Hillary Searle – Internship

This semester, I have chosen to intern for Katie Adams, owner, director, teacher, and choreographer of Signature Dance Studio in New Holland, PA. Through my experience so far, I have learned the duties and daily routine of a teacher and choreographer as well as being challenged through being given certain tasks. This experience has so far given me a well-rounded idea of what it would be like if I followed the career path of a dance teacher and choreographer.

By going to the studio each day, I have learned the daily duties and routines that come along with being a dance teacher and choreographer. Firstly, I have learned how to interact and warm up different classes. For instance, the beginning movements class (beginner ballet with ages ranging from 3 to 5-year old’s) only requires some jumping around and freeze dancing while an intermediate tap class (ages 7-9) needs difference exercises to warm up their ankles. To continue, I also learned the duties of being a choreographer. At the beginning of the semester, Miss. Katie challenged me by giving me the project of choreographing my own solo for this upcoming competition season. Through being given this task, I have learned how difficult it can be to choreograph a solo because I am relying on only one person, myself, to get an idea across rather than having a group of dancers. By choreographing my solo, I have also learned how to interpret the lyrics of a song different ways to help continue and get my story across. Through being exposed to daily duties, routines, and challenged with choreographing my own solo, I have been given an extra eye into the world of teaching and choreographing a dance.

Through my journey thus far, I have had many stumbling blocks as well as successes. To start off, one obstacle I quickly was approached with was having a hip injury and not being able to dance for a few weeks. Even though this made it more difficult for me to choreograph my solo since I could not move around like I normally would to see how certain moves look, it was a great learning experience because I learned how to choreograph simpler and easier things for lower level classes. Also, through my hip injury, I could sit out of class and just observe how my teachers teach rather than being preoccupied with taking the class. Another difficulty that I had has to get over choreographer’s block. Since I could not dance in class or when I was working on my solo, it became harder and harder for me to come up with ideas of what to do with my solo. However, by taking a break from choreographing my solo and rather just focusing on trying my hardest in classes I took, I eventually overcame my choreographer’s block. I have also met many successes in my internship. For example, once my hip healed, I have been able to further work on my solo and I am almost done choreographing it. Also, I have been given the chance to warm up the beginning movements class by myself and it went very well. Lastly, I also succeeded in continuing to get to know the other dancer’s that I help teach. Through my difficulties and successes, I have begun to understand what it takes to go into a dance field more thoroughly and have helped to strengthen my interest in pursuing a career in this area of dance.

When all is said and done, I have learned a lot from being given the opportunity to intern with Miss Katie. By going through daily duties and routines as well as choreographing my own solo, I have found what it would be like to be a dance teacher and choreographer. Through my journey thus far, I have also been faced with a few challenges. However, I eventually overcome them and was rewarded with many successes. In the end, I still look forward to one day hopefully becoming a teacher and choreographer and continuing my internship.