Her dance journey started when she was in preschool, and junior Carlie Redd’s love for the sport has only grown since.
“I have always had a love for dance,” Redd said. “I have never experienced the feeling of wanting to quit or give up dance.”
As time passed, her focus and love for dance continued to grow.
“I started competitive dance in first grade,” Redd said. “And that’s kind of whenever when I really started to like dance. At first I was like, ‘Meh, it’s dance. It’s whatever; but as I have gotten older, it’s helped my mental state.”
Redd danced jazz, tap, hip hop, contemporary and ballet. Her mom owns a dance studio and was the reason Redd started dancing in the first place.
“My mom, she actually coached for a college dance team,” Redd said. “And then she got me started in dance, and she actually owns my studio. So I’m there all the time, every day, all day.”
Because she grew up with dance, Redd has dedicated a lot of time and effort to it. She dances for the Emeralds, the school dance team, and for the studio her mom owns.
“Since preschool, I’ve basically live, eat, sleep, dance all the time,” Redd said. “So it definitely consumes my life. I dance almost 20 hours a week, so it definitely takes over.”
And even though it takes up a lot of her time, Redd has made some of her best friends through dance.
“I have just gained so many good friendships through dance,” Redd said.
Redd has impacted her dance team, and that was reaffirmed at her dance team’s banquet.
“We just finished up Emeralds, and we had the banquet, and I got a lot of compliments of things I’ve done throughout the season and helping other people out and being a good asset to the team,” Redd said. “So that did make me feel very proud of who I am.”
Her future with dance is unknown. Redd said she didn’t want to major in dance; instead she wanted to follow in her mom’s footsteps and major in elementary education
“I do a lot of work with younger children at my studio right now, so it definitely gets me involved with that age of children,” Redd said. “I also think just getting myself prepared and having good morals and work ethic will help me pursue what I want to do.”
Even though she isn’t majoring in dance, she still wanted to continue it as a hobby
“I definitely would want to continue dancing because it’s something I’ve done for so long,” Redd said. “I don’t ever want to let it go.”
