Running on a catwalk all her own
Carmichael Cruz
Issue date: 10/7/08 Section: Feature
When seen walking around campus, Shalini Chatarpaul, 26, may seem like the average student: lugging around her backpack, hurrying to class and wondering about what's next on her schedule, but what most people may not know about this full-time student can easily be found inside her backpack.
Inside Chatarpaul's backpack is an assortment of papers, books, supplies; the normal things expected to be found in one, but upon closer inspection, there is a book on singing, a heavy black binder full of professionally-made photographs of Chatarpaul, and a resume. Chatarpaul is a model.
"Yeah, I just came back from an interview," she said.
Born in the West Indies, Chatarpaul wasn't the girl playing with dolls and playing dress-up, she was the one playing with guns and fighting with boys. Chatarpaul called herself a tomboy.
"I was tough and wouldn't take crap from anyone," she said. "At times, I was my sister's bodyguard when she had to go to the store."
But she never wanted to become a bodyguard; she wanted a job where everyone was looking at her.
"When I was a baby, I would have this gigantic radio and just carry it around with me and I would be on the tabletops dancing," she said. "All eyes were on me."
After 12 years in the West Indies, Chatarpaul made her way to the United States. Coming from a society that embraced culture and values, some of her first glimpses of American life surprised her.
"I was shocked to see pregnant teenagers and high school teens kissing," Chatarpaul said. "I thought how weird and unnecessary."
Chatarpaul attended Montclair High School where she joined the theatre department. She began her career in her sophomore year taking every available theatre class, including technical theatre, she said.
She participated in multiple plays including "Alice in Wonderland" and "Mr. Macaroni and the Exploding Pizza Pie." With her experience in the plays, Chatarpaul learned useful techniques that she still uses today.
"It's a live audience and a live production," she said. "Everything has to be right. If you mess up you have to know how to keep going, and your co-stars have to know how to keep going. It's called improvisation."
Inside Chatarpaul's backpack is an assortment of papers, books, supplies; the normal things expected to be found in one, but upon closer inspection, there is a book on singing, a heavy black binder full of professionally-made photographs of Chatarpaul, and a resume. Chatarpaul is a model.
"Yeah, I just came back from an interview," she said.
Born in the West Indies, Chatarpaul wasn't the girl playing with dolls and playing dress-up, she was the one playing with guns and fighting with boys. Chatarpaul called herself a tomboy.
"I was tough and wouldn't take crap from anyone," she said. "At times, I was my sister's bodyguard when she had to go to the store."
But she never wanted to become a bodyguard; she wanted a job where everyone was looking at her.
"When I was a baby, I would have this gigantic radio and just carry it around with me and I would be on the tabletops dancing," she said. "All eyes were on me."
After 12 years in the West Indies, Chatarpaul made her way to the United States. Coming from a society that embraced culture and values, some of her first glimpses of American life surprised her.
"I was shocked to see pregnant teenagers and high school teens kissing," Chatarpaul said. "I thought how weird and unnecessary."
Chatarpaul attended Montclair High School where she joined the theatre department. She began her career in her sophomore year taking every available theatre class, including technical theatre, she said.
She participated in multiple plays including "Alice in Wonderland" and "Mr. Macaroni and the Exploding Pizza Pie." With her experience in the plays, Chatarpaul learned useful techniques that she still uses today.
"It's a live audience and a live production," she said. "Everything has to be right. If you mess up you have to know how to keep going, and your co-stars have to know how to keep going. It's called improvisation."
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Jeremy L Dancer
posted 4/12/09 @ 5:25 PM PST
Shalini is a beautiful woman and will one day be on the big stage with the best of them.
Friend,Jeremy
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