Her feet push off the floor, coming up into a split leap pointed and turned out. Aware of the positioning of every muscle, she relaxes her face despite the tension in her body.

Dedicating almost all of her free time to her dance team, Sarah Rolan spends around thirteen hours a week at Balance Dance Studios.

“All of [the time spent] is worth it,” Rolan said. “Dance is fun, and I don’t know how to describe what it feels like to dance. It allows me to forget about the world around me for a second. It allows me to think freely and move how I want to move, plus it’s a good exercise.”

Rolan has a lot of fun on the team, making friends with her fellow dancers.

“My favorite part of being on a team is the social aspect of it,” Rolan said. “I love all of my team members and we have a lot of fun together in class. I love knowing that they always have my back and they’re all really good friends. We’re all really close.”

The dancers spend a lot of hours together, and keep each other entertained during classes. Team member Annika Lopez has fun making laughs with Rolan.

“I do get a kick out of it when we sickle our feet at the barre just to annoy our ballet teacher sometimes,” Lopez said. “Sarah and I always make funny faces at each other during combinations too, which crack me up.”

Rolan’s ballet teacher, Katie Parr-Smith, enjoys working with her.

“Sarah is so much fun,” Parr-Smith said. “Her best quality is her personality. She keeps herself light-hearted but is also a hard worker, and that’s not always easy to have in one dancer. It keeps her learning much faster than other people.”

The other dancers at her studio also admire Rolan.

“I think that Sarah’s best qualities as a dancer are her determination and focus on technique,” Lopez said. “She really does focus and do her best in every combination and she gets so much better so quickly because of it. I wish I had her level of focus.”

Her ballet teacher explains all the work that goes into dance.

“To be a dancer, it takes a lot,” Parr-Smith said. “You have to not only learn the steps, but you have to learn the techniques to the steps, which takes years to accomplish. Then you have to add onto the steps and you’re also having to stay on the music, so there’s a musical aspect to that too. You also have to try to look pleasant while doing all those things and thinking really hard about the combination.”

Rolan agrees that there is a lot of work for dance.

“Dance is really hard, which a lot of people don’t believe,” Rolan said. “It’s really tasking on the body, and on top of that you have to make it look easy so that there is no strain in your movements. It takes a lot of strength to do the things that we do, and it’s just a challenging art form.”

Her mom believes that Rolan has gained a lot from dance.

“It has given Sarah character and development in the areas that she may not have experienced not participating in an activity,” Rebecca Rolan said, “Even with the positives and the negatives, it is worth it.”

Being on a team adds on even more to being a dancer.

“If you’re on a team, you’re doing so many extra things,” Parr-Smith said. “You’re kind of dedicating all of your extra time to dancing and learning the choreography. During the weekends, they are constantly going to these workshops or competitions, so they give up all of their weekend time. Then they have to go to school the next day.”

Sarah has to stay on top of things in both dance and school.

“It’s very difficult to balance,” Sarah said. “I dance a lot, and school gives out a lot of homework, so I’m often up really late doing my homework. It’s really time consuming.”

Sarah has been dancing for eight years, and her father, Jesse Rolan, appreciates how much effort she puts in.

“It takes a lot of work,” Jesse said. “You have to be dedicated to that team, you have to show up for all the practices, almost no matter what. It is teamwork, and if everyone doesn’t get it right, it is simply not correct.”

Despite loving dance, Sarah does not want to pursue dance as a professional career.

“I don’t have a dream of being a professional ballerina or anything,” Sarah said. “It’s an unsteady source of income and I don’t want that type of life, where you never know if you have a job or not. I actually want to be a veterinarian, because I have a love and passion for animals.”

Part of Sarah being successful in dance is because of the emotion she carries when she dances.

“She dances positively, Parr-Smith said. “You get a lot of people who don’t realize they are doing it, but they look kinda mad when they dance, and she doesn’t. She has a positive energy.”

Sarah’s energy that she creates when she dances proves that she is a true dancer at heart. Rolan has a unique dance quality that makes her the passionate dancer that she is.

“When she’s really dancing, she has an energy that not everybody has,” Parr-Smith said. “She has a really positive energy.”