Let’s do a quick rundown of her schedule:
Monday. 2.5 hours of pointe, a ballet technique that lets
dancers perform on the tips of their toes.
Tuesday. 3 hours of contemporary, jazz, acrobatics, and tap. To
elucidate; contemporary is a modern combination of styles, jazz is
a modern style that has its roots in Caribbean and African American
dance, and acrobatics is, no surprise, dance that involves cool flips and
handsprings.
Wednesday. Ballet and lots of strength and conditioning.
Thursday. Fry teaches classes to younger dancers, and is given private lessons.
Friday. Fry teaches more classes, and works on perfecting solo dances to be
performed in solo competitions.
Saturday and Sunday. Dance and dance until everything is learned and perfected!
On the weekends, as Jessica nonchalantly states, she lives in her dance studio, dancing
from 10am-10pm.
Her schedule doesn’t slow in the summer. There’s not as much time for Fry to relax by
the pool as there is for many people; she is busy attending high level dance intensives such as
the Boston Conservatory and Juilliard Summer Dance Intensive.
Her schedule has largely paid off due to her success in dance competitions. Last year, she won the
title of Miss Dance of America, in a huge national competition in which she was chosen from 28
other experienced contestants.
To give you an idea of how much dancing that amounts to; Fry wears down one pair of pointe
shoes every three weeks!
How could anyone get their homework done with that kind of craziness each day? It’s true that
Fry needs to be super organized and efficient if she wants to get her work done each day. This
work is usually completed in a period from 3:00-6:00, and sometimes after 9:30 if she’s lucky.
Fry has gotten her balance of dance to academics down to a science, but it hasn’t been easy
to perfect. In freshman year, she quit dance when her studio was being unsupportive of
the students and unwilling to grant them permission to participate in other activities
such as school plays. Fortunately, Fry’s favorite dance teacher started her own dance
studio and this “rekindled [her] love for
dance.”
Additionally, Fry has had her fair share of
setbacks due to injury. Pushing herself
just a bit harder than usual can result in
an injury that takes her out of dance for
multiple weeks or months, and cause
her to miss competitions or have to
relearn techniques. One such
injury is ongoing; an Os
Trigonum in her left ankle
that becomes inflamed
and pushes on her
Achilles tendon.