Arabesque, Pirouette, and Saut de chat are some terms that aren’t usually in the vocabulary book of a high school student, but Angelina Laguna, a sophomore at NPHS, has learned these terms from a young age in order to learn as much as she could to prepare herself for a career. After years of being passionate about dancing, Laguna decided it was time she tried to reach farther into the dance world in order to get a taste of what she would be doing years from now. Next school year she will be trading in her North Penn High School ID for a fresh pair of pointe shoes as she transfers to the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre school.

Laguna has been dancing since she was four years old, but it wasn’t until when she was eight that she realized that this is what she wanted to do with her life. After years of attending a local dance studio, The Conservatory of Music and Dance, Laguna decided she would start branching out to add new techniques and tips to apply to her future performances. She has been venturing out on her own for summer intensive programs in various cities for five week programs packed with workshops and master classes to teach her everything she will need to know to excel in the dance community.

“The very first dance program I went to was to the Pennsylvania Ballet School in the summer of 2015, so I was thirteen,” she explained, reminiscing when she began to focus on meticulous techniques that would improve her overall dancing.

With attending school in the day and going to dance rehearsals and practices in the evenings, the sophomore is bound to feel overwhelmed. Regardless of the work load, Laguna explained that she pushes herself more and more each day.

“I love being able to improve myself. When instructors give you corrections, it isn’t really a bad thing. I always feel good when they tell me to work on something, because it means that they’re paying attention to me, and they want me to get better.”

Laguna has truly taken her corrections to heart, because if she hadn’t, she wouldn’t have had amazing chances to audition for different dance academies.

“I auditioned for five schools, and each school is different,” Laguna explained, counting each school off on her fingers. “Most schools hold auditions for their summer intensives, and they’ll evaluate you based on your skill if you can go there for the school year.”

Unaware of which school would recognize her talent, she auditioned for schools all the way from San Francisco, California to Washington, D.C. The audition process involved these schools touring across the country in a talent search for the perfect student dancers to train. Most of them ended up stopping in Philadelphia where Laguna would be prepped and ready to knock the ballet slippers off of the teachers. With rooms filled with 30 dancers separated by age group, Laguna had to stick out from the nearby dancers who all were equally as talented. The audition room was almost like a class where they taught the audition dance to the dancers and analyzed their performances.

“After I finish high school, I’ll probably audition for companies, but most dancers nowadays don’t get into companies right away, but they’ll get an apprenticeship. I’ll probably get one of those apprenticeships, but my dream is to be a dancer for a company,” Laguna said, excitedly.

The school year is key to Laguna getting closer to her dreams, as the teachers are tougher and more scrupulous with details in footwork, power, technique, and style. They will assess her performance in classes everyday to give her the corrections she will need to fix before she enters the professional world.

Even though the professional world seems far, Laguna has to grow up much quicker. Because she will be living in Pittsburgh next year, she won’t be able to see her parents and family as often and she will have to take care of herself.

“I’m still really nervous even though I’ve lived away from home for summer programs before. It’ll be weird for my parents because they’ll be home alone since my sister is also going to college next year,” Laguna laughed. Not only will she have to say, “Hello” to a new city, but also to a new school and new friends.

“The thing I’m going to miss most about North Penn is how big it is. The school I’m going to has a graduating class of about 100 students. I’m going to miss all the busy activities going on at North Penn, and it’s going to be a really big adjustment,” explained Laguna.

Although she will miss NPHS, Laguna is ecstatic to become a student at Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre next school year.