Gracean Linthacum-Janker (12) remembers the moment—the blinding lights casting her figure in a silhouette, her heart beating nervously as she waited for the music to begin. But when she heard the first few notes of the song and her body started moving to the music, everything felt right.

Gracean started dancing when she was three years old. Since then, she has performed with Harker’s dance teams, including Varsity dance, junior varsity dance, Showstoppers and Dance Fusion and with her competitive team outside of school.

Dance provides her with a means to rid any stress or tensions she obtains from daily life as a high school student.

“[Dance] is a way I get to express myself, and I kind of forget about everything else going on around me,” Gracean said. “No matter how stressed I am during the day or anything, I will go to dance and just work hard. Some days, you’re so tired and you don’t want to be there, but it just relieves so much of my tension.”

Dance has also provided avenues for friendships to blossom in Gracean’s life. Charlotte “Charley” Huang (12), one of her Varsity dance teammates, appreciates her willingness to help others.

“Since high school, she’s definitely become like a mother: she’s so responsible, and she always cares about everyone,” Charley said.

Through her participation in performing arts at Harker, Gracean’s dedication has shown through to dance teacher Karl Kuehn, whom she has known since the first grade.

“Gracean is committed, she is hardworking, she is focused and energetic [and] she makes me laugh,” Kuehn said. “She has really flourished, and she’s such a strong dancer. It’s been a joy to see her grow and develop into the fantastic dancer she is today.”

Gracean credits the opportunities she has to pursue dance to her mother. Not only did her mother initially encourage her to start dancing, she also attends all of Gracean’s competitions and rehearsals.

“My mom’s been great about having ballet bars in the house and letting me move furniture to create space for me to just move because she knows that if I’m stressed, all I’ll do is put on music and practice a routine, and I’m already extremely calmed down,” she said. “Also, because of my peanut allergy, I needed to always have somebody [at rehearsals] who was epipen-trained. I dance for six hours after school, and my mom would just sit in the car and wait there in the car because she couldn’t leave.”

While performing arts plays a significant role in her life, the amount Gracean dances now has somewhat decreased, partly due to a concussion she received in her freshman year, allowing her to explore other interests.

“I danced around 20 to 25 hours a week my freshman year, then it went down to 10 or 15 [hours a week] my sophomore year, and then it’s been five [hours] since. I had to stop for a while because I got a severe concussions the end of my freshman year, and I was forced to slow down,” Gracean said. “That kind of opened me up to things I don’t think I would’ve tried. I still had dance, but I also now have time to do other things I want to do. I really like just drawing. I’m a horrible drawer, but I kind of like to just sit there and even just color. That was something that I found after I got hurt that I really liked.”

Best friend Isabella Spradlin (12), whom she has known since her freshman year, describes Gracean as a loyal friend.

“She’s always there for you whenever you need her,” Isabella said. “She’s so much fun to be around, and I would spend every second of the day with her if I could.”