What is Studio?

If you keep up with local high school sports and achievements, you may have heard about the undeniably, remarkable dance team that comes from Sartell High School, however, a great dancer’s journey doesn’t just start in high school. Most successful dancers started the activity in their very early childhood at a studio of their parents’ choice. My personal journey of dance began at Ms. Melinda’s Dance Studio when I was three years old, and I have since transferred to St. Cloud School of Dance. Leaving my home studio and making this switch at age 14, felt like a breakup, and left me grieving for close to a year. Since then, I have learned to celebrate the amazingly abundant childhood that my home studio gave to me, while still accepting it as a closed chapter in my life.

Lifelong Friendships Made                        Along the Way-

At the peak of my studio career, I was spending about 15 hours at the studio a week, growing closer with my teammates every day. From week-long slumber parties, to dozens of weekends spent together in hotels for comps and conventions, and hundreds of hour long car rides together, we were inseparable. This type of friendship made school friends feel like acquaintances. I believe that this bond is nearly impossible to recreate.

The Moms-

Along with the dancers spending all their time together, came a bond made between the moms. While the dancers spent their time in ballet class, the moms spent their time chatting outside the studio for hours, which turned into nights spent in each other’s garages and weekends spent at each other’s cabins. And yes, sometimes they fought and gossiped just like in the show Dance Moms.

Performing-

One of the best parts of being a studio dancer was spending weekends together at competitions. Between driving to the cities for a comp, doing your hair and makeup, getting a warmup and stretch in, and staying for the award ceremony, even a 3 minute performance can take the entire day. Of course this was usually not the case as we were normally competing 7 or 8 dances in a day/weekend. Some of my most vivid and nostalgic memories took place at convention centers in Minneapolis where the competitions were held. Often times we would have several hours in between performances which is when we would take a nap in the dressing room, grab lunch, make up dances, or just run around and play games with friends. On the contrary, there were also times when we would have five minutes in between performances which is when we would quickly run off stage and into the dressing room with all of our moms standing there, holding our next costume and hair piece, ready to help us with our quick change before we get back on stage.

Almost all Grown up-

Most of my old teammates are now either graduated, or a senior in high school. Almost nobody stuck to our plan as little girls which was to graduate from our home studio all together. As sad as it was to see everything change, it was also exciting to experience new opportunities and train on different teams. Any dancer from any studio will tell you that watching their closest friends quit dance, move studios, or choose their high school’s dance team is always hard but the memories you share stay frozen in time. These bittersweet moments of moving on from what was our whole childhood make us who we are today.