“I started dancing when I was 3 and loved the sport ever since I started. I have danced competitively for years at my studio, Gayle’s Dancephase, and still dance there now. Coming into high school with dance still being a big part of my life, I decided to try out for the Mercy Varsity Dance team. When I made the team, I quickly had to learn to balance all the dancing I was doing with school and hanging out with friends.

Dance team usually takes three hours a week with practice two days a week but when we practice extra, it’s around six hours a week. For my studio dance team, I practice six hours on Mondays with a 15-minute break, six hours on Wednesday with no break, and three and a half hours on Thursday with an hour break. With the Mercy dance team and dancing outside of school, it’s been tough balancing it all, some days with being on more than one team, I’ll have practices before and after school. There are a lot of days where I am really tired, but I’ve had to learn to balance dance with everything else. It was definitely a process to get used to everything and some days I feel overwhelmed, but I make it work. I continue to move forward despite the struggles because of how much I love dance. It has always been such a huge part of my life.”