Kasey Bartnick, a senior at Kennett High School, is the captain of the dance team and treasurer of the Kennett Key Club. She has also danced in several of the Kennett Drama Club productions co-produced with Arts in Motion including, most recently, "A Midsummer Night's Dream."How did you get into dance?
I started dancing when I was little, probably 5 years old. My mom took me to dance classes at Tina Titzer's, but only stayed there for about a year and then I got back into it freshman year. At the high school they have dance classes during school, so I did that and then sophomore year I joined the dance team because Holly [Fougere] was the teacher of the dance class and coach of the dance team, so she got me into it.
Is there a particular style of dance that you enjoy doing most?
I like jazz dance the most probably because it is flirty and it is just really fun. You can do technical stuff, but still be able to let loose a little.
What kind of dance styles have you experimented with?
With dance team we do all sort of things. On Fridays we do ballet, full team, and then we do hip hop, jazz, lyrical, some modern, so it is a little bit of everything.
Have you or do you have any interest in choreography?
I do. Right now, I am choreographing a duet with my friend Katrina [Prime] for the showcase and hopefully trying to do choreography for a trio with Lindsay [Spadaccini] and Nicole [Bean], so I'm working my way into it. Sometimes I ask Holly for help with it.
You've done things with drama?
Yes. I've been cast the last three years of the Kennett Drama Club with Arts in Motion.
What roles?
The past one was "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and I was a fairy. The one before that was "Guys and Dolls" and the year before that was "Disco Inferno."
And is it always just the dance aspect of it?
Yes. This year all the fairies had lines, so I had like five lines.
How does it differ dancing in a production like that rather than a stand alone dance piece?
In the plays I get more into the character. We had a lot of makeup for ["Midsummer"]. We had leaves all over and we had to be kind of creepy, so throughout the whole play I had to be the same character. When I am dancing in a showcase or at a competition and we have different dances I take on different characters for each dance or not characters, but attitudes towards what I am doing.
Do you hope to continue dancing?
I do. I am not sure what I am doing next year. I might go to NHCI part time, but still live at home. I am either going to try to find a dance studio to work at or, maybe, help Holly out with the dance team. I haven't talked to her about, but I thought it might be fun to be assistant coach or something.
What would your dream job be if you could just get anything?
I don't know what I want to do yet. I kind of got interested in sign language a couple of years ago. I've been trying to find a class to go to, so maybe an interpreter for deaf people, but I'm not sure yet.
What drew you to dance? Is there any particular thing that inspires you to dance or speaks to you about dance?
Dance is, I don't know how to explain it, when I walk into dance practice it is place where I don't need to worry about everything that's going on at school or home or with my friends. All I have to focus on is remembering dance moves or the next move I am going to have to make. The team is like our family and they always make me laugh. Dance is a place to go to make me happy — where I can be most comfortable basically.
Do you have any final thoughts about your past in dance or what you want to do in the future?
Just a shout out to Holly because she puts so much time into dance team and she's there for us all the time. She is just a really good coach. She is kind of like, not a mentor, but like an older sister to all of us. She reminds us to keep our grades up and to focus on what we want to do and our dreams. She is just really inspiring.
No comments:
Post a Comment