Lithgow laughs when he describes the crash course on dance that he has received over the past few months.

“They definitely started me out with the easy stuff,” he says.

But he has come a long way in a new medium. In one part of the ballet, Lithgow says, he is hoisted up and carried across the stage by 15 or 20 other dancers.

“It’s really an incredible feeling,” he says, “like floating.”

What made Lithgow try children’s theater?

“I always entertained my own kids,” he says. “And kids are a fantastic audience. They’re tough at first, but once you get their attention, they’re much better to entertain than adults.”

He says that the recognition he gained in Third Rock From the Sun has made it easier to get support for creative ideas.

He called up Carnegie Hall to propose the idea of an orchestra concert for children. By the end of a 20 minute conversation, they’d agreed.

Lithgow credits Arts First with helping him regain some of the creative energy of his undergraduate years.

“I won’t draw any direct links,” he says, “But here I am, dancing the role of an elephant with the New York City Ballet. Arts First has really made me put my money where my mouth is. I’ve branched out a lot since 1992.”

Lithgow sees his efforts to promote the arts as critical to the University.

“Harvard tends not to, or doesn’t want to, think of itself as an arts conservatory,” he says. “And yet arts are tremendously important to the college.”

Getting direct involvement in Arts First from the overseers, he says, made instant transformations that would otherwise have been impossible.

“Arts First happened because the overseers said it would,” he says. “It’s a lot easier if it comes from the top. Then people don’t have to work or fight quite so hard to get there.”

Lithgow has passed on his role as the board’s representative of the arts world, a position now held by John Rockwell ’62, an arts journalist with The New York Times.