On Wednesday, Oct. 18 at the Rockbridge County High School JV game against Spotswood, Rockbridge Ballet performed at halftime. Rockbridge Ballet has performed at VMI football and basketball halftimes the past couple of years. Rockbridge Ballet performed at halftime once before about seven years ago.
Jessica Martin is the Artistic Director at Rockbridge Ballet. She has been teaching since a community calibration in 2010. Martin has a goal for her dancers, “My goal is for our dancers to have fun and introduce new audiences to dance” Said Martin.
Rockbridge Ballet performed to show their school community and general community who they are, also to get the word out about them. They have been working on the dance since September. Rockbridge Ballet does a lot of dance styles but pom routines are new to them. “We performed a jazz Pom routine. This is a typical style for halftime performances. However our dancers are very diversified in their training. They study ballet, pointe, jazz, modern, tap, acrobatics and hip hop dance” said Martin
Rockbridge Ballet had some struggles, when it came to performing at a high school football game. They are not used to dancing on grass along with tennis shoes, Dancing with poms. They also had to motifiy the dance since the grass was wet. They also went and showed this dance routine at the VMI football game on October 21.
Senior Emma Woody joined dance five years ago. Her favorite thing about being a part of Rockbridge Ballet is “all of the friendships that i have created throughout my time here” said woody “not only is the studio a place that teaches different styles of dances and technique, it has also taught me a lot of different life skills, one being time management” Said Woody. Woody’s goal after school is to attend a four year college and try out for their dance team.
Rockbridge Ballet has an upcoming show. They will perform The Night Before Christmas, Dec. 15-17 at the Lenfest Center for the Arts.
