2024 Highlights

Career Day

Erica's elementary school in her home town invited her to present at career day in May when she came home from college for the summer. Her elementary school is grades 3 through 6 and Erica had the pleasure of teaching at least one class per grade. At the start of the day, she was scheduled to teach about 5 classes, but as the day went on, the buzz around school was about Erica's presentation. As a result, she wound up teaching about 9 classes by the time the school day was over. It made Erica so happy to see how excited the kids were, even the kids who were not already taking dance classes at a studio seemed to be having lots of fun. It was such a great opportunity for her to spend her day teaching so many different children about dance.

Erica chose to give an advanced tap demonstration; then she taught the kids a short, simple tap combination. Additionally, she spoke a bit about herself and her story with dance, as well as what her goals are after graduation, telling the kids she desires to perform on cruise ships and dance on Broadway someday. Erica concluded her presentation with a question and answer session, where the kids asked some great questions. Erica was thrilled to see how much the kids were excited for and enjoyed her presentation. A few of the kids who were already taking dance classes outside of school came up to Erica afterwards to tell her how much they liked her presentation and how it inspired them to pursue dance in college too! She also received the sweetest notes from the students! Erica is always so grateful for each opportunity she gets to inspire kids and to be a positive influence in their lives, even if that is just for a 30 minutes presentation on career day.

On Our Way: Student Choreography Show

Back in October, Erica had the amazing opportunity to perform in On Our Way, Oklahoma City University's Student Choreography Show. This show is always choreographed by seniors, so Erica was able to be apart of one of her friend's pieces titled Live in Living Color. This dance was a bright, energetic, 1960s inspired, musical theatre jazz dance in heels. Erica absolutely loves musical theatre and was thrilled to be cast in this dance.

For this dance, Erica was asked to be a swing as needed on top of learning her primary track. She learned two other tracks and rehearsed them a couple of times in the studio. When Erica was in last year's Student Choreography Show, We're Back Again, Erica was also asked to swing as needed. Although she never needed to perform the other tracks on stage for either dance, she really enjoyed the process and challenge of learning multiple tracks. Erica is very organized and a quick learner, so swinging was a fun experience for her.

Live in Living Color was the opening number of the show, which was such an exciting experience. The cast was responsible for starting the show off with a bang, and Erica did just that. Erica smiled until her cheeks fell off and brought so much energy to the stage. She particularly loves anything that tells a story and shares lots of emotion, which this dance definitely did. Erica loves making an audience feel something with her performances. She is so grateful to have been cast in this show and loved every part of the experience. Erica is excited for more performance opportunities in the future!

Community Dance Academy

This year, as part of her pedagogy degree, Erica has had the most wonderful experience of being a teacher in the Community Dance Academy (CDA) at Oklahoma City University. The CDA is a nonprofit recreational dance studio with the primary goals being to have fun and to create a safe space for the kids. This studio offers dance classes at very discounted prices so that all kinds of kids are able to join. This studio primarily serves beginner level students, but they receive high caliber, skillful instruction from the senior pedagogy majors like Erica.

This experience has meant the absolute most to Erica. Although Erica wants to perform first after graduating, she is also immensely passionate about teaching and continues to realize it more and more everyday. Teaching felt as natural as breathing to her. Erica has never been more excited to inspire and impact the lives of children, as she strongly believes children are the future. It is because of the wonderful teachers who inspired her in school, at dance, and with other sports, that she became the person she is today. Erica cannot wait to be that person for a child someday and is very proud that she has already begun that journey now in the CDA. Even on the bad days, Erica's students bring her immense joy and she is so thankful to have the opportunity to touch their lives even in just a small way. She has formed a bond with these kids that she will cherish forever, as they are her first real students. Erica is so proud of their growth throughout the semester, as well as her own growth. That is the most important thing her students inadvertently taught her: we grow together because we learn together.

Erica has the abilities and skills necessary to teach kids ages 3 to 18, as well as adults, but she especially loves teaching the 10-12 year old age group. This past semester, she taught teen tap, teen jazz, and 10-12 year old tap. Additionally, Erica assisted in the 4-5 ballet/tap combo class, as pictured to the right. All of these classes were so amazing to be apart of and she will miss them dearly. For this upcoming semester, Erica will be teaching 5-6 year old ballet/tap, 6-7 year old ballet/tap, 10-12 year old jazz, and adult hip hop. Erica has a wide range of experience with teaching and is capable of teaching any age and any style thanks to the CDA. Erica has loved every second of this experience and cannot wait to pursue teaching in her future, as she also desires to achieve her Masters in Elementary Education someday!