DLShannon_jazz_MAINAfter my crazy performance season, I needed a break from ballet. But that doesn’t mean that I need a break from dance!

I love taking jazz classes on my summer breaks each year. I have so much fun to let my hair down and dance to fun music. It keeps me in great shape for ballet because of all the similar exercises, although jazz uses different muscles. It’s healthy to turn my legs ‘IN’ every once in a while. Right?

Being a diverse dancer has really helped my ballet career by making me useful in all styles of dance. There is a showmanship quality in jazz dancers that they don’t often teach you in ballet. It has really come in handy for me to use that skill in my ballet while dancing parts in ballets like West Side Story Suite where I had to sing and do broadway choreography.

As they say, variety is the spice of life…and that is also true for dancing.