An intriguing look at what compels a dancer toward that elusive dream.
By: Sydnee Groenendaal
Photo: Rebekah Joan
Lauren Abbott is a sixteen year old student who has been dancing for fourteen years.
She moved to Sovereign Ballet when it opened Fall 2014, and her experience has been a
positive one. Lauren did not have very much training in classical ballet before she came to
Sovereign Ballet, and several things have helped to smooth the way for her. The thing she likes
most about Sovereign Ballet is the small class sizes; the other girls in her intermediate level
have been very welcoming and have helped her learn steps she wasn’t familiar with. She also
enjoys having director Christina Maria as a teacher. Lauren feels that Christina is very good at
explaining steps and combinations and makes everything easy to understand.
Lauren is very focused as a dancer. “I’m really impressed with Lauren because she
almost instantaneously applies corrections.” says Christina Maria, “She’ll even apply corrections
that are given to other dancers. I see her standing at the back of the studio observing the other
dancers and when it’s her turn to dance, there is a marked improvement just from her ability
to mimic what another dancer has done well. She’s so determined to dance well, it’s a joy to
have her in class!” Currently, she is enjoying working on her cabrioles, a jump where the legs
beat in a scissoring motion, “It’s fun to get height and see how many beats you can do” she
says. Lauren enjoys organization and appreciates that ballet is a structured discipline where
everything follows a certain order. Her advice to younger dancers would be to “pay attention in
class and take everything to heart.”
Lauren is also a student at Collegiate Academy and does very well with her involvement
in Academic Sports League. When she and her school went to Hawaii last year for nationals,
some of her friends kept a count of how many times she fell down. Most people assume that
ballet dancers are graceful at all times, but Lauren says that she can sometimes be clumsy.
Once she graduates, Lauren wants to continue dancing in college. She’d also like to travel the
world. Her top pick would be Romania, for the interesting language and architecture. Her current
plan for college is to major in languages and foreign relations and minor in dance.
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