I began dancing when I was five years old and I continued dancing all through high school. When I began college I had myself convinced that pursuing a career in dance was impractical. I decided to major in accounting and minor in modern dance. My freshman year was spent taking the required pre-requisites for the accounting program as well as some dance classes. At the end of the year I applied to the Marriott School, BYU's Business School, and I auditioned for the dance minor. I was accepted into both programs and I was very happy.
My sophomore year began with a semester full of accounting and business classes and zero dance classes; I didn't have any room in my schedule for them. Theses four months of my life, September through December, were horrible. I quickly discovered that while I very much enjoyed my accounting and business pre-requisites, these upper-level accounting core classes were not for me. I hated the competition among my accounting classmates, my Information Systems class had me utterly confused, and I terribly missed my dance classes. Well, I muddled through the semester, but found myself competely confused by December.
I spent the next semester taking all sorts of random classes trying to figure out what to do with my life. Fortunately, I was able to enroll in two dance classes and quickly found that my happiness returned. After talking to my dance advisor and other trusted adults, I concluded that dance, while sometimes a challenging career path with limited pay, is what I wanted to do.
At the beginning of my junior year I auditioned for the dance education major and I was accepted. I spent the next three years fully immersed in the dance program and it was a wonderful experience. I took classes from fantastic professors who cared about me as an individual, I had great performing opportunities, I was able to learn from and dance with nationally known guest artists, and I was able to make life-long friendships with amazing people and beautiful dancers.
I graduated from BYU with a BA in Dance Education in April 2007. While still in Utah, I began looking for dance studios in the Milwaukee area that were hiring teachers. My degree certified me to teach in the school setting, but dance is not a core part of the curriculum in Wisconsin, unlike Utah, so I needed to find a studio. I spoke with several studios in the area before arriving in Milwaukee and had my hopes set on two of them. The day after we moved to Milwaukee I had an interview with To The Pointe. It was a great interview and I very much felt at ease and knew that it would be a good fit for me. The next week I taught a few classes for them so they could observe my teaching and they offered me the job. I was so happy.
For the next year I worked full-time at To The Pointe. I did office work during the day and taught a full load of classes Monday through Thursday nights. This year provided me with so many learning opportunities and I was also able to form great friendships with my employer, co-workers, and dancers. At the end of that year I had Marshall and scaled back my working hours. Everybody was so accommodating and understanding of me changing my schedule so that I could spend more time at home. The next two years brought more changes to our family with Richard's busy medical school schedule and Bridget. To The Pointe continued to be supportive and allowed me to work the hours I wanted.
These last four years at To The Pointe have been such a blessing. I was able to put my dance degree to use. I was able to dance, teach, create, learn from talented co-workers, teach in the schools (which I loved), choreograph, and perform. All of this allowed me to support our family while Richard was in school.
So, here I am now, four years later. Richard, a doctor, will finally be getting paid and we have two children. When we found out that we matched in Milwaukee for Richard's five year residency I began tackling the decision of whether or not to continue working. This was a challenging and emotional decision for me to make. Richard has been so supportive through this whole thing and continually reassured me that if I wanted to keep teaching we would figure out how to make it work with his demanding schedule at the hospital.
I have now made the decision to stop working. I talked to my boss about it a couple of weeks ago and I just old my dancers on Monday. I was deeply touched by their tears and their hugs. I have taught many of those girls for all four years and I was happy to know that I have had some sort of impact on them.
Despite leaving the faculty at To The Pointe I am still going to be invovled in a community art project that they are working on August through October. I am very excited about this event as it will give me the opportunity to work with visual artists, poets, and dancers alike to create an evening of beautiful art. I have also agreed to remain on the substitute list and re-evaluate my teaching decision every year. I still want to remain connected with To The Pointe. I fully support their mission and think that they are the greatest studio around.
I am a dancer. Dance has played a major role in my life from the time I was just five years old. I always want to be involved with dance in some way. I recognize that my involvement with dance will have to change as I change and the circumstances of my family change. But, for now, I feel good with the decision I have made.
A few weeks ago my studio had their annual recital. Besides my modern class, my favorite dances were performed by the 3, 4, 5, and 6 year olds. I loved their enthusiasm, their big smiles, and their adorable little tutus. I cannot wait to see Bridget in her first recital! Yes, she will be dancing! I have already decided to put her in dance when she is three or four. I will sign her up every year after that unless she tells me otherwise and I will fully support whatever decision she makes with regard to how invovled she wants to be in dance. I really am just so excited to see her dance and I want her to know that I am a dancer, not that I was a dancer.
And lastly, here is our newest little dancer sporting some pointe shoe booties. Even Richard thinks these are pretty sweet. A big thanks to the mom who made these. She is a huge advocate for To The Pointe and a mom of one of my dancers.
How did this kid grow up so fast? He looks so big, maybe it has something to do with the tie. :)
I love this picture of the three Leake men watching the bowling ball.
Bridget and I spent most of our time on the sidelines being the cheerleaders.
With Marshall's triple digit score we had to take a picture of the scoreboard. Two years old and already breaking 100. What talent. :)
