Freshman Kieley Leary balances professional ballet with schoolwork. At times it can be hard to balance, and her grades have faltered as a result, but overall she is able to work well with both dance and school. 

Leary currently works with Sac Ballet and has previously danced with Joffrey Ballet, a prestigious dance school located in New York. She started dancing when she was only five years old. She is passionate about ballet, going to practice six days a week for four hours. 

“I go to school and then after school I go to dance,” she said. “I start at 4:30 p.m. and I get home at 10 p.m.” 

Not only does Leary do ballet, she also practices contemporary dance. Her favorite ballet to dance is Swan Lake and her biggest role has been a solo as the Sugar Plum Fairy in the Nutcracker. 

Leary has overcome many injuries, even almost ending her young career. 

“I actually injured myself at Joffrey,” she said. “I was doing a turn and landed weird and my knee dislocated.” 

Coming home to three months of rehab has also taken a toll on her mental health, not just physical. “It felt like I wasn’t going to dance again because they said that was a possibility,” she said. “It felt weird to not be able to do something I spent my whole life doing.”

 Being recently accepted into the School of American Ballet has been one of Leary’s biggest accomplishments. 

“I went into an audition and I’m going to it (SAB) from the end of June until the beginning of August,” she said. “It’s in NYC and basically 6 days a week I’m there from 9-5.”

Leary has traveled to New York and Las Vegas for dance, working with Joffrey in NYC. 

“I was there for two weeks in NYC and one week in San Francisco,” she said. “It’s basically the same as SAB it’s just where you go to over the summer to train.”

Leary has been incredibly successful dancing with Joffrey despite her injury. ”I was on the news for getting into a different company for Joffrey and they did a whole segment on how I came up to that.”

She is serious about dance and her end goal is to pursue ballet as a career.