It’s hard to believe that it’s time to start the countdown towards our graduating senior’s “lasts” – their graduation and final recital will be here before we know it. On the blog today: continuing this year’s Senior Features with a little bit more about the dancers you’ll see performing in the Senior Dance and a Senior Solo at recital. With so much uncertainty about what the rest of this school year will look like, we want to do what we can to help our graduating seniors know how loved and celebrated they are.
Senior Year at The Pointe
For many dancers, dancing all the way through their senior year is a big goal and a major accomplishment – many of our graduating seniors started dancing with us when they were in preschool! We are beyond grateful for the opportunity to be a part of their lives for so long and to get to watch them grow up into confident, thoughtful, and hard-working young adults.
Senior year is a special one – many of our seniors take classes and serve as Junior Faculty at The Pointe – assisting in classes with younger students and even helping with some competition practices over studio breaks. Seniors are all featured on canvases that we’ll print and put up later this fall in the hallway that will be graduation gifts for them showcasing their well-earned skill and artistry in dance.
You’ll see our seniors dance with Miss Vanessa in a group senior dance choreographed by the dancers at the recital, and each senior will have the opportunity to perform a solo of their choice. Giving these dancers an opportunity to showcase their performance skills and experiment with choreography is one of our favorite studio traditions.
Senior Feature: Rebekah Petersen
Rebekah’s Dance Bio
Rebekah has been dancing at The Pointe since our move to our facility in 2018! Rebekah takes almost every Advanced class that we offer – including Ballet, Pointe, Jazz, Tap, Contemporary, and Skills & Conditioning! She is a member of our National Honors Society for Dance Arts chapter and will sport the special NHSDA pin and cord when she graduates from the Marion Home School Assistance Program. Rebekah is a gifted dancer, a hard worker, and a great member of our Junior Faculty working with our young dancers.
“Rebekah is always in class prepared to learn new skills and give her best effort. She responds well to challenging exercises and is always ready to try for the next level of difficulty without holding back. We have loved getting to know her over the last few years, watching her grow not only in skills and technique, but also as an assistant in our younger classes and into a strong and confident young adult. Rebekah is incredibly bright and smart in every academic subject, and goes above and beyond her class work to do projects for NHSDA points and her own education. She takes responsibility for her learning and her progress every year shows her commitment to excellence!”
-Miss Vanessa
In Her Own Words…
1. How long have you been dancing?
I have been dancing for 14 years: 13 of ballet and tap, 6 years of pointe, 7 years of jazz, 2 years of modern, and 2 years of contemporary. I participate in, and last year choreographed, my church’s Christmas show youth group dance.
2. What is your favorite dance that you have performed?
There are so many, but one of my favorites was “Istanbul (not Constantinople)” for tap 4 when I was 12-13.
3. Favorite dance memory?
Playing the alphabet game when I was 4-9 (basically getting into groups of 2-4 people and making a letter with our bodies).
4. Favorite genre of dance?
My favorite, and the genre I’m best at, is Tap. (from Miss Vanessa – while Rebekah is an excellent tapper, she’s also a standout in classical ballet and pointe!)
5. Finish this sentence: I love dancing because…
I love dancing because it’s so beautiful and fun, and I have so many useful physical skills that my friends and family don’t have.
6. What are you looking forward to the most in finishing out your senior year in dance?
I’m SUPER excited for my senior solo. I’ve only ever done one solo before and it was so fun, and I want to do it again now that I’m significantly better at dancing.
7. Plans after High School?
I plan on attending ISU for Athletic Training with a minor in dance.
8. Advice for younger dancers?
Never give up! Just because you can’t do something yet or everyone else in your class can already do it doesn’t mean YOU can’t. Just keep working on it. Watch your teachers and classmates and people in classes above yours and see how they do it, then try to do it like that. Or you can ask one of the older kids or teachers how to do something and I bet that they’d gladly show you! 🙂