Olivia's Corner - First Year Insight Into Dance
This week I had the opportunity to chat with first year Dance student Marisa Sherk! Marisa uses she/her pronouns and we got to talk about her first year experience so far along with her favourite parts about the Dance program. A fun fact about Marisa is that her favourite food is steak (The Keg was mentioned during our interview and I have never been…is this my sign to go? I think so!).
Some highlights of Marisa’s first year experience SO FAR
Marisa and I got to chat about some of the highlights of her first year experience so far. She mentioned to me that she came from a competitive dance background and that the Dance program at Performance at The Creative School has training in a lot of different styles of dance. Marisa said, “the program offers diverse styles which lets her keep up her versatility.” We also talked about how it is great to be surrounded with like minded people all of the time while in the programs at Performance. The main highlight she mentioned was, “meeting a lot of other dancers that have inspired her to work hard in her training.” Marisa and I bonded over the fact that the people at Performance are what make it so amazing.
Something that happened this year that Marisa was not expecting to happen when she first applied to the Dance program
Marisa mentioned that one of the things that she did not expect to happen was the people that she met in the program. She talked about how these people have “opened her eyes to new opportunities and new ways of doing dance.” Marisa mentioned that her and her classmates work on creative choreography together. One thing she mentioned that I thought was really amazing and something that I resonated with as well is that, “there is something that I can take from each person [in the program] and that they have helped me shape myself into the dance that I am.”
One thing that Marisa is looking forward to for next school year
One thing that Marisa mentioned that she is looking forward to for next school year is continuing the classes that they are already taking. She told me that she feels like she has already learned so much and that she is excited to keep taking these classes. A common excitement that I felt in my first year going into my second year was something that Marisa mentioned as well and that is getting to participate in the shows at Performance. She said that she is, “looking forward to performing in shows in second year and it is an exciting opportunity in future years.” She also mentioned that she is looking forward to working on more choreographed pieces.
Marisa’s on campus residence experience
Marisa lives on campus this year and she told me that she has already met so many great people this year while living in residence. She opened up to me and told me that she did not know anyone in the program before moving to Toronto and that it was really nerve wracking to move into the big city not knowing anyone. A fun story that Marisa shared with me is that her next door neighbor in residence ended up being someone that lived in her hometown (it really is a small world). While not knowing anyone when she first got to Toronto she ended up meeting so many people outside the Dance program and within the Dance program. She told me that, “I live in a single room so it is nice to have friends in residence.”
As I mentioned for the past couple weeks, first year will look a little bit different for everyone depending on the classes you take, the people you meet and other factors but it is all what you make of it. It was so fun getting to know Marisa through this interview and I hope that you have learned some things about the first year experience in the Dance program here at Performance at The Creative School.
I want to thank Laura, Deanne and Marisa for taking the time out of their busy schedules to help me with my project by creating these amazing videos and sitting down for interviews with me. I really wanted to highlight the first year experience in all three Performance programs in Olivia’s Corner and I cannot thank these three amazing people enough for their help! I hope you all enjoyed getting to know them as much as I have.
Until next week for the FINAL week of Olivia’s Corner.
-Olivia