Meet Sarah Drake, a senior graduating in Spring 2017 with a degree in Psychology. Without interacting with her, it would be hard to tell that she considers herself a dancer. However, Drake admits that she didn’t take dancing seriously until she came to college.
“It’s just a hobby,” Drake said. “I always loved dancing, and I always wanted to take classes when I was younger, but I never did.”
Growing up, the closest thing to dance she found herself doing was cheerleading or high school musicals. With a growing desire, she attended Wright State for two years in the nursing program. After those two years, Drake found her life was not going where she wanted it to. Personal issues and conflicts arose as she realized she didn’t want to pursue nursing anymore.
In order to refocus her life, Drake decided to take some time off to pick up the pieces and rediscover herself.
“During that time, I felt like why not live a little?” Drake said. “So, I moved out to California for a couple months and just decided to dance.”
While in California, she looked up the most well-known studio she could find – Millennium Dance Complex – and began to take classes. During these classes, Drake got to meet and dance with people like Taylor Hatala – the girl who showed the world her amazing moves by dancing to ‘Anaconda’ by Nikki Minaj on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Drake fondly remembers her times getting to dance with Hatala and many others. In the studio, Drake encountered all sorts of people from many different walks of life. Some were just like her, dancing because they enjoyed it and had a passion for it. Others were famous, or working to become famous, among the dancing community.
“You know how you see the backup dancers for Beyoncé or Justin Timberlake?” Drake asked. “You don’t really think much of it but that is that person’s career and that dancer standing behind Justin Timberlake can be the most famous dancer in the dancing world, but you would never know.”
Drake got to experience firsthand what most of these dancers go through. To her, she simply attended classes at the dance studio. To others, these classes were the auditions for their next big opportunity and they were taken “110 percent seriously.”
With an anterior cruciate ligament, or ACL, injury, she has been unable to return to dance. In the meantime, she teaches Zumba classes that return to their Latin roots. For Sarah Drake dancing is just a hobby, but she knows all about the passion that goes into being a dancer.
“Dancing should stay as an expression. Don’t let a dancing career take that expression away.”
