College Admissions Essay: Why I Want To Take Dance

As a youth, I engaged in many forms of dance expression. I studied tap, jazz, and ballet for fifteen years. During these formative years, I choose to forgo many youth experiences so that I could participate in advance dance programs. The hard work paid off when I received a college scholarship to a performing arts

I have been dancing since the age of two. When asked about my career aspirations, there is no hesitation before saying “I want to be a dancer.” Being a dancer means putting all other distractions aside, and focusing on my craft. Currently, I dedicate over forty hours a week to dance, which is a schedule that requires sacrifice. When I am dancing, the rest of the world fades away, slipping out of my mind with relaxed importance. For that moment in time, I am completely free, wholly focused on my goals, letting me know dance is what I’m meant to do. With this realization comes a responsibility to myself and the work I have put into improving my craft thus far, and I know I must seek out the best opportunities for growth and continued learning.

I danced at Tina’s Dance Studio in Eldridge, Iowa for 12 consecutive years before I graduated high school. There I studied in ballet, pointe, contemporary, modern, lyrical, tap, jazz, hip-hop, musical theater, gymnastics and clogging. I was also a part of the competition team for eight years. We not only did local competitions and conventions, but we traveled and went to nationals in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City. I also danced in shows in Disney World and on a Carnival Cruise Ship. In high school, I was on the varsity Dance Team winning three state titles in pom and lyrical eventually traveling to Nationals. A few summers ago, I trained with Hubbard Street Dance in Chicago with their summer intensive focusing on modern, contemporary and ballet. During my senior year of high school and this past summer I taught classes in jazz, tap and contemporary for students 8-16 years old. I also self-choreographed three competition solos. Here, at Ohio University, I am a member of the dance team doing dances at football and basketball games.

Dance is one of the major things that defines my identity and it is an interest that had become so meaningful, that without it my application would be incomplete. This has been able to shape me throughout the years, from discipline and maturity all the way yo leadership and teamwork. I find dance as an art work, that it is easy to make mistakes and fall, you just have to learn from those mistakes and get up twice as strong as from where you started. Dance is to look above and beyond and just let everything fall into place without hesitation.

I learned a lot of things that lead me to who I am today, and yes maybe I am not the best girl in the world, maybe I am not the kindest, or the prettiest, but I am who I am and if people are not okay with that then I don’t need those people in my life. People who don’t dance just see dance as it is. Steps, and more steps. Us, dancers see the movements of the dance and go deeper into their story. To us, each little movement we make means something and as the audience is looking at us and seeing our pain and or happiness, they see the story we are telling behind the movements and the music. I can say I learned how to be someone that anyone can trust, someone who is there for you no matter the situation. I learned how to overcome my worst fears, and learned that is okay to fail. What’s not okay is to be a shadow when the light is in the stage pointing at you. To shut yourself down, and not accomplish what you

I remember the time I started dancing like it was yesterday. I was in 7th grade when I first joined a dance team. Dance became important to my life, due to the fact that when I was younger I would constantly get hurt a lot by being bullied, and also had my parents fight all the time until they reached a point they wanted to get a divorce. I got tired of it , and I started looking for horrible ways to blow away the pain I felt inside, finally I found the appropriate way to do so. Dancing was the perfect way to escape from all the pain that was holding me down. I look back so many times to the day I first did a solo;It felt like the wind was blowing towards my face every pirouette I did. It felt like if I was a bird flying free in the sky. I

My mother once told me I was born to dance. Ballet, jazz, and hip hop nourished me from the time I was three years old. Whether helping my parents clean or walking in the grocery store, my feet sashayed beneath me to an unknown rhythm. Some of my earliest memories occur in a small studio in a converted barn, where I spent hours at the barre. Unlike performance schools depicted on reality television, my dance studio required less excessive makeup and more polished black leotards and pink tights (we did, however, have a fair share of screaming stage moms).

Being committed to competitive dance for 15 years has immensely impacted my life, as I have not only progressed technically and performance-wise, but I have been given numerous opportunities for self growth and development. Dancing has shaped me into a well-rounded, confident individual who is able to prioritize responsibilities, cooperate and collaborate with others, and exhibit strong leadership skills. Involvement in any extra curricular can aid one in developing a true passion, and through dance, I have been fortunate to find my passion.

Unfortunately, I did not enjoy it so my mother allowed me to quit. Then a few years later when I was in fourth grade I saw that my elementary school had a dance team/drill team and it looked like tons of fun. I then realized that dance seemed like a hobby that I would enjoy. So my mother let me tryout as long as I promised not to quit. Of course I made her that and I auditioned for the next dance season and made it. I was extremely shocked that I had been asked to join the team seeing as I had no previous dance experience. Now ever since that moment dance has been more than just a hobby for me. I continued to dance through the rest of elementary school. However I did discontinue when I reached middle school due to my mother getting divorced and my family and I moving to a different town. I did try tumbling and cheer for a while, but it wasn’t befitting. I recognized I did not have a connection to tumbling and cheer like I did with dance, and that’s when I realized dance was my passion. After I came to this realization I auditioned for my high school dance team and this was the point in my dance career where I became extremely involved and also when I began to take it more seriously. I began to take it more seriously because at this point in my life I was out of shape and my body was not built to be a dancer. This was because during the time my mother had gotten divorced it was a difficult transition and I

I was a dancer for fourteen years, beginning at the age of four and ending at the age of 18. I participated in basically every type of dance including ballet, tap, jazz, hip hop, modern, lyrical, and contemporary. Each year, I would participate in more classes than the last, and it eventually got to the point where I would be attending dance classes five or six days of my week. It definitely got tiring, but I still loved it. Dance is a great way to be able to portray emotions through movement, and I think that is very unique and special to participate in. It was a very huge part of my life, and so were the people teaching me. Dance and everything that came with it was a huge influence on my life, and it helped shaped me into the person I am today.

Dance has influenced my life in many ways, but one experience I will never forget is when I earned Senior Feature Dancer. As a dancer, a person, and the woman I am becoming dance has always been so important to me. It immediately caught my attention because it was my escape and my happy place. My passion for the sport is what gave me motivation to do better and gain confidence that I lacked. I was able to make friends who would last me a lifetime.

Dance has been a huge part of my life ever since I was three years old and at first I started out taking ballet classes and hip hop. But

Our coaches had told us since the beginning that the months and months we would spend preparing for one particular day would all be worth it in the end. Taking place at New Castle Fieldhouse in early March 2015, I competed in the IHSDTA Dance team competition with my fellow teammates and members of the NHS dance team. We walked into the vast, expansive Fieldhouse knowing that it was the largest High School Fieldhouse in the Nation. The anticipation in the air was electric and full of excited chatter of girls who had been preparing for months for this one day… actually for these two minutes.

Dancing has never been a huge learning experience for me and I never saw the potential influences it would have on my life. Believing that teamwork or leadership meant nothing when it came to dance, Only it could have just been my ignorance as well never actually spending time to develop myself in this art. Until I reached high school where I joined dance class and started to become more

Dance has been apart of my life ever since I can remember. When I was young, before I officially started my dance training, I was always up on my feet and moving. No matter what hobby I took interest in (whether it was cheerleading, musical theatre, or jump rope), I would always find a way to choreograph little routines a show them to my friends and family. Even when my parents tried to put me in sports, I would do cartwheels and dance on the playing fields, completely oblivious to what was going on during the games. When I look back at how I started my dance training, I just smile and laugh because I was so naïve and unaware that it would become such a huge part of my life. In 5th grade I was put into my first dance class as a hobby. It happened because I watched the Disney Channel movie High School Musical and immediately fell in love with it. I showed the movie to my parents and told them, “This is what I want to do.” At the time I thought I excelled in both signing and acting and that all I needed were dance classes. So in 4th grade I was put into my first dance class and I began to scratch the surface of the basics of dance. What I didn’t know then is that dance would slowly but surely influence my entire life and