A significant but unknown number of performing artists have redirected their creativity and passion into development. They are ballet and contemporary dancers, jazz and orchestral musicians, actors and comedians, opera divas and gospel belters. None of them set out to become fundraisers. Yet here they are, and they partly credit their success in development to pasts spent perfecting arias, blowing riffs, cracking jokes, balancing "en pointe," and performing Shakespeare in the park. The passion they have for the arts--and the skills they honed pursuing artistic endeavors--informs their fundraising. These fundraisers say that auditions and rejection made them tough, that being on stage taught them how to connect with an audience, that the pursuit of perfection instilled patience and perseverance. Most important, perhaps, they bring to development the drive of dreamers. To be successful in any of the performing arts, one needs to be very disciplined. That discipline and focus holds (performers) in good stead when they come into development.