Events, Kristina Schreiber.

Recently, she traveled to Ottawa to create three new tutus at Major's Hill Park as part of the official Canada Day Celebrations with the NCC. Following this, she dashed back to Toronto to host the “Proud as a Peacock” booth at Toronto Pride, leading to the creation of a tutus bedecked in feathers and peacock colours.

During another initiative, Blom worked with children from the Regent Park area of the Toronto to create hand-made tutus. These collaborations are essential in breaking down the fourth wall of the creative process - Blom aims to show artists and students that their creations are as beautiful and integral as the archival tutus being hosted in the exhibition.

"Art has the ability of reaching such a wide range of people and allowing them to grow," Blom says.

Blom's background features the diverse array of interests typical to a King's student. She studied Contemporary Studies (with a minor in Russian) and developed a strong interest in linguistics and communication.  As one might expect, she was a committed member of the King’s Dance Collective for the duration of her time at King’s, and even played the lead in a “hilarious” version of Dante’s Inferno. Outside of King's, she coordinated wilderness and theatre programs for St. George's Youthnet and coordinated social programs for the East Coast School of Languages. Somehow, all these interests have coalesced into her job helping people make tutus. How did it happen?

"I know I seem all over the map," Blom says with a laugh. "But so much of what I love doing now developed in the Contemporary Studies Programme. Language and art, scientific language and artistic language - in the end, it boils down to communication and how different methods of communication are used to benefit the community. The fact that I had an interdisciplinary education made me so much more prepared for this project."

After being warned about the difficulty of the current job climate upon graduating, Blom says the applicability of her King's education couldn't be more pertinent. Her ability to adapt and work with different personalities flourished at King's, and the seeds of art, history and discussion are all sprouting as she continues working on the Tutu Project.

"King's prepared me for encountering and interacting with so many different people," she says. "That's what makes it so exciting - I loved having that passion to learn new and different things. We learned to communicate with different methods - language, art, social theory. All these things make it much more exciting to deal with new people and situations. And it keeps me from feeling intimidated when I have to wear many different hats. We were told we were graduating into one of the worst job climate, and I couldn't have picked a better education to be prepared for this type of climate. It's helped me realize that I am valuable."

Blom’s value will continue to shine as her education continues. Once the 2011/2012 season at the The National Ballet draws to a close, she’ll begin her Masters in Performance Design at Central Saint Martins in London, England.

For more information about the Tutu Project, please click here.