It is just after 10 a.m. on a
Friday morning and she smiles
warmly as she waits outside a
building with her fellow dancers.
Her kind reception is only a
testament to the sweet and sociable
young woman making strides
as a dancer at EC.
Nicole Leger, dance major, 20,
didn’t discover her love of dancing
until she came to EC and enrolled
in a modern dance class
with Pamela Santelman her first
semester.
“It was weird because it’s very
abstract and I wasn’t into that,”
Leger said. “At the time I was
more into hip-hop and later on I
just started becoming more open
minded.
“I took a jazz class with Kim
Borgaro, which is an amazing
dance teacher and I just fell in
love with it.”
She said her experience here
made her realize that she wanted
to explore dance.
“Previously I’d danced,
like cheerleading, but I
guess when I came to college
it made me really
think about it as an important
thing,” she said. “I
just took it as something
that I really wanted to do.”
She said she hopes to
transfer with a major in
dance and a minor in business
to California State
University, Long Beach, where
she hopes to enter a program for
coordinating events such as weddings
and parties.
Leger is also secretary of the
Dance Association Club, a new
club on campus for anyone who
is interested in dance.
She said she believes a dancer
is someone who is passionate.
“What really makes you a
dancer is actually having passion,
having emotion, having
your heart into the music or feeling
it,” Leger said.
Leger has danced in numerous
live performances at EC, some of
the most prominent being, “Momentum”
and “Jubilation.”
This semester, Leger said she
hopes to take part in the American
College Dance Festival Association’s
(or ACDFA) dance
convention.
The ACDFA dance convention,
which EC will host from
April 11- 14, is an opportunity for
students to compete and attend
workshops and classes with their
peers from different colleges and
universities.
Leger is not only a dancer but
has discovered a love for choreography
here at EC as well, a
skill in which she has been selected
to demonstrate at a student
choreography showcase.
Leger and her dancers are already
rehearsing weekly in preparation
for the showcase near the
end of May, where students, choreographers
and dancers alike,
can compete with original
dance compositions.
“It’s work. It’s time
consuming. But, it’s
something that’s worth it
at the end of the day when
you see everything combined,”
Leger said.
Laura Valdez, president
of EC’s Salseros
club, which is only one of
the many clubs that Leger
participates in, has nothing
but praise for the aspiring
dancer.
“Nicole has so much heart,
charisma and an incredible
personality that makes people
around her feel a part of the family,”
Valdez said.
“I would get a lot of people
coming up to me saying, ‘thank
you.’ What matters is what you
give out to the audience as an entertainer,”
Leger said.
“You don’t have to be skinny,
you don’t have to have the longest
legs or whatever to be a dancer.
You just be yourself and express
your emotions,” Leger said.
