Sakura Arimura first came to the college three years ago after obtaining a visa so she could leave Japan to study overseas. She signed up for a beginning dance class to satiate an unfulfilled childhood desire. Thus began a route that she had never planned for.

“Since I was little, I wanted to try to dance ballet, but I never had the chance,” Arimura said.

One of the first classes Arimura enrolled in was Ballet 1, where she met dance instructor Daniel Berney, whom Arimura said “inspired” her to continue dancing after completion of her first ballet course.

Arimura worked her way up to intermediate ballet; she is now taking two to three dance classes every day. She also studies tap, jazz, modern dance and choreography.

Arimura had no training of any kind in dance before she moved from Japan. To her, ballet had only been a dream.

Yet despite her initial lack of skill, Arimura trained hard and will be displaying her hard efforts in the upcoming dance showcase entitled “Footsteps: Songs of the Beatles,” showing at Marsee Auditorium.

Arimura will be dancing a duet en pointe with Berney, who is still her ballet instructor after three years.

“I am just so nervous and excited, ” Arimura said. “I have never performed before in this situation.”

Because of the rigor of the advanced dance class, Arimura’s training with Berney has taught her a lot.

Arimura is proud of herself, she said, but she is also worried that her dancing may end up disappointing Berney.

“I’ll do my best to make sure that Mr. Berney and I both enjoy and have fun performing,” Arimura said.

She has begun to make plans to transfer to either UCLA or UCI where she can continue her training and earn a degree as a dance major.

“I just want to dance as long as I can,” Arimura said.

When Arimura first told her parents about her desire to learn ballet, they forbid her from majoring in dance.

“My parents always let me do what I want as long as it makes me happy,” Arimura said.”Only when I talked to them about dance being my major, they said ‘no.'”

For awhile, the relationship between Arimura and her parents was strained; the stress stemming from the miles of distance between them just as much as Arimura working independently of their wishes to become a dancer.

“My parents didn’t want me to dance because I was not in a good condition to keep dancing,” she said.

Arimura and her parents had difficulty finding time to talk to each other, Arimura said, but eventually came to a mutual understanding.

The concert was held last May 6-8 in the Campus Theatre. Arimura is looking forward to becoming more involved in performances and events in the future.

“I had fun rehearsing. I’m positive that I will have fun performing,” she said.