Auburn Middle School

During teenage years, most high school and middle school students spend their free time playing sports. Soccer, football, running and basketball, top the list of teenage favorites. This isn’t the case for three teenage dancers who spend most of their time devoted to dancing. I happen to be a part of that three who travel to Westbrook four, maybe five times a week for tap, jazz and ballet classes at Maine State School for the Performing Arts. Being the veteran of the crew, I have been dancing in Westbrook since I was seven and have been dancing for eight years. Maeghan Flynn (a sophomore at ELHS) has been traveling with me, to the dancing school, for over a year now. She has had 12 years of dance training prior to her move to MSSPA. This year marked her second year at MSSPA. Natalie Tribou, also a sophomore, joined us this past fall. She is a former student at the Elizabeth Hanson Dancing School in Auburn and has been dancing also for 12 years.

Maeghan, Natalie and I have mastered the many “techniques” of ballet and have participated in quite a few of Maine State Ballet’s productions. The three of us have danced in a variety of ballets including the very well known Christmas favorite, “The Nutcracker.” After auditioning every September, Maeghan, Natalie and I have landed several fun and exciting roles in the “Nutcracker.” This past holiday season, Maeghan played the role as a Spanish dancer, Natalie played a mouse and Russian dancer and I took on the roles as Party Child and Chinese dancer.

The three of us are often asked, ” What do you want to accomplish within dance for your futures?” We all have high hopes for our futures. I’ll strive to make the MSSPA core company, Maine State Ballet, and also make it on Broadway as well as simply staying as happy and devoted to dancing as I am now. Maeghan hopes that one day she will be able to dance Balanchine style in NYC, and have her own company. “I’ve never known, or loved anything more than dance,” Maeghan claims, along with my agreement. Natalie has a mixture of goals aside from her dancing. How far she goes with it before graduating may change her plans for tomorrow today she claims she’s “taking things for right now and not really planning out her future,” but her determination will keep her striding to the finish as she saus, ” I go through parts of my year where I eat, sleep, and breathe dance. I love that feeling, and that is what pushes me to continue. The feeling pushes my determination to improve and succeed in my dancing.”

So what was the challenge for Maeghan, Natalie and I? Balancing time for school, friends, boyfriends, and family. Though everybody believed that reality would make our dream highly impossible, we never dared to give up. We had no doubt that we couldn’t live up to these challenges and expectations because of our passion and commitment to dancing. There was never a time where we cared about what our friends thought about our dancing, even though most of the time, friends were very positive in their opinions. “Our training is hard and dedicated, and our friends and families all stay very supportive. Whether it’s our parents carting us the 30-minute haul everyday, to our friends who attend the show, they all have been very supportive. Our passion and dedication to dance would never change due to opposition by anyone.”

As a group of friends, Maeghan, Natalie and I have helped each other make our way through the dance tunnel. Each one of our perspectives and opinions help us dominate the easy and hard accomplishments of dance. We all have our strengths and weaknesses in the area of dance, (despite the age difference of my being two or three years younger) from Maeghan’s beautiful technique and grace, Natalie’s knowledge and wisdom, to my style and determination, we all put them together to overcome the hardships. I mean lets face it, the only way to really say how we feel about it all, is that Maeghan, Natalie, and I “Just Dance!!!”

Come see Maine State Ballet’s spring production of “Hansel and Gretel” on May 3rd and 4th. Order tickets online at www.porttix.com.

I would like to thank all which who that support Maeghan, Natalie and I in our dancing. Thank you also to my parents; Mr. &Mrs. Tribou as well as Mr. &Mrs. Flynn for your support in making our dreams come true.