Dancing:
A Lifestyle
A large number of girls (and a smaller number of boys)
join a dance class in their early childhood, especially in
this country, where it has become almost a rite of passage.
But very few of those girls continue with dance into their
elementary, middle, and high school years. Almost overnight,
dancers find that if they want to be successful in dance, they must
attend classes that are more rigorous and require a higher level of
skill and responsibility to memorize parts and work well with others.
By Kate Lazar
For most, this is too much pressure compared with other activities they
could be doing, and their dancing career ends right there.
Menlo School’s senior Jessica Fry was one girl that continued to dance even she reached a threshold of
needing to commit more time and focus into dancing if she wanted to stand out from all the rest.
Fry’s mother put her into dance when she was three years old because, as Fry remembers
“I had too much energy around the house!” Fry loved it, and has now stuck with it for 14
years. Beginning with tap and jazz, she combined those with ballet a year later, when she
was four. Over time, her life in dance has evolved to include contemporary, lyrical,
acrobatics, and hip hop!
Dancing requires a lot of time and energy in order to progress beyond the
novice stage. Fry, you won’t be surprised to hear, spends a ton of time in her
dance studio.