A dancer since the age of three, Sabrina Kreiss ’21 has taken advantage of every dance opportunity available at Pine Crest.
“I have been dancing for 15 years now,” said Sabrina. “I joined dance when I came to Pine Crest in pre-kindergarten — I was one of Mrs. Schimpf’s frogs!”
While ballet is her favorite style of dance, and her most proficient, she is also trained in jazz, contemporary, and modern, all courses she has taken at Pine Crest.
“I keep up my training over the summer outside of school,” said Sabrina who has taken summer intensives with the Boston Ballet School and the American Ballet Theater. She will be in Sarasota this coming summer for the Sarasota Ballet International Intensive.
“My parents enrolled me in ballet before I started at Pine Crest,” said Sabrina. “It was one of the only extracurricular activities that stuck with me over the years. I also sang in the chorus, I swam after school, played tennis, and was a cheerleader in Middle School. I enjoyed those activities, but dance was always different. It is great exercise and allows me to express myself beyond words. Once I got to Middle School and then eventually the Upper School, I narrowed down my interests and knew that dance was what I wanted to pursue.”
On what has kept dance exciting, Sabrina says it’s the people she has met and the challenging nature of dance.
“The instructors I have had at Pine Crest and off-campus are truly my favorite people,” she said. “You never stop learning; every day I walk into the studio I always want to improve. There is never a stopping point — no instructor will say ‘you’re perfect you can stop now.’ You can always improve.”
Sabrina as a poppy in the 2014 Lower School ballet production of The Wizard of Oz.
One of Sabrina’s proudest moments in dance came as a junior after auditioning for the annual ballet.
“Our ballet for the year was Swan Lake, which is such an influential show for dancers,” she said. “At the time, I was a junior and there were 12 seniors above me. When the cast list came out, I had been cast as the second lead in the show. I didn’t expect that! Seeing my name on that list for that role is something I will never forget. That is when I thought ‘Wow! I have people who believe in me and believe I am capable of this iconic role.’”
Sabrina Kreiss ’21 and Abby Blaze ’21 behind the scenes of the ballet Coppélia in 2015
Many current and former Pine Crest dancers will agree that the dance program is more intense than many may realize.
“It’s a real commitment of your time and your body,” said Sabrina. “It’s pointe work, after school and weekend rehearsals, a competitive team for those who want to compete — there are so many things outside of the core curriculum you can be a part of. If you take advantage of it, you can be dancing for up to 15 hours a week! And you will get out of the program what you put into it.”
Sabrina will join the Hartt School Dance Division at the University of Hartford this fall to begin a bachelor of fine arts degree in dance performance.
“I am excited about the independence,” she said. “Leaving Florida, experiencing the cold weather, and dancing all day is what I am most looking forward to. This has been my dream for years and years — to dance all day, meet new people and new instructors.”
Pine Crest School Dance Instructors Nikki Boyd, Amy Cichoski, Courtney Teas with Sabrina Kreiss ’21.
“My goal is to graduate and dance with a professional ballet company,” said Sabrina. “With the COVID-19 global pandemic, a lot of things have changed and continue to change. If professional dancing doesn’t work out for me, I hope to teach which is what I would want to do when I retire from professional dancing. A dream job would be to come back and teach at Pine Crest. I am excited to see where dance takes me.”
Although she is looking forward to starting college, Sabrina says she will miss her friends and teachers and the Pine Crest campus.
“I will miss campus, this place is beautiful! Every day, I see something new.”
