Bianca’s prima ballerina aritcle-edited

The school dismissal bell rings, but three girls don’t go home. Instead, they prepare themselves for the intense second part of their daily routine, hours of dancing. They make their way over to the Miami City Ballet Company where they attend their lively ballet classes. The day is far from being over.

Keryn Breiterman-Loader, Tegan Rich, and Stephanie Silva are these devoted girls. They go from spending long hours in school to spending long hours in dance class. Their lives are based on exquisitely constructed balancing techniques, both in the dance studio and out. What the girls choose to do is all based on their own personal time management.

Many hours a day are consumed by dance and when they arrive at home, they all must complete their homework.  Each girl is enrolled in several Advanced Placement and Honors classes and they each participate in various clubs and organizations. Their school work, along with other activities, is not taken in a light manner. “The hardest part is time and energy, or rather coming to terms with the fact that those two things are limited, and my aspirations are not” said Breiterman-Loader.

Each girl has a distinct and passionate reason as to why they keep up with this overloaded lifestyle.

“The fact that I want to become a professional ballerina keeps me going in dance and the fact that I need to graduate from school with good grades also keeps me going, “explained Rich.

“My favorite part of dance is performing,” added Silva. “I love being on stage and when I dance for others it just gives me an amazing feeling and it feels like there is no other place I’d rather be.”

The other main concern in the girls’ lives is whether to pursue dance, an education, or a combination of both. Each girl has a wide variety of options to select from, leaving them all in a pensive state of mind.

“Both worlds—ballet and school—require a serious commitment, and therefore there is always the struggle of each one wanting more from you,” said Breiterman-Loader, “Each involves a high expectation on its own.”

Breiterman-Loader is a senior at Miami Beach Senior High. She is in the top one percent of her graduating class and is an active member in various Honor Societies offered at the school. She has applied to various colleges that contain extensive, high level dance programs and has been accepted into Stanford University, the first student in over a decade from Miami Beach Senior High. Breiterman-Loader revealed that her decision to attend school and dance at the same time “has already paid off.”

 Rich and Silva are juniors and are both still debating their future situations. Both girls excel in their classes and other school activities. Additionally, they both are considering professional careers in dance or attending college full-time and pursuing dance later on.

Since a young age, Rich has been dancing in local studios and performing in minor recitals in her hometown of Stuart, Florida. Before she moved to Miami Beach, she was not progressing forward in dance and was not able to apply her ability to the fullest. A few days before entering her sophomore year in high school, Rich and her mother moved down to Miami Beach so that she could carry out what she had always intended to do, dance. She would be attending a well known ballet school while still successfully graduating from school.

Rich explains, “I think that this all benefits me because going to school makes me smarter and able to relate to smarter, more interesting people, and dancing exposes me to a culture that not many people are used to,” explained Rich. “Without dance, I would not be at all the same person that I am, and that would be sad.”

Silva has been dancing in ballet classes for several years at the Miami City Ballet. When she had the opportunity to keep moving up to higher levels, she took complete advantage of it.

Breiterman-Loader, Rich, and Silva all have one word in connection: dance. Whether faced with triumphs or obstacles, balancing out school and ballet is part of their lives, and each girl is completely sure that no matter how big the sacrifice is, it is all worth it.