“My mom – she signed me up [for dance] and I've stuck with it ever since. She really encouraged me – she wanted me to. She gave me every opportunity possible to excel and dance and get as far as I could possibly go. So, yeah, I'm thankful for that…We always would go to conventions, which are these huge dance companies from all over the place, coming together, and you get, like, these really interesting teachers. And every single one of them – I've grown so much because these teachers are backup dancers for famous people; they travel around the country, so I've gotten so much from them. But, even my teachers back at home, I look up to them so much because they kind of shaped me as a person.”
B.L.
Hannah: I just like, I'm gonna ask you questions, and I'll ask if you like, questions that will, like, kind of hope that you know what to talk about. Okay, but like, it's mostly just, like, my first question specifically, just tell me about yourself, as if I don't know you at all.
Bella: I’m from eastern New York. I graduated from Iroquois. I’m a dancer. I’m on the dance team here at Canisius. I am a sports exercise health care major, I’m also pre-med. Anything else you want to know?
Hannah: How long have you been a dancer?
Bella: My whole life, since I was three years old, and I've been on the competition team, I think since I was seven.
Hannah: Are you still like competing or done competing now?
Bella: Now we are done competing as of like, senior year, but then there are opportunities to compete in College,
Hannah: yeah, what did you like, like, What drew you to dance?
Bella: My mom, she just signed me up, and I've stuck with it ever since
Hannah: yeah
Bella: and I don't like any other sport really
Hannah: Was your mom a dancer?
Bella: Yeah,my mom was a dancer, so she just put me in there.
Hannah: Did she dance in college and stuff like that?
Bella: No, just recreational when she was younger, but she wanted me to have something to do.
Hannah: Yeah, and then your major. What? Like, drew you to your major?
Bella: I'm very interested in sports medicine. I always have wanted to, like, work with athletes, and I feel like this combines, like, some of my favorite things, athletics and medicine.
Hannah: So you want to do you want to, like, physical therapy, school after?
Bella: med school
Hannah: med school? Okay
Bella: Like to be a doctor. I'm also interested in surgery, but if I don't go into that, I definitely want to be like a primary care sports medicine physician
Hannah: Soo obviously, you're somewhat local.
Bella: Yeah
Hannah: Is it like when you were choosing colleges, did you want to stay close to your family?
Bella: for financial? Well, not financially, but like, reasons like that, I had to stay within the state. So Canisius is, was kind of like my number one school, like I liked, I heard so many good things about it, and I never talked to anybody who had a bad experience here. So that's why I ended up going. But I was looking at like Clarkson, some like, further away schools, I kind of just ended up close to home.
Hannah: Do you have any siblings?
Bella: I do. I have two brothers, one's older and one's younger.
Hannah: Are you like, close to your siblings, close to your family?
Bella: I'm kind of not so much my older brother, but definitely my younger brother.
Hannah: How much like older, younger?
Bella: Older brother is 21 and my younger brother is 16.
Hannah: So you kind of like, all have a couple years in between you.
Bella: We're all very different people. Very unique.
Hannah: Does your brother go to school?
Bella: He was going to go into trade, but we'll see what happens. The younger brother is still in school.
Hannah: In high school?
Bella: High school, yeah
Hannah: Junior or senior?
Bella: Sophomore
Hannah: Sophomore, okay. All right, I want to take a look deeper into dance, because I feel like you seemed most passionate when you were talking about it. So, like, obviously, your mom danced. Like, was that? Like, she someone you looked up to when you were dancing?
Bella: Definitely, she really encouraged me. She wanted me to she gave me every opportunity possible to excel and dance and get as far as I could possibly go. So, yeah, I'm thankful for that.
Hannah: What's your favorite style of dance?
Bella: I am partial to acro. I love doing the flips. I love the challenge of it, and I always was drawn to that.
Hannah: Yeah, did you like compete acro and stuff like that?
Bella: Yep
Hannah: That's so cool. What was your like favorite trick?
Bella: I love aerials. I've done a few of those at like, the games here, back handsprings are fun. Those are my two like
Hannah: That's cool. I didn't know you were an acro girlie. That's so cool. Is there like, I mean, either like when you were competing, it could be from you when you were like, five, or from college, is there a specific dance, or like a moment in dance, or a teacher, something that really stuck with you?
Bella: There's a lot of moments. We always would go to conventions, which are like these huge companies from all over the place, come together, and you get like these really interesting teachers. And every single one of them, I've, like, grown so much because these teachers are like backup dancers for like, famous people, they travel around the country, so I've gotten so much from them. But like, even my teachers back at home. I look up to them so much because they kind of shape me as a person.
Hannah: Has there been like, a dance either, like, you got to choose a song, or you helped to choreograph it, or, just like, something about it was very meaningful to you?
Bella: I'd say my senior solo. It was to Whitney Houston, one moment in time. I got to pick the song, and I got to do a lot more for the choreography than I normally would. And that was, like, that was my, those were my final moments on stage. And I got to, like, leave it all out there. And I'm glad I got that opportunity.
Hannah:Have you like, do you like choreographing, like being on the other side of it?
Bella: I do, yeah, I want to do more of that this year. Definitely. I've talked to the coaches, so I think, yeah, maybe.
Hannah: Have you choreographed anything for like, the dance team already?
Bella: not yet. I've given, like, my like, when we're given parts where we can choreograph around, obviously, I do that, and then, like, sometimes we'll throw out ideas and we might use it, but I've never actually gotten a full dance to myself
Hannah: yeah. So that's what you're that's a goal for this season, right?
Bella: Yeah.
Hannah: And then, like, why don't we talk a little bit about the Canisius dance team so like, you, came in freshman, like, fall, freshman year, audition, join the team. What, How is it like? How do you think the dance teams helped you, like, transition to college, be a group of girls that you could rely on and become like family?
Bella: We became family like instantly. And I feel like going into that team, there's all like, freshman, sophomore, junior, senior, so I had something to learn from everybody. I made friends throughout campus and, like, it really helped me transition into college. I feel it's pretty much like any other sports team. Like, you have a group, your group that you can rely on. You just spend so much time with them.
Hannah: Is there a specific, like, memory from last year or, like, the semester so far that really sticks out to you?
Bella: The MAAC trip was a fun one, just being with the team and all, like, our entire job, that whole trip was to dance was a good experience.
Hannah: Yeah, that's all the questions I have. Do you have like, more things you want to talk about, like something that's super important to you that people might not or like something you really love that people might not know?
Bella: I think we covered a lot, especially for dance.
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