While other students spent their summers at the beach or behind the counter of a fast-food restaurant, junior Sarah Casebeer danced away her summer vacation, teaching at a local dance camp through Studio 55.
Studio 55, a dance studio in Hillsdale, hosted a variety of week-long daytime dance camps over the summer. The camps were for a range of ages and in numerous styles. While working the camp for a week in July, Casebeer instructed eight girls in ballet, jazz, and modern dance for two and a half hours every day.
Although she has only been working at the studio for a short time, Casebeer is already loved by her students.
“I really like Miss Sarah as a teacher,” Shelby Hassall, 15, said. “So I wanted to spend time with her over the summer.”
Casebeer teaches at the studio during the school year, but Laura Slager, owner of Studio 55, asked her to teach at the camp because of her close location to the studio during the summer. This year will be Casebeer’s second year working at the dance studio, where she teaches ballet, modern dance, and lyrical dance.
“[Sarah] came highly recommended from the Academy of the Arts, which is where she grew up dancing, and that’s the studio where I trained at and used to teach at,” Slager said. “I was really excited to bring her on. We have been really impressed with how she’s able to run a class and the way she’s able to challenge students. She’s been a very big asset to the studio.”
Being able to challenge students was necessary at the week-long camps.
“I had a really big spread of abilities,” Casebeer said. “We had kids who had never danced before and also kids who had danced for over 10 years. So it was just a really great challenge to try to make everyone feel not only talented, but also make sure they were having a good time.”
The camps let students try different styles and allow new students to try dancing without committing for the whole year. They also help students stay fit over the summer.
“Our camps are like ultra-concentrated class days,” Casebeer said. “Most kids do two or three classes throughout the week, so they’re normally dancing one to three hours a week.”
This intensive training helps students to retain muscle memory and remain flexible.
“I wanted to keep in shape over the summer so I’m not starting fresh at the new dance year,” said Hassall.
Although Casebeer is thriving at Studio 55, her talent has been hard-earned through 16 years of dancing.
“Dance has kind of taken over my life from a very young age,” Casebeer said. “One of the deciding factors in coming to Hillsdale was that they had a dance program.”
This year is her third year with the Tower Dancers, Hillsdale College’s dance performance group.
Casebeer is minoring in dance, choosing instead to major in chemistry. Casebeer said while she has always enjoyed science, she felt she could not pursue a career based solely in mathematics.
“I started looking for a career that would not make me sit behind a desk all day,” Casebeer said. “If there’s one thing I have acquired from dance it’s the need to be moving around. I decided chemistry would be good; I could work in a lab.”
Casebeer said she hopes to continue teaching dance after graduation.
“I love seeing the kids improve and how happy they are at the end of class when they finally master the move they’ve been working on for a long time,” she said. “It’s really rewarding to see you helped them do that.”