“Welcome to the final show, I hope you’re wearing your best clothes.”

Flowing white and blue fabric glides through the air as Grace Eassa (12) performs to the song “Sign of the Times” with the rest of her dance team. Piano notes and drum beats echo through the venue as Grace advances through their choreography and the sentimental music alongside the team she spent her life training with.

From when she was just a toddler to now as a senior in high school, dance and the surrounding community have always been at the forefront of Grace’s life. Dancing for hours after school at Lana’s Dance Studio every day, Grace feels at home with her fellow dancers.

“It’s a very tight-knit community,” Grace said. “It’s like my second home, so I really do enjoy it there. The community is really non-judgmental, so I’m able to be myself, especially at my studio in particular. We’re all so close because it’s a safe space. My dance team and I are like family at this point. I’ve been dancing with them since I was three.”

At the age of thirteen, Grace began solo dancing, hitting off her career with a jazzy dance to “Supermodel” by RuPaul. Admitting that it was embarrassing at the time, Grace acknowledges that the dance serves as a display of her growth. 

“The dance was very ‘big personality’, which at the time I was not,” Grace said. “So whenever I watch a video I’m like, ‘Man I wish I could do it again now because my personality has developed. I could have done it better.’ But it was fun, and I’m glad I had the experience.”

Now that she’s older, Grace feels that she’s engaged with the community much more as well. As time passed, the studio became a more and more integral part of her life as well.

“When I was little, it would be my studio,” Grace said. “I feel more of a commitment to it. Responsibility.”

Grace’s comfort and respect in the community spreads beyond the scope of her dance studio, extending into dancing at school and her daily life. A member of both Harker Dance Company and band, she loves being surrounded by the people she values in her life. 

“I like building strong relationships and I really like laughing, so I’m always with people that make me laugh and people I love,” Grace says. “It makes me happy.”

Recently, Grace began probing at the world of choreography, practicing choreographing at both her studio but also for school.

“I’ve taken more classes and witnessed other choreography,” Grace said. “It really shows that when you are exposed to things you don’t even need to take a class on it. I’ve been exposed to so much choreography that I picked up how to teach it. I made this ballet adaptation of The Little Mermaid and then edited it together. It was very fun.”

To fellow Harker Dance Company dancer Claire Cheng (11), Grace is not only very cooperative with her peers but also very welcoming and outgoing when meeting new people.  

“She’s really good at collaborating, and she’s also very creative,” Claire said. “She has a lot of ideas, and she also can make compromises. Some of her greatest strengths are meeting new people, and she’s really good at talking. She’s very outgoing. She’s very empathetic, and she’s good at storytelling.”

Close friend Joelle Weng (12) agrees about Grace’s ability to convey a story and notes her positive personality. 

“I really like sitting and talking to Grace, eating food and hearing her recount her day,” Joelle said. “She’s a really good storyteller. She’s good at retelling a story that might not be so interesting, but she really picks it apart so it gets engaging. If you talk to her, she’s alive and has so much energy, and she’s just very bubbly.”

Grace’s energetic personality and outgoing nature transfer directly into her passion for dancing. Her personality is not her only way of interacting with those around her: by dancing, Grace presents her character from the stage to the audience. 

“Dancing is really a release,” Grace said. “It’s such a natural art form. It just feels so freeing to do it because it’s just moving your body, so it’s a natural way to express yourself; there’s nothing artificial about it.”

Through her creativity and passion for what she does, Grace’s vibrance and vivacity shine brightly with her winsome personality. Upper school dance teacher Jill Yager, who started teaching Grace in her junior year, admires that she can always trust that Grace is willing to try difficult dances and can also pull them off.

“She’s a phenomenal dancer,” Yager said. “When I’m choreographing in my head, and I’m thinking about particular movements coming up, or what I would like to see, Grace is one of the people that’s in my head when I’m visualizing it, to see what it might look like or see what how she’s going to do it, or how she’s going to give her her interpretation of the movements. And that’s a big compliment to her consistency, her presence, her willingness to try when it’s time to work. She’s a force, so much talent, so much experience, ridiculously professional.”