Young dancers must sacrifice to achieve goals

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YOUNG DANCERS MUST SACRIFICE TO ACHIEVE GOALS

Demanding activity offers its share of joys as well as frustrations to local participants.

October 8, 2000

Dancing is a highly competitive activity that requires great amounts of physical and mental stamina. Young dancers in particular have to make many sacrifices in order to pursue their goals.

Y-Press interviewed six young dancers from Ballet Internationale to find out what they have gained and lost in pursuit of their passion.

They are Simone Boos, 10, Christ the King School; Brandon Moore, 14, home-schooled; Tuesday Perry, 12, Walnut Grove Christian School; Abby Taylor, 15, Pike High School; Katie Rojowski, 16, Cathedral High School; and Allison Young, 14, Cardinal Ritter High School.

All but Simone attend ballet class four or five days a week. Simone attends three days a week, with extra practice for The Nutcracker.

Ballet's importance

ALLISON: I just need ballet as a stress reliever, . . . and it's just something cool and exciting. You're unique.

BRANDON: When I'm on stage, it's really exciting because I know that I'm doing something that none of my friends do.

KATIE: It just relaxes me. If I've had a bad day, I just take all my anger out when I'm dancing.

Sacrifices

SIMONE: I think the hardest thing is that I can't play sports. I don't see my friends from school a lot, and I don't have time to do my homework.

ALLISON: It's very time-consuming. I can't do any other sports. It's really hard to manage your time, especially when you have teachers who don't understand that you have other activities.

ABBY: There are some teachers who don't realize that you have school, too.

TUESDAY: It might seem irresponsible to spend all your time here.

Effect on social life

KATIE: Most of the time I can only do things on Saturdays and Sundays.

ALLISON: I spend most of my social life on the phone. On Sundays, . . . my friends and I will get together.

ABBY: I have more friends out of ballet, but I'm closer with the friends that are in ballet because they understand more.

Challenges

KATIE: I had a really hard time this one week, and my teacher kept on yelling at me and telling everybody else, "Oh, good job." So I ended up quitting ballet. I quit for a year, then I decided that I wanted to go back. That was really hard. I just recently came here.

BRANDON: I think it's hard but good sometimes to get negative remarks because you know they care enough to make you a better dancer.

ALLISON: Sometimes the criticism makes me want to work harder to prove that they're wrong.

ABBY: Some days or some weeks, I just have this thought about quitting. Then the next week, I have a really good day in class.

A career?

KATIE: I don't want to be a professional dancer, but I think it would be fun to open a dance studio because I love little kids and dancing.

ALLISON: This is my eleventh year dancing, and I just can't imagine myself without dance and I want to keep it in my life. I've never really dreamed of being a dancer, but I sometimes wonder how it feels to be a ballerina.

ABBY: I don't want to be a professional ballet dancer. Basically this is just a hobby. It's a really expensive and time-consuming hobby, but it's a hobby.

TUESDAY: I've thought about it, and I really want to be a professional dancer.

Advice

ALLISON: If you really want to start dancing, even if you just want to do it once a week, I think you should get some professional training. Just pursue your goals, no matter what they are.

SIMONE: You can't let one bad day or bad week get you down.

ABBY: If you start when you're younger, usually you learn to do what the teachers say. Then when you move up, you might not get yelled at.

REPORTERS: Kristin Drouin, 10; Sarah Wenzel, 11.

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