A Leap Forward
RAINY DAYS Reminiscing about her dance days, sophomore Maryn Zabrowsky picks flowers in the rain outside Franklin Hall. Zabrowsky had a passion for dance since she was a little girl, and she still had that passion, but the dance environment was not right.
Wearing a glimmering silver dress, sophomore Maryn Zabrowsky knew this would be her last dance despite her passion still burning bright. Zabrowsky knew she could no longer handle her dance studio toxicity, so she participated in one last dance on June 8, 2024, at Stage One Dance Academy.
Zabrowsky started to dance around the age of two, and her sister led her to begin competitive dance.
“I was obviously very young when I first started dance, but when I first started doing competitive dance, I was excited, happy, enthusiastic, positive, and I loved it,” Zabrowsky said.
Zabrowsky’s dance studio was not always toxic, but it was time to go as its goals started to shift.
“Some of the leading directors and owners at my studio believed that the only point to competitive dance is what you learn from it, not winning,” Zabrowsky said. “Competitive dance is not only about winning; however, when we don’t win, it makes us feel defeated sometimes. They also stopped allowing us to have the teachers pushing us to be our best.”
Zabrowsky felt the pull to leave for quite some time.
“Over the years, I have felt more and more drawn away from my studio specifically, not dance itself, and I didn’t want to continue it throughout high school,” Zabrowsky said.
Even though Zabrowsky has had a bad experience, she still wants to continue fueling her passion for dance.
“In the future, I could see myself continuing with dance, but in a different way than before. Probably not competitively, but I will probably still dance in some sort of way,” Zabrowsky said.