What does it take to become a performing artist?

Legendary choreographer Martha Graham once visited with some college dance students and asked what other interests they had.

One girl, the story goes, proudly replied “none”; she was completely devoted to dance.

“Get to the library this instant!” snapped Graham, who knew that the arts don’t, and must not, exist in a vacuum.

This sentiment echoes throughout the University of Minnesota’s performing arts programs. Within its College of Liberal Arts, performing arts students in the Department of Theatre Arts and Dance and School of Music enjoy not only top-notch instruction in their art, but also a broad intellectual and social context that molds them into well-rounded, solidly grounded citizen-artists.

Five of them gave us a peek behind the curtain.