The music pulses through the auditorium, but all eyes are on her. As she gracefully moves across the stage in different variations of saut de chat leaps and fouette turns, a sense of finality is shown through every step. Soon, senior Makayla Cassie’s hours spent dancing with her hometown friends in a studio right down the street will be replaced with perfecting routines with new faces at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell’s (UMass Lowell) Campus Recreation center.
After years of early mornings, late rehearsals, and pushing through invisible injuries, Cassie will be taking her talent to the Division I (D1) level at UMass Lowell, a culmination of a journey defined by discipline, resilience, and a love for dance that wasn’t confined to the walls of her studio, Studio Rhythm Dance Center (SRDC).
Her passion for dance emerged when her parents signed her up for classes in Kindergarten. Even at five years old, she knew that this was the sport for her. This love brought her to audition and qualify for her studio’s competition team shortly after, transforming dance from a weekly to a daily ritual.
“Something that I’ve always loved is being very expressive with my face and body,” Cassie said. “I love my hip-hop classes because they help me do that with a bunch of energy, but I also love my lyrical classes since they do it in a calmer way.”
Her current dance studio has served as an extra family to her throughout her dance career. With caring dance teachers that pushed her to try her best and friends that supported her along the way, Cassie never lacked love and respect from her teammates. According to SRDC directors, they have made it their mission to make everyone feel included and find a passion for dance at their studio.
“[Our team] is just one big family. The [recreational] team and the competition team have such a close bond and we’re all one big family. Our [dance teachers] are so sweet and they feel like moms to us,” Cassie said.
During a typical week, Cassie takes a variety of dance classes ranging from jazz to ballet with practices held in a four-day time period. Additionally, she helps her dance teachers with introductory classes for younger dancers on Tuesdays.
“Tuesdays are so fun because I get to help out with the younger kids at my studio,” Cassie said. “It’s definitely something that I look forward to and makes me want to pursue teaching dance myself in the future.”
Cassie first realized that she wanted to pursue dance at the collegiate level in her sophomore year of high school after an older friend of hers joined UMass Lowell’s dance team. Out of curiosity, Cassie would ask her lots of questions about her experience and realized that it was something that she wanted to be a part of after she graduated.
“After [Cassie] and I heard that our friend was committing to UMass Lowell, we both made it one of our goals to go there,” Cassie’s teammate Kristyn Landers said. “It’s so amazing to see how far she has come.”
That same year, Cassie attended her first ever dance clinic at the UMass Lowell campus. Intrigued by their D1 status and the school’s robust digital media program, Cassie was determined to attend the university both for its academics and dance team.
“My mom went to UMass Lowell, which was a good aspect of the school but didn’t necessarily make me want to go there,” Cassie said. “When I heard that it had a great program for digital media with lots of hands-on experience and that their dance team was D1, I was super excited.”
After she had decided that she would attend the university in the admissions cycle of her senior year, Cassie attended their January recruitment clinic in which each hopeful participant showed off their best skills to the judges in a dance-class style format. Later that week, the team emailed her to offer her a spot on the team.
“I was very excited when I got the offer since it had been something I had been dreaming about for a while and it felt like all my hard work paid off,” Cassie said.
This differs from the traditional recruiting process for other schools as auditioners usually must submit a video, demonstrating required skills and attending an in-person session to demonstrate skill by rapidly learning new choreography.
According to Cassie, by joining this team, she hopes to improve her dance ability and take advantage of the experienced dancers that are willing and able to lend advice and support in any way they can. She also hopes to grow as a dancer and become well-rounded in all of the different aspects of performing.
“The [team] is so sweet and talented and I can’t wait to be a part of another [dance] family,” Cassie said. “I feel like it’s going to be so great to go into college freshman year already with people that will support and be there for me.”
After college, Cassie hopes to come back and work as a teacher for her dance studio, hoping that the sport will remain a constant aspect of her daily life.
“For any younger dancers that also have a passion for dance, I would just say to continue dancing and never give up,” Cassie said. “If you’re struggling [in a certain area], just keep practicing until it gets as close to perfect as possible and never stop chasing your dreams.”
