It’s hard to believe that it’s time to start the countdown towards our graduating senior’s “lasts” – their graduation and final recital will be here before we know it. On the blog today: continuing this year’s Senior Features with a little bit more about the dancers you’ll see performing in the Senior Dance and a Senior Solo at recital. With so much uncertainty about what the rest of this school year will look like, we want to do what we can to help our graduating seniors know how loved and celebrated they are.
Senior Year at The Pointe
For many dancers, dancing all the way through their senior year is a big goal and a major accomplishment – many of our graduating seniors started dancing with us when they were in preschool! We are beyond grateful for the opportunity to be a part of their lives for so long and to get to watch them grow up into confident, thoughtful, and hard-working young adults.
Senior year is a special one – many of our seniors take classes and serve as Junior Faculty at The Pointe – assisting in classes with younger students and even helping with some competition practices over studio breaks. Seniors are all featured on canvases that we’ll print and put up later this fall in the hallway that will be graduation gifts for them showcasing their well-earned skill and artistry in dance.
You’ll see our seniors dance with Miss Vanessa in a group senior dance choreographed by the dancers at the recital, and each senior will have the opportunity to perform a solo of their choice. Giving these dancers an opportunity to showcase their performance skills and experiment with choreography is one of our favorite studio traditions.
Senior Feature: Jenna Sackett
Jenna’s Dance Bio
Jenna has been dancing at The Pointe for just four years – but she danced as a kid, took a few years off, and then got back into it. Jenna has been a dedicated ballet student throughout her time at The Pointe, and also has been an important member of the Marion High School Varsity Dance Team! Jenna is a wonderful example that dancers who take some time off CAN get back into dance and have success – in the studio and on a competitive team. She’s worked with Miss Christine and Miss Katie Thul who coach Marion’s Dance Team and they are so impressed with her never-give-up attitude and positive approach to any challenge. We recently found out that Jenna created and maintained an anonymous Instagram account for all four years of high school (hearing that a teenager has an anonymous Instagram account is usually the start of a sad story – hang on, this is the opposite!) dedicated to giving compliments to people in her school. For four years, Jenna anonymously posted pictures and compliments of her classmates – just in the hopes of brightening someone’s day. She did this and nobody knew it was her for four years. We are so impressed with her genuine kindness in action.
“Jenna is genuinely kind and supportive, never hesitating to give a compliment or cheer on her classmates and friends. She takes a real interest in what’s going on with other dancers and makes her classmates feel cared about and important. Jenna is sometimes the oldest dancer in her class – but instead of being annoyed at dancing with younger students, she embraces her automatic role-model status in class and leads by example. Her love of movement and dancing is always evident – she never complains about working hard or spending some time on the basics. Jenna’s kindness and ability to find and share joy in every situation will take her far.”
-Miss Vanessa
In Her Own Words…
1. How long have you been dancing?
Ballet for 4 years, poms 1 year.
2. What is your favorite dance that you have performed?
Probably still from my first year because we danced to “Secret for The Mad” by Dodie Clark, one of my favorite singers ever, and it automatically made me more excited to dance.
3. Favorite dance memory?
Getting to watch my sister dance from the wings before I went on.
4. Favorite genre of dance?
Ballet and just recently hip hop because of poms.
5. Finish this sentence: I love dancing because…
It helps me get out of my head and im more confident during a performance.
6. What are you looking forward to the most in finishing out your senior year in dance?
I’m looking forward to competing with my poms team. (from Miss Vanessa: the Marion Dance team had a GREAT competition season this year, even with all of the changes due to Covid!)
7. Plans after High School?
Go to college to become a pediatric oncologist, or an oncology nurse.
8. Advice for younger dancers?
It’s never too late to start! I started dance when I was 14 and was the oldest in my class almost every year. Sometimes it felt weird, but once class started, I started having fun – and that’s the most important part of dance to me. It doesn’t matter how good you are, it matters how you feel while you’re dancing.