Katie Woodruff remembers her first hip-hop performance in sixth grade. She remembers the white button up shirt underneath the red suspenders. She remembers the socks pulled up over her jeans, and the black converse on her feet. She remembers the rectangular tortoise shell glasses with white duct tape in the center. She remembers a red bowtie.

Woodruff remembers the smell of hairspray as well as her nerves growing backstage. She remembers the people in the audience and the butterflies in her stomach. She remembers nearly hyperventilating. But she also remembers feeling ready.

Woodruff, freshman, danced her first hip-hop performance to “Somebody to Love” by Justin Bieber. It was the first performance in the inaugural year of the Center of Creative Arts’ Hip-Hop Crew. Three years later, Woodruff says her nerves have settled every year since that first performance.

“I’m always anxious. But as the company grows, and you grow, you learn how to manage your anxiety and your fear,” Woodruff said. “You learn to take the positive energy out of everything.”

It was energy that got Woodruff into dancing. According to Woodruff, she was a hyper child and a drama queen. When she was 3, her mother, Stacey Woodruff, put her in dance classes to exercise and to express herself.

Woodruff first danced at Lucille Rapp Dance Studio and then the Dance Center of Kirkwood. After a two-year stint pursuing competitive swimming in first and second grade, Woodruff returned to dance. She enrolled at the Center of Creative Arts (COCA) in fourth grade hoping to become a more serious dancer.

Five years later, Woodruff takes dance classes 4-7 days a week nearly year-round. These classes cover six different types of dance: jazz, modern, musical theater, hip-hop, ballet and tap.

“You always have to be continuously taking classes,” Woodruff said. “You can’t just come to half the classes. You always have to be there every day. You can’t take a break.”

Woodruff takes hip-hop class twice a week, as she is a member of COCA’s Hip-Hop Crew.  Woodruff loves the contemporary music of hip-hop, as well as the different styles such as street, breakdancing and studio. Woodruff and the Hip-Hop Crew have participated in a flash mob for Dot Foods Inc., and also performed a music video rendition of Ciara’s “Got Me Good” which got retweeted on Twitter by the artist. COCA’s Hip-Hop Crew does not participate in competitions.

Woodruff said there is a negative side to being involved in all of COCA’s classes and performances. Until this year, Woodruff danced on Fridays after school from 4:30-9:30 p.m. Because of this, she was not able to go downtown with her friends or attend Friday night football games. However, Woodruff said the disappointment of missing out on weekend activities was short-lived.

“Once I went to dance I kind of forgot all about it,” Woodruff said. “It was kind of all about being there with my friends and doing something that I love. It’s my second home. I feel safe there. It’s some place I know I can be myself and everyone understands who you are.”

Woodruff decided to take Fridays off this year, but dance takes up Saturdays too, forcing Woodruff to frequently stay home on Saturday nights to do homework.

According to Woodruff, she is enrolled in more than 10 hours of dance classes a week. The week leading up to a performance, called a “show week”, consists of weekday tech rehearsals from 4:30-9 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday ones from 11 or 12-7 p.m. While Woodruff admitted the lifestyle is grueling and tiring at times, there is a constant pull to keep it up.

“You never really get sick of it because you trust everyone there and you learn to build relationships,” Woodruff said. “Some people you only have in classes once a week and you’ll want to go see them that one time a week just to see how they’re doing.”

Woodruff said that she has known her closest dance friends for five years. She said she makes many more every year from dancers transferring studios or moving in town.

“We don’t talk about school stuff,” Woodruff said. “We just talk about what’s going on in dance; about what our teachers are doing, what we’re doing, what shows are coming up. It’s not about ‘I’m so stressed over the homework’ and you’re not thinking about school stresses and friend stresses. It’s almost like a drama-free zone, but you also get to know each other personally because of how much time you spend together. It’s just weird to not be with each other.”

 Woodruff said what she loves most about dance is being surrounded by people that share the passion to express themselves and learn. Woodruff recalled a saying from her hip-hop teacher, Redd Williams, that she holds dear to her heart:

“You can never stop growing. You can never stop learning from others around you and from yourself.”

Allie Thaman could not focus in any of her classes. It was Nov. 26, and her first Turkey Day Pep Rally performance as a varsity pommie loomed hours away. She wanted everyone to see it.

“Every hour that passed you were closer and I just wanted it to be the pep rally,” Thaman, sophomore, said. “Nothing else in the day mattered other than that dance.”

Thaman said it was the most nervous she had ever been to perform because of the amount of people in attendance. No one knew what the poms were doing for their routine. Thaman said there was a lot of pressure.

Thaman said the pressure lifted, however, once her first performance for KHS concluded. According to Thaman, she felt relieved and and ready to do the routine again the next night for the Kirkwood community.

“You knew everyone liked it, and you got it over with once so you knew you could do it,” Thaman said. “All of the hard work paid off. You knew you had done well and accomplished something.”

The hard work Thaman described began over a month before the pep rally. She said the varsity poms team would have 5 a.m. practices the same day as evening practices. She said there were some Sunday all-day rehearsals where they would drill the routine and work to make it spotless. According to Thaman, every practice and rehearsal was intense.

Adding to that workload, Thaman also dances for the Dance Center of Kirkwood, where she has taken classes since age 3, marking her 13th year with the program. Thaman said her daily routine consists of poms practice from 3:30-5 p.m., and then dance classes from 7-9 p.m.

“It all ends up working out, but it’s a lot a day,” Thaman said. “The worst part is having to do homework, because that’s the last thing I want to do. But I like going to classes and going to poms so it’s not dreadful. I have fun at what I’m doing.”

Thaman dances every day but Sunday, taking classes in ballet, tap, jazz, modern and pointe. Thaman is a part of the Dance Center of Kirkwood’s ballet company as well as their competition team.

Being a part of so many dance organizations, Thaman’s year is filled with performances. For the Dance Center alone she has four recitals, four “Nutcracker” ballet shows and four competitions. After adding on the football games, basketball games, competitions and pep rallies the poms perform at, Thaman said she is sore a lot.

But Thaman said she has always had a love for performing. She said it is what drew her to dance when she was 3, and has been her favorite aspect since.

“It’s all of your work. You get to show what you’ve been working on,” Thaman said. “It’s like when basketball players play a basketball game and win. You get to show your hard work and that you’ve been training for this.”

According to Thaman, however, the training can be intense. Thaman said she has to visit the chiropractor for back problems, and that every two weeks she has to have her pelvis put back into place. According to Thaman, foot joint pain is common among dancers, and is usually caused by being on pointe, or dancing on their toes, in ballet.

“I know some people don’t like [pointe] because it can be painful, but I like it,” Thaman said. “It can be difficult sometimes. You have to build up the strength for it. Sometimes your feet will hurt with breaking in your shoes; blisters and stuff, but it’s all worth it. I like doing ballet up there.”

In The Nutcracker ballet, the snow queen performs a solo mainly on pointe. Thaman’s goal is to have that part, as well as be a varsity poms captain her senior year.

Whether it be poms or ballet, Thaman said dance has been a source of relief. When she dances, she said she stops thinking of her problems and stresses. Thaman said she does not know where she would be without dance.

“It’s my life pretty much. It’s what I love to do,” Thaman said. “It’s not only my hobby it’s what I look forward to. It’s what I want to continue to do throughout my life.”