Dance It Out

Kathleen Washington ‘21 talks about her life as a dancer and how one experience has changed her for the better.

Washington+gracefully+poses+with+her+point+shoes.

Washington gracefully poses with her point shoes.

You wait anxiously. You take a quick look in the mirror and see your blue, pink and purple tie dyed leotard with black fishnet covering your upper back and a big black number slapped across your front. You feel your heart beating through your chest as you walk into the studio. You’re so nervous for this two hour audition, but as soon as you start to dance, your worries drift away and leave you only with pure happiness and freedom.
Kathleen Washington ‘21 has been dancing since she was two years old. She participates in ballet, modern, contemporary ballet, jazz, contemporary and hip-hop.
“I don’t want to leave dance, I love it too much,” Washington said.
Although Washington participates in a multitude of different types of dancing, she particularly fell in love with contemporary ballet a few years ago. Grace Snider, her instructor for 4 years, introduced it to her in a performance called Variations.
Washington is a very dedicated student when it comes to dance. She has been studying it for about 7 or 8 years and takes ballet classes 7 hours a week. She also rehearses up to 6 hours on Saturdays for ballet productions.
“She always has a smile on her face and is ready to work as soon as the studio door closes and the music starts. What I love about her is that she listens.” Snider said, “She will always try to give what you ask of her without any hesitation. This makes it so fun to work with her.”
Washington talked about her performance at Variations, “I remember being on stage my first year of doing contemporary ballet as a performance, and I just loved it so much, I was so happy, I felt the lights just shining on me and I felt so warm,”
Since that moment, a friend of hers that performed with Washington had attended a program in San Francisco called LINES Ballet. Once she got back, she told Washington about the amazing experience and she decided to audition for the next year.

LINES is a program teaching contemporary ballet to dancers of ages 11-24. They study with founding Artistic Director Alonzo King. Students dance for a minimum of 40 hours each week for four weeks. The audition process was not easy. Before the physical audition, Washington had to write a letter of intent and a dance resume. Then, it was onto the physical audition. It was two hours long, with individual improvisation at the end. Washington and a group of other aspiring dancers would be together with instructors teaching the combinations, the audition was sort of like a workshop. “She just started showing us the combination and I was like ‘Oh my gosh!’ her arm movements and the way she was holding her herself and how she released everything, it was amazing and I was like ‘Woah, I love this already and I haven’t even danced it yet,’” Washington said.
Washington admits she did not perform perfectly when first learning the combinations, but she believes one of the reasons she made it into the program was because she noticed the different ways of dancing, picked it up, and applied it to herself.
Washington got the results back four days after the audition, when it usually took up to two weeks. Her trip would be her first time on the West Coast, she fell in love with San Francisco, and it is now Washington’s favorite city. According to her, the first week was the most nerve racking, but it was also the time she met her three best friends, Shelby, Sadie, and Cameron. She had met Baird beforehand through a Facebook group for LINES.They had been texting in advance and then later on they found out that they were roommates. Washington and Baird met Sadie and Cameron on the first night at LINES, “It was crazy, I had so much fun the first night.” Washington goes on to explain that Cameron had been passing out cookies to people. Washington, Shelby, and Sadie were watching a movie, they got their popcorn and Shelby had mentioned that something was missing, she turned to Sadie and they yelled “Cookie Cameron!” That was her nickname for the rest of the month.
Washington is already looking forward to going back in the future. She learned so much from the experience. She is already considering attending the San Francisco Art Institution for college, where she would be able to dance with LINES.