Page 9 - Priorities #19 2002-July

Liz: I’d like people to know that it’s not just dance. It’s experience. You take away far more than ballet technique.
other life. The time commitment is
humongous—for the girls, around 20 hours of training, class and
commute on routine weeks and much more before a performance or competition. Rehearsals, performances and competitions eat up far more than the allowable 10 absences a semester. Taylor adds frequent trips all over the country, plus local performances, workshops and a generous allotment of time for benefit concerts. The girls laughingly say that once the Priory has dealt with Taylor, they’re easy!
The three agree—a bit sadly, sometimes—that it’s impossible to really explain their "other life" to their friends. At the same time, there are no regrets and they wouldn’t change the choices they have made, they say. Miranda says it’s enough to know inside herself that she has been tested in ways most high school athletes don’t understand. Liz says the inaccessibility of a serious dancer’s life is what makes it a big part of her self-definition. And Taylor only pauses very briefly to muse on how he wishes he could make jazz more accessible to his generation before plunging forward into his own musical growth.
Taylor: For every one thing I learn in a class, I learn about 250 things from playing with someone else that I haven’t played with before.
9
A sense of accomplishment . . . a pride in doing what it takes to be very, very good . . .and a satisfaction in exploring a genre they love. This is what stands out in all three as they describe their out- of-school lives.
—C. Dobervich
Liz, Taylor, Miranda—was there a point when your special interest turned into a passion?
Miranda: I made the decision I wanted to do this seriously when I was 13 and I went to Nationals. My coach was telling me, "You don’t have a chance of making it into the finals," and that year I almost won. When I knew that I could possibly be the best in the country—that was worth something.
Liz: When I was young I didn’t like going to practice, but I was good at dance and I really liked being good. Over time, I learned to really enjoy class because it’s all about perfecting your technique. When you’re young, you think you can do it all on natural talent; you have to grow into an appreciation for training.
Continued on page 10