About Me
I'm Abby - a dance enthusiast and an aspiring Radio City Rockette. My family and I just ventured to the Big Apple where I attended a summer dance intensive with the Rockettes themselves. This summer was my 4th year doing the intensive and it is one week I look forward to every year. Through this blog, I hope to share my experience/story and inspire others to do whatever it takes to make their dreams become reality. Enjoy my story.
For as long as I can remember I've been dancing. Growing up, my mom told me stories of how I would always run into my older sister, Alyssa's dance classes as a 1 year old, eager to take the class as my own. Soon after, my mom put me in my own dance class at the age of two. From then on dance took over my life. By the age of 7, I was training 4-5 days a week in all artforms ranging from ballet, pointe, tap, jazz, hip-hop, modern, and contemporary. To this day, I continue to train in all of those art forms at Columbus DanceArts Academy in Dublin, Ohio. Throughout the years at CDA, I have been given the opportunity to go on educational dance trips to Chicago and New York where I took classes from prestigious instructors at professional locations such as Lou Conte’s, Giordano Dance Chicago, Steps On Broadway, Broadway Dance Center and The Ailey School. I have also had several opportunities to further my dance education by attending conventions and intensives with BalletMet Columbus, Point Park University, JUMP, Excel In Motion, and my favorite The Radio City Rockettes.
In January of 2014, I posted a video submission to the Rockette Summer Intensive on a whim. With no idea what the summer intensive entailed, I knew I was a tall dancer measuring 5'9" and I knew the Rockettes were known for being tall. I knew of the famous tall, long-legged, beautiful eye-high kicking ladies from years of watching them on TV in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. A few months later I received an e-mail informing me of my acceptance into the Rockette Summer Intensive. I was thrilled and in July of 2014 I attended my first RSI in New York City. It was an overwhelming experience. Being only 14 years old, I was the youngest one there and being surrounded by 60 other young women with 4 Rockette Instructors was quite intimidating. It was that week however, that my dream of becoming a Radio City Rockette really flourished. I was so awestruck by the four women who stood at the front of the room each day. Their strength was truly unbelievable and their ability to make every move look at ease was crazy. I fed off of the determination of everyone in the room, everyday, and it was so inspiring. I knew I was meant to be a Rockette. At the end of the week we had our showcase where we performed all that we had learned during the week. It was so rewarding knowing how much hard work we put into learning all of the choreography and perfecting it and now we were finally performing it for an audience. After my first year I knew I had to do everything in my ability to make my dream of becoming a Rockette come true. So in 2015, I returned for my second summer, in 2016 for my third RSI and first Invitational week and finally this past summer for my fourth RSI and second invitational week, the week I will be focusing on in this blog.
For as long as I can remember I've been dancing. Growing up, my mom told me stories of how I would always run into my older sister, Alyssa's dance classes as a 1 year old, eager to take the class as my own. Soon after, my mom put me in my own dance class at the age of two. From then on dance took over my life. By the age of 7, I was training 4-5 days a week in all artforms ranging from ballet, pointe, tap, jazz, hip-hop, modern, and contemporary. To this day, I continue to train in all of those art forms at Columbus DanceArts Academy in Dublin, Ohio. Throughout the years at CDA, I have been given the opportunity to go on educational dance trips to Chicago and New York where I took classes from prestigious instructors at professional locations such as Lou Conte’s, Giordano Dance Chicago, Steps On Broadway, Broadway Dance Center and The Ailey School. I have also had several opportunities to further my dance education by attending conventions and intensives with BalletMet Columbus, Point Park University, JUMP, Excel In Motion, and my favorite The Radio City Rockettes.
In January of 2014, I posted a video submission to the Rockette Summer Intensive on a whim. With no idea what the summer intensive entailed, I knew I was a tall dancer measuring 5'9" and I knew the Rockettes were known for being tall. I knew of the famous tall, long-legged, beautiful eye-high kicking ladies from years of watching them on TV in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. A few months later I received an e-mail informing me of my acceptance into the Rockette Summer Intensive. I was thrilled and in July of 2014 I attended my first RSI in New York City. It was an overwhelming experience. Being only 14 years old, I was the youngest one there and being surrounded by 60 other young women with 4 Rockette Instructors was quite intimidating. It was that week however, that my dream of becoming a Radio City Rockette really flourished. I was so awestruck by the four women who stood at the front of the room each day. Their strength was truly unbelievable and their ability to make every move look at ease was crazy. I fed off of the determination of everyone in the room, everyday, and it was so inspiring. I knew I was meant to be a Rockette. At the end of the week we had our showcase where we performed all that we had learned during the week. It was so rewarding knowing how much hard work we put into learning all of the choreography and perfecting it and now we were finally performing it for an audience. After my first year I knew I had to do everything in my ability to make my dream of becoming a Rockette come true. So in 2015, I returned for my second summer, in 2016 for my third RSI and first Invitational week and finally this past summer for my fourth RSI and second invitational week, the week I will be focusing on in this blog.