How many young dancers would passionately proclaim that getting to attend high school was pivotal and life changing to their career as an artist? Brooke Daniszewski is one of the lucky few.
In a discipline that involves untold hours or training and focus, many dancers are forced to choose between traditional education and their artistic pursuits. More and more, the trend of home schooling and independent study has become the best option for those who are serious about a career in ballet. They spend those hours normally reserved for reading, writing, and arithmetic in private sessions with coaches, squeezing in schooling at night and in any spare moment.
But some are lucky enough to have another option, a magnet school for the arts that fosters creative expression along side education, raising up people who have the potential to make huge contributions to the world around them.
When Brooke Daniszewski received the news that she was admitted into George Washington Carver Center for Art and Technology, she was over the moon. The admission process is rigorous, requiring academic excellence and an audition to find students whose talent distinguishes their potential. Their mission, to cultivate life-long learners whose passion for their craft empowers them to be creative, successful, inspiring contributors to society and the world.
"Carver was huge for me," says Daniszewski. "It meant that I had a chance to perform and be seen by colleges and companies." She has been there, honing her craft, but also learning that she can pursue a future in dance in less traditional ways.
She is particularly excited about the innovations she has studied, learning to incorporate technology with performance through programs like Isadora, a tool for artists who want to add video and interactive media to their performance projects. "The software is an interactive media playback platform that combines a media server, a visual programming environment, and a powerful video and audio processing engine." (https://troikatronix.com/)
Students like Brooke Daniszewski are the game changers of tomorrow, propelling performing arts forward and introducing new mediums, creating new technology, and finding fresh ways to add beauty to the world. The opportunity to be surrounded by other students and teachers who inspire creative thought gives her inspiration to dream.
She says, "My passion and drive got me to this amazing school and I am beyond ecstatic to see where it'll take me next!"
And so are we! We are all watching to see where this inspirational dancer will go with her many talents.
As George Washington Carver said, “When you can do the common things of life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world.”