Tennille Hahn

How has the dance program at Pingree grown over the years, and what does that growth say about how the community values dance?

When I joined the Pingree community in 2014, I was eager to connect with students and build a dance program where every student interested in dance could thrive, grow, and feel valued. From the beginning, I wanted students to feel that there was a place for them in dance, regardless of their experience or level.

During the first few years, one piece of feedback kept coming up: students wanted a competitive dance experience at the varsity level. Listening to that student voice helped shape what the program would become. What began as an after-school dance program with just four students has grown into a dance team of 29 dancers for the upcoming season.

To me, that growth speaks volumes about the way dance has become valued within the Pingree community. More and more students are choosing to dance, explore new styles, perform, compete, and find their place within the program. It has been incredibly rewarding to watch students' interest and passion for dance grow alongside the program itself.

Dance shows up all over Pingree — from the 9th-grade program to the variety of dance and yoga classes offered as classes, to the dance team. How do these different entry points work together?

One of the things I love most about dance at Pingree is the number of avenues available to students. Whether a student finds dance through the 9th-grade arts program, the dance team, our winter musical, a half- or full-credit dance course, Yogance, jazz, hip-hop, or a Local Lab master class, there is an opportunity to get involved.

These different entry points allow students to discover dance in different ways and at different levels. A student might first encounter dance through the 9th-grade arts experience and then decide to take a course, join the dance team, or participate in a performance. Another student may come to Pingree with years of dance experience and find opportunities to continue challenging themselves.

Collectively, these programs create a sense of momentum, excitement, and progression throughout the year. They also allow students to move in and out of different experiences while continuing to build their confidence, skills, and connection to the dance community. If a student wants to try dancing at Pingree, the opportunity is there.

What does it look like for a student with no formal dance background to find their footing here — and what does it look like for an experienced dancer to keep growing?

There is an opportunity for every student who wants to dance at Pingree. Each year, our dance team brings together students with a wide range of backgrounds and experience levels, and I love watching that community develop.

For a student with no formal dance background, the dance team provides an opportunity to belong to a team, learn the fundamentals of multiple dance genres, develop confidence, compete, and ultimately perform and celebrate their accomplishments at our annual Fall Dance Concert. Students can enter with little or no experience and discover that they are capable of much more than they initially imagined.

For experienced dancers, there are opportunities to continue challenging both their technical skills and artistry. Students can work from a collegiate-level perspective, compete in multiple routines, explore different styles, and create their own choreography and artistic work throughout their time at Pingree.

One of my favorite moments of the year is seeing all of these dancers come together for our Fall Dance Concert. The camaraderie, growth, and amount of hard work that happens in such a short period of time during the fall season continue to impress me. It is something I am incredibly proud of.

Those opportunities also extend beyond the fall. All 9th-grade students experience the visual and performing arts, giving them an opportunity to explore and be introduced to various artistic disciplines upon arriving at Pingree. Students who want to dive deeper into dance can then choose from a variety of half-credit courses or our higher-level Dance Ensemble course, which is also available at the honors level.

What I appreciate most about these offerings is that they can respond to the students who are actually in the room. The program continues to evolve based on what students are interested in, what they want to explore, and where they want to go next. I truly believe that the student voice has helped drive the dance program to where it is today. I am incredibly grateful to be part of this community and excited to see where our students will take it next.

Dance sits at an interesting intersection of art and athleticism at Pingree. What is it about Pingree that makes it possible for a student to choose both instead of one or the other? How do you see students benefiting from that?

What makes dance so special at Pingree is its versatility. Dance truly has a home in both the arts and athletic communities, and I think that is one of the most distinctive aspects of the program. Students don't have to choose between being an artist and being an athlete—they can be both.

Dance is an athletic discipline. The physical skills required of a dancer are endless: strength, flexibility, balance, coordination, stamina, agility, power, speed, body control, spatial awareness, and muscular endurance. Dancers are constantly training their bodies while simultaneously asking them to communicate an idea, emotion, or story. That combination of physical precision and artistic expression is what makes dance so demanding.

In my experience, when athletes from other sports participate in dance, they often recognize very quickly that dance requires a different kind of athleticism. An athlete may already have tremendous strength, speed, or endurance, but dance asks them to develop a completely different level of body awareness, control, musicality, precision, and coordination. They have to think about how the smallest movement is executed, how their weight shifts through space, how they connect one movement to another, and how they communicate through their bodies. I have seen athletes become genuinely challenged by that—and I think that is incredibly valuable. It allows them to experience what it feels like to be a beginner again and to develop respect for a discipline that requires both athletic and artistic intelligence.

At Pingree, our dancers have so many opportunities to experience those different sides of dance. They might perform at Convocation, compete with the Dance Team, perform at football game halftime shows, participate in the Fall Dance Concert, take part in Local Lab master classes, perform during Spring Arts Night, or collaborate with other programs across campus.

That ability to move between worlds gives students the opportunity to build confidence in multiple ways. They develop strength, discipline, endurance, musicality, creativity, collaboration, resilience, and self-expression. They also learn that athleticism isn't defined by one particular sport, and artistry isn't limited to one particular stage.

I think that is one of the things that makes dance so powerful at Pingree. A student can be a dancer and an athlete, a dancer and an artist, or all three. Dance gives students the opportunity to challenge their bodies, stretch themselves creatively, and discover abilities they may not have realized they had. Ultimately, it expands their understanding of what it means to be both an artist and an athlete.

What have you seen dance teach students that goes beyond the studio or stage?

The power of dance, and the way I see it, extends beyond the studio or stage, is really connected to the human experience. As humans, we are born to move. Movement is one of the ways we communicate, express ourselves, connect with others, and tell our stories.

I think that connection looks different for everyone. Dance might be part of a family tradition, a way someone celebrates, a cultural experience, a form of formal training, or simply a way to connect with their own body and the people around them.

What I hope students take away from dance is not only the ability to perform a movement or master a technique, but an understanding of how powerful movement can be as a form of communication and connection. Dance teaches students to listen, collaborate, take risks, persevere, be vulnerable, and trust themselves and one another.

Ultimately, I think dance is something we can all connect to in some way — whether that connection is small or profound. It reminds us that movement is part of who we are, and that there are many different ways to communicate, create, and be seen.