There are many reasons one can consider St. Louis High School a second coming of the Renaissance as there are musicians, artists of pen and of craft, and last but not least dancers. Dancing is often portrayed as an integral part of high society living, for operas, grand balls, crownings of kings and queens; the list goes on and on. Yet, for how much the results are respected and admired, people frequently turn a blind eye to the sheer amount of work that dancers put in every day in order to perfect their craft. For instance, it takes hundreds of hours to learn a simple pirouette (spinning on the end of one foot with that one foot being the only point of contact on the ground) and hundreds of more hours learning how to perfect said pirouette.
However, for the hundreds of thousands that don’t understand, there are few that do, and those who do understand are only the dancers themselves. Thankfully, SLHS has a sibling duo of expert dancers in Tori and Bella Patterson. Tori is a senior at SLHS and has danced her whole life at the Academy of Performing Arts located in Alma. During her time there Tori has danced in a multitude of styles, totaling 12 across her dancing career. While Tori doesn’t plan on pursuing dance professionally later in life, she does want to keep dancing for as long as possible. She stated, “I plan to not necessarily join any dance teams in college, but to take dance classes that the colleges may offer to be able to keep doing what I love. I also plan to continue teaching kids dance classes at my studio if time allows.”
Tori also expressed the benefit she believes dance has on people with, “ I think just like any other team or sport, it’s beneficial for anyone to join dance. At my studio, the community made there is really welcoming and fun. I’ve made some of my best friends over the course of my time in company and couldn’t imagine my life without them. Overall, the physical and team-based aspects of dance would be very beneficial to anyone looking for something to commit to.”
Her younger sister, Bella has danced at APA for her whole life too, and has practiced nine different styles of dance. Bella has different plans though, where dance can take her. She shared, “I plan to join the theater/dance company at Central Michigan University.” Bella also wishes for more SLHS students to join dance, she expressed, “ I believe it would be fun if we were to have more SLHS students at our studio, and they would have fun in the loving community.” So for those looking for something new to try the most free way of expression possible and dance the night away?
