When thinking of spring and winter sports, the most commonly thought of are basketball, girls’ soccer, boy’s tennis, and track. A frequently overlooked activity exists in the three competition dance teams existing in Rolla.

Sophomore Theodora Leventis, a student at Stephanie’s School of Dance, has been dancing since she was three years old and last year won first place at Nationals for her solo “Collide,” a contemporary dance about how you could be far away from someone important to you, but may one day collide with them.

“Winning Nationals was really exciting. I wasn’t expecting it at all. When they called second, I thought I didn’t place at all, but then they called me and I was completely blown away,” Leventis said.

The Stephanie’s competition team did very well at their latest competition, winning group high gold, second overall, and an honor award.

Dance is misconstrued as simply learning and performing the steps, but an emotional element is essential to winning.

“Dance is my own little therapy session. Every time I go onstage, I leave all my stress, everything I’m feeling, on it. I just feel really good. It takes taking what you feel inside and portraying it when you dance. I feel like people understand me better when they seem me dance,” Leventis said.

Dance also requires control over every part of the body. Every line, from fingers to toes to facial expressions to how the head is held, must be completely controlled and perfect.

“A lot of people say, ‘Look, it’s just dancing; look I can dance’, but what they don’t realize is dance takes hard work. You’re basically working your body to death since you’re five or six or three or however young you start. You stretch your muscles to the breaking point, and you have to have immense control in your core. It’s really hard stuff to do. Your turnout, tilts, really crazy leaps and jumps. People don’t realize how much of a work of art it is,” Leventis says.

This work and attention to detail requires a large time commitment.

“Definitely the hardest part of being a dancer is sacrificing your time. It takes up most of your life, and most of the time I can’t hang out with my friends because I have practice. My friends always want me to quit dance because of how busy I am with it, but I won’t quit because it’s something I love to do. It makes me happy,” dancer at andFlew studios, sophomore Jessica Bramer said.

The time commitment makes for a team bond among the dancers. Junior Becca Hanlin is a student at The Dance Studio, and has been dancing for thirteen years, and competitively for four.

“I love my dance family because it is impossible not to be close to the people you dance with. We spend six hours a week together dancing and we’re pretty good at procrastination so that we can talk longer, too,” Hanlin said.

Dance has left an impression on those involved, and taught valuable lessons.

“My first dance competition was great. It was a little stressful with all the work, but the competition part, going against other teams, was fun. I’ve learned a lot from it, like making sure not to forget simple things like spandex or nail polish remover or everyone will go crazy, but other than that it all turned out good and was a memorable experience,” Bramer said.

The three competition dance teams take immense pride in the hard work, discipline, and emotion it takes to be a dancer.

“I dance because its part of who I am,” Hanlin said.