Little Ballerina by Hannah

Little Ballerina by Hannah - January 2026 Scholarship Essay

I am a dancer. My entire life, from the age of just two years old, I have been enrolled in dance classes and found a large part of myself on the dance floor. Up until my freshman year of high school I had only danced for fun. I wasn't a part of the competition team and as a result, although I loved the sport, I often felt like I was just skirting the edges, like I would never be as good as the girls on the competition team, like I would never get seriously noticed by my teachers like those girls seemed to every single class. Looking back on it now, that was my own fault. I didn't have the confidence to put myself out there, to stand in the front of every class and make the teachers notice me. I expected them to look past all the talented, confident girls standing in the front of class and see little me, standing in the back corner, dancing so small that it's no wonder I was never seen. This made me feel weak and insignificant. Even though I had been dancing for so long, every class felt like my first time stepping into the studio. I felt like I didn't belong amongst the other girls because to me they were all so talented and they all had their own signature style or move and I was just copying exactly what the teacher did like a machine. It wasn't until I got my first pair of pointe shoes, which began my love for ballet, that this all changed and I found myself.

I remember the first time I got on pointe. I remember the pain of my entire body balancing on just two little toes, but more than that I remember feeling strong, feeling weightless, feeling like this is what I am meant to do. I couldn't believe that being on pointe was something I could actually do and not just a dream after watching the Nutcracker or Swan Lake. This moment, my first pair of pointe shoes, began a turning point in my life. From there I took off, I skyrocketed and before I could even blink, I found myself being the studio's "little ballerina." Pointe was my thing, it was the signature thing that I had longed for, what everyone knew me by. My freshman year of highschool, I got asked to be one of three members of the new Ballet Competition Team, which I felt so honored to be a part of. I participated on the team for three years, going to competitions, taking classes, attending auditions. I had reached a new high, a level that I didn't even think was possible for me to reach. Once I got to the tip of the iceberg though, I plummeted. I quit the team after my junior year because I was starting to feel burnt out, the love that once beat so fiercely in my heart for ballet was fading and that scared me more than anything.

Quitting the competition team was the best decision I think I've ever made in my entire life. This year, being able to chill it all out and just dance out of love for the sport and not because I have to take so many classes a week to stay on the team has grown my passion more than anything. All I want each day at dance is to be better than I was the day before, the week before, the month before and I am so proud of how far I've come and where I am going. It makes me so happy to see improvement each day, to feel strong for that little girl who felt weak and stuck, like she didn't belong. I wish I could go back and tell her that her time will come and that she is the only one that she needs to impress, not any teacher or student, just herself.