COMPANY
CGDA’s performing company is open to any dancer taking three separate elite level technique classes each week. Company class meets every Friday afternoon and must be a priority in the dancer’s schedule. Absences are not tolerated, unless due to illness. The Company curriculum is focused on extra performing opportunities, advanced choreography and guest teachers. There is no extra cost for Company members, however every dancer is required to participate in the several fundraisers scheduled.
Chloë is a junior at Hood River Valley High School who had been dancing at the Columbia Gorge Dance Academy for the past 14 years. She began ballet classes at the age of 2 ½ and has developed a passion for modern, hip hop and jazz. Chloë dances 5 days a week and enjoys every second she spends with her close friends and amazing instructors at CGDA.? The Dance Academy has become a home away from home for her.
She has auditioned at Pacific Artist and the Oregon Ballet Theatre in Portland and loves to learn from as many instructors as possible. Performing before a live audience is her favorite aspect of dance. She has had lead roles in the Nutcracker including Dew Drop Fairy, Clara, Chinese solo and Doll; these experiences have been the most exhilarating of her life.? She hopes to continue performing for many years to come.
Katherine is a seventeen-year-old senior at Hood River Valley High School. She has been dancing at CGDA since age four, beginning with the studio’s “Ballet, Tap and Tumbling Class.” She has taken ballet ever since and has loved every minute. She added jazz in sixth grade, hip-hop as a freshman, and modern her junior year. CGDA is an amazing place to learn and dance, and her dedicated teachers and enthusiastic peers have been truly inspiring.
Katherine has expanded her dance knowledge through summer workshops, going away to Whitman College’s Summer Dance Lab for two weeks in the summers of 2007 and 2008. She hopes to pursue dance on the side of academics wherever she ends up next year.
This is Katherine’s third and final year with the CGDA Company. Dancing at CGDA has filled the majority of Katherine’s extracurricular time and the studio has become somewhat of a second home. She would like to thank her teachers for their amazing support throughout her life and dancing career and all of her dance “sisters.” I love you all!
Natalie is a sixteen year old junior at Hood River Valley High School. She started dancing with CGDA at the age of 5. The year before, she was taking gymnastics classes, but her mom made her decide between gymnastics and ballet. She chose ballet and absolutely fell in love with it. She was pretty true to ballet until eighth grade, when she added jazz, and last year she took modern. Natalie loves learning new styles of dance and having different instructors. She is so lucky to have CGDA as a second home. The summer of 2008, she spent two weeks in Walla Walla, WA at Whitman College participating in their summer dance lab. She had a blast and learned great, new information from multiple instructors.
Natalie would like to take this opportunity to thank all of her amazing instructors at CGDA. They have fueled her passion for dance over the years.
Sara is seventeen and a senior at Hood River Valley High School. She has enjoyed dance since she started taking ballet at the age of eight. Besides ballet she loves hip-hop and jazz. Her favorite part of dancing is performing, and feels honored to be a company dancer for the third year. For two summers she studied at Whitman College’s Summer Dance Lab. After having ankle surgery this past January, she was unable to dance for nine months. It was a difficult time, but now dance is as big a passion as ever. The wonderful support that her teachers and fellow dancers gave her made this hard time an easier one. Sara looks forward to attending design school next year, and hopes to continue dancing through school and for the rest of her life. She is sad that this will be her last year at CGDA, but looks back on a great experience. She gives thanks to her teachers and peers at CGDA for their wonderful support- it has meant so much to her. She couldn’t have done it without them!
Noël is a 17-year-old junior at Hood River Valley High School who has been dancing for about 14 years. She started taking ballet classes when she was 3–years-old and has loved everything about it ever since. She also took jazz on and off for a while but didn’t have time in her week. She now takes ballet and modern classes 3 to 4 days a week. The dance studio is like a second home to Noël where she can dance with amazing teachers and wonderful girls all the time. Columbia Gorge Dance Academy has taught her so much over the years that she can’t thank the wonderful people that make the studio possible enough.
Aside from dancing at CGDA during the year, Noël has taken the opportunity to go to summer intensives during her summer. This past summer was her third summer at summer dance lab at Whitman College. She loves going and taking in the knowledge of other amazing teachers from all over. Noël loves performing and getting to do it with close friends makes it even better. Noël is excited to be in company this year and what it will offer to help her keep dancing in the years to come.
