Kendall Glasgow 15 ~ Sally Williams Memorial Scholarship
My name is Kendall Glasgow and I am 15 years old. I am in the ninth grade and am home schooled. I started dancing when I was four years old. This is my ninth year at the Ballet Academy of Texas in Coppell. I take 8 hours of evening class through the Ballet Academy which includes ballet, jazz and modern.
This is my second year to be part of a day time program at the Ballet Academy of Texas called the Pre-Professional Preparatory Program. This gives me the opportunity to dance 9 hours a week during school hours. I love this program because of the individual attention I receive and I get to do pas de deux. This year I auditioned for Ballet Ensemble of Texas (my studio company) and I am an apprentice. This gives me an additional 3-6 hours of dance a week and some amazing performance opportunities. My ensemble will be performing in Montreal this spring. This will also be my first year performing a solo at YAGP.
As far as my future dance goals, I would like to dance professionally someday. In the meantime I hope to move from level 6 to level 7 and from apprentice to company member in Ballet Ensemble this next year.
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This summer I attended the American Ballet Theatre Intensive in New York for five weeks. I had various classes from 9:00 to 4:00 Monday through Friday. I had the opportunity to do yoga, pilates, character, modern, pointe, pas de deux, jazz, and technique. I enjoyed having yoga and pilates several times a week because I think it really helped strengthen my core. The technique classes were very good too! The teachers encouraged us to focus on our basic technique without being robotic.
A few of my favorite teachers were Melissa Bowman, Kate Lydon and Gabby Brown. They were really energetic and fun to take class with because they got into the dancing as much as we did! They gave attention to each and every dancer and their specific needs. They also provided great corrections that everyone in the class could understand and apply.
I was fortunate to have Kate Lydon teach my repertoire piece for the performance! We danced “Juliet’s Friends” from the third act of Romeo and Juliet and it was wonderful! Because Ms. Lydon had performed it before, she knew how to do the exact arms and feet and how to put breath into the movement that we were dancing. For choreography, we performed a Fosse piece created by Richard Toda that was so much fun! I had never danced that style before so I loved learning the movement and practicing it throughout the five weeks!
Since we were all in the studios for many hours every week, we got to know each other very well. It was amazing to me how many people came from different countries. I made a few friends that came all the way from Japan! There were also dancers from Colombia and Costa Rica in my level! It was surprising how fast we became friends even though they spoke a limited amount of English.
I am very appreciative that the Dance Council of North Texas awarded me the Sally Williams Memorial Scholarship. It allowed me the wonderful opportunity to dance in New York and to become a stronger, better dancer for the up coming year!