National Recognition for Everybody Dance!

“When I dance, I really feel confident and able to express myself.” – Mary Kate

Mary Kate started at GCS in Kindergarten. She was very quiet and astonishingly shy. Because of her shyness, in early elementary school, she struggled academically and wasn’t as successful in the classroom as everyone knew she could be. Teachers would ask her questions, but she would be very hesitant, almost afraid, to respond. “I felt that someone was going to laugh at me, or make me feel bad if I answered a question incorrectly. They might say, ‘Oh, she doesn’t know that.’”

It was then discovered that Mary Kate had an identified learning disability, but she happened to always be very capable and very engaged in dance from a very young age. When auditions were held for Alice in Wonderland, it was thought that Alice would be played by an older, more experienced ballet dancer. It was Mary Kate’s first audition and she wanted to be Alice. “But when she saw all of the bigger girls in higher ballet, she said, ‘Oh mom, I think we should go back.’”