You step out onto the honey colored stage, as the crisp white lights hit you, the crowd falls to a hush. Your costume, makeup and hair to perfection. Your voice cascades upon the audience, hush now little one, the show has just begun.

For Samantha Croco ’22, theatre and dance are her passion. She has been dancing her way through life since she was three. At Nolte Dance Academy, Croco found her love for theatre. From there she expanded into show choir. Next year Croco hopes to be in Showtime choir group at West.

“Just having a team that you can cheer on from the side wings and the audience just makes you feel apart of something special which I love,” Croco said. 

Cameron Reimers said “I think it’s cool how Sam uses her skills in theater and incorporates it into her dancing, she uses it in her motions and her facial expressions it gives her dance a whole new level.” Croco is at Nolte Academy every day of the week, rain or shine. Tap and ballet/pointe holds a special place in her heart. And are her preferred styles of dance, although she’s amazing at all of them. Some of Crocos favorite moments at dance have been between classes when she gets to sit with her friends and simply hang out and bond together. Croco’s grandmother went to France in her mid twenties to study dance, this made her grandma overjoyed with happiness. Then when Croco was three her mom put her into dance classes and at first Croco didn’t take it very seriously and only took one dance class a week. When she got into competitive dance she fell right back in love with dance. Dance has been a huge feature in Croco’s life it’s expanded her horizons and introduced her to life long friends.

Crocos favorite theater productions that she has been in is “Side Show” and “Little Mermaid”. “Side Show was such an inspiring story and you could just add so much emotion to every scene. “Little Mermaid was amazing for me because I had amazing costumes, makeup and choreography.”

After every rehearsal Croco and the other members of the cast go out to eat and hang out together. “My favorite part was going to pride week downtown and gathering around a piano as our director played along while we all sang Seasons of Love. It was a really special moment.”

Croco always takes time to just appreciate the simple times in life and embrace whatever ends up coming her way.  

“Performing is a way to escape from all that’s going on at the moment,” Croco said. “You can really just fall back into the character and live another life for a show. I think that’s really unique.”