By: Hilary Hahn
3/24/2004

Creating line and art in space is what senior Trudy Cunningham has spent her life doing. She now gets the chance to take her talent in ballet to Cancun and dance with Friends University’s sister ballet company. She was picked along with her senior partner Christopher Blurton to present the ballet piece “Etudes” at the dance festival at the end of May.

“We had no idea who would get to go,” Cunningham said. “It came down to the piece.”

Cunningham and Blurton performed the piece together in the Spring Ballet, so they knew the choreography and were comfortable with it.

“I’m excited, but I feel bad for those not going,” she said.

Now the two have to focus on keeping the piece's choreography sharp.

“Typically it wouldn’t be a big deal,” Cunningham said. “But because financially there is pressure and with the stress of my senior year, I’ll have to stay focused.”

Cunningham was 6 years old when she started gymnastics and ballet. She went to practice once a week and learned the basics.

When she was 11 she came to Friends and began taking classes under faculty member Sharon Rogers.

“She is a wonderful teacher,” Cunningham said.

The twice-a-week practice was a big change for her. She was placed in a lower age group class because her technical skills weren’t where they needed to be and she felt like she was playing catch-up with those her own age. However, her determination to be as good as or even better than those in her class kept her going.

“It was very intense from anything I knew before coming here,” she said.

After working with Rogers up to five times a week before coming to college, Cunningham said the hard work finally started to pay off.

Rogers agreed that Cunningham's hard work has paid off.

“She is dedicated and disciplined and is a pleasure to work with,” Rogers said. “Even though she is the best, she has stayed kind and sweet.”

At 15, after her freshman year of high school, she auditioned for an apprenticeship at Friends. Stan Rogers, associate professor of dance, didn’t think she was ready, but after a summer of hard work, Cunningham was accepted into the program and has had the same dance schedule since then.

“It was scary at first,” she said. “Everyone was older and in college and that was intimidating, but after a while they started treating me like a sister. After I got older, those relationships grew into friendships.”

Cunningham decided to stay at Friends when she started college because it was one of the few schools that offered a bachelor of fine arts in ballet.

“I wanted to study the significance of just ballet, and Friends allowed me to do this,” she said.

Cunningham is working on her senior project with the purpose of finding a ballet company. She has auditioned in Atlanta and Miami and sent videos to various other companies.

“The economy is not good for performing arts,” Cunningham said. “It’s disappointing there isn’t much appreciation in some places.”

As part of her senior project, she is also trying to apply her English minor to dance and has studied dance criticism.

“Sharon’s academic classes are extremely hard,” she said. “But when I get out I will have knowledge of dance.”

Rogers said she will always think of Cunningham as her baby, but she's excited to see where she will go from here.

“I’ve watched her grow from the beginning, through all the stages, to advanced,” Rogers said. “Now she is heading on her way to being a professional. For me that is what teaching is all about -- seeing her be the best.”