Testing her mettle amongst a group of over 800 dancers on Jan. 22, 2017, freshman Bella Hamm recently performed her first solo at the the world’s largest global network of dance, Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP). A highly competitive event with over 50,000 past participants, the YAGP hosts scholarship auditions and masterclasses for dancers ages 9-19 within the US, as well as countries such as France, Italy, and Mexico.

Hamm started to dance because of one of her friends and their studio, Inland Pacific. Since then, she has been dancing nonstop currently practicing four times a week at Inland Pacific. Being on pointe shoes in ballet is very time consuming, and to many it is very impressive to be turning and leaping in them at her age. During practices and classes, she did exercises with her classmates, who as well are competing in the competition, so that her feet on pointe would be stronger.

“After my first class, I was really excited to keep dancing,” Hamm said. “I was good as a child, and I really wanted to be a talented ballerina.”

To prepare for the YAGP, Hamm listened to her music constantly, and ran through her counts in her head. She also used a notebook where she would keep all of her routine corrections, always reviewing them.

“We did 64 releve’s on each leg to make our ankles strong enough to be on pointe.. It took me 4-6 months to get multiple pirouettes on them.” Hamm said.

On her way to the competition, Hamm was very nervous. Once she was there and was backstage, she did not know what to expect. While she was getting her hair and makeup done, her stress piled up, her stomach turning,  waiting for her name to be called.

“When I was backstage, I was getting nervous and preparing myself the best I could. I was going over my variations and corrections in my head and knowing that I was going to do my best.” Hamm said.

They called the competitors group by group, having four people in a group. Once her name got called, she stood in the stages wings, patiently waiting till it was her turn to go on. As she watched the others perform before her, she started to feel much more relaxed. Then finally, when it was her turn to set the stage, she stepped through the wings and set in her starting position. As she performed, she danced with gracefulness and a big beautiful smile on her face to the sounds of Gamzatti from the ballet La Bayadere.

“Overall I was very proud of myself for doing my solo in front of all of those people watching me. Also, my improvement showed from my performance.” Hamm said.

Unfortunately, Hamm did not place, but she still performed well. Luckily, the 1st place winner happened to be from her studio. Overall, Hamm was very pleased with her competition and being in that new environment.