Balancing the high demands of being a Providence student can be stressful for some. But Bella Halek ’17 has found a refuge from the stress in the countless hours she spends perfecting her craft: dance.
“Dancing relieves my stress and makes me forget about the stress of school,” states Bella Halek who has danced for twelve years for two hours a night and an astonishing total of six hours on Saturdays.
Halek preforms many forms of dancing such as ballet, jazz, hip-hop, lyrical, contemporary, modern, pop, improv and funk. She spends her hours dancing at Summit Dance Shoppe. Incredibly, in the last two years, overall in the category of a duet, Bella and her partner were ranked third place in nationals.
Next summer, Halek will be going to Florida for nationals. This will be a week long trip and she will compete all day. The difference between dance competitions and sports is that nationals is for specific studios from several different states.
Halek just recently went to a convention at the end of last month. During the convention, dancers from all around the nation learn from top professional teachers. One of these pros was Sonya Tayeh, a dance teacher and a jazz and contemporary choreographer. During this time, Halek would dance from 8am to 4pm. There were frequent opportunities for mini auditions for small scholarships.
Halek hopes to major in dance and business for college. She hopes her occupation will be a choreographer or a related job in the dance industry.
Dancing frequently posses a problem for social interaction for Halek. Since dancing requires so much practice and persistency, she has very little time to hang out with friends.
It presents another question: if you could do anything besides dancing, what would it be? Bella answers, “modeling or basketball.”