Freshman Brandey Lee takes a deep breath and prepares to leap into center stage to begin her performance.
At Youth America Grand Prix on Jan. 24, Lee competed with a group of girls from her studio. Together they made it all the way to finals and landed in the top ten. Lee competed as a soloist at Showstoppers, where she won double platinum and third place overall on Feb. 13.
“I hope with some extra practice and training I will be able to move up levels,” Lee said. “I want to give a performance at showcase that I can be truly proud of.”
Lee is part of Li’s Ballet Studio, an establishment aiming to boost self confidence and training in classical ballet.
Her passion for dance began as soon as she was six. By the age of eight, she had already taken both dance and gymnastics classes before enrolling into ballet. Thanks to this prior experience, she excelled easily in her new classes.
“I love the fact that dance is an active way to express myself and be unique,” Lee said. “The other dancers there are like another family to me.”
To stay in shape, Lee practices three days a week, two hours each day. Her favorite ballet performance was La Esmeralda, her most recent competition piece. Her favorite lyrical performance was a solo named Hindsight, which she believes had beautiful choreography.
Lee’s favorite styles of dance include lyrical and jazz choreography. Being a part of the modern dance and ballet programs at her studio have allowed her to learn to incorporate techniques such as weight transference, isolations, fall and recovery as well as slow and fast paced movements.
The jazz portion of the modern dance program allows her to express her inner energy and vitality. The contemporary portion focuses on helping students create an emotional connection to their dances for personal creativity.
“At times, balancing school work, ASBL and dance can be a bit hard to balance,” Lee said. “But it’s what I love to do so it’s worth it.”
Every year, her studio has an annual photoshoot for their personal yearbooks. In addition to this, they had a chance to take part in photoshoot during their trip to New York. Some of these shoots can take up to three hours. A single shot of her simply posing in an arabesque can take up to almost a half hour.
Also in New York, they competed at the YAGP finals. As a gift for making it to finals gave each member of her group ten gifts, including a Capezio jacket, two pairs of tights, posters, a bag and a pointe shoe keychain.
“I think people should go for anything they are interested in,” Lee said. “Like if dancing is what you know you want to do, go and try it. There’s no harm in trying out.”