By Margaret Betkowski ’21, News Reporter
Whether you have been to every dance concert since the beginning of your career at Mercersburg or if you’ve yet to see one, you’re sure to have heard of Sarah Noorbakhsh ‘21. Dance is her identity: it, aside from her bold fashion, makes Noorbakhsh stand out among the artists in our community. Dance didn’t begin as a conscious decision for her. “My parents put me in dance class when I was five years old, and I’ve been doing it ever since,” says Noorbakhsh.
While she developed an aptitude for dance at a very young age, she confesses that she didn’t dance competitively until the fourth grade. Before that time, her dance performances had been limited to little jazz pieces and small solos. “It was cute,” Noorbakhsh says, “I realized I fell in love with dance when I fell in love with the people; I wanted to go to dance to see my friends. That was the first time I knew that I wanted to do this for a really long time.” It was then that her competition career took off.
From that point on, Noorbakhsh rehearsed everyday after school from four to eleven p.m. and participated in competitions almost every weekend. The intense schedule paid off, however. Noorbakhsh’s team was the first from West Virginia, her home state, to make it to Worlds, travelling to Disney World to compete. Despite all the success, Noorbakhsh confesses that at times it taxed her confidence and stress levels. Wanting to be the best and fighting for the top spot led her to compare herself to others way too often in a destructive way.
Coming to Mercersburg forced Noorbakhsh to give up her competitive career. The transition from competitive dance to the dance program at Mercersburg was difficult. After proving herself to her coach and team at home for ten years, she dreaded going through it all over again. She was afraid she wasn’t going to improve in the non-competitive atmosphere of Mercersburg dance. “I thought I would hate it.” Noorbakhsh said.
Mercersburg did change Noorbakhsh’s relationship with dance though not in the way she feared. “I had to completely change my mindset about what dance was,” she says. “Dance isn’t about the trophy; it’s about the art.” Fighting for the top spot was no longer a part of Noorbakhsh’s dancing philosophy. Coming to Mercersburg strengthened her love for dance, and she will never go back to competition. Noorbakhsh admits that one of her favorite pieces last year was choreographed by Denise Dalton, Director of Dance. “It was the first time I really let loose. I was never used to smiling on stage, but in that piece, I couldn’t stop,” she says.
Her favorite solo piece, Mr. Lonely, she confesses, was improvised. Actually, any solo Noorbakhsh performs is improvised (much to Dalton’s dismay). “I felt really good in the moment. I was really able to connect to the piece,” she says. “I am more in tune with the raw nature of song when I improvise rather than execute preset movement.”
While Noorbakhsh has found her new love for a different kind of dancing, there are still struggles in dance no matter where one goes. “You grow up always looking in the mirror and being told you’re better or worse than the person next to you,” Noorbakhsh said. In addition to comparisons to other dancers, body image is always a struggle for dancers. Having to perform on stage in form-fitting leotards next to people with many different body types makes dancers very self-conscious.
However, for Noorbakhsh, the pros far outweigh the cons in the program at Mercersburg. When the group of dancers is closely knit and fluid, she feels the connection between the whole team. They all feel the change in the group whenever the seniors graduate.
At the end of the day, the ability to express herself through movement and share her thoughts with the people she loves without words is what keeps Noorbakhsh dancing every day.