What makes you happy?

“Dance! The way I move my body to music, and stuff like that. When I dance, I feel happy and…like I could do anything.”

How would you describe happiness?

“You feel light on the inside, and energetic. At least that’s how I feel when I dance!”

How did you get into dance?

“I started when I was 3! My parents signed me up. I never had a problem liking it. I always loved it, since the beginning. I started competition in second grade, and before that I would just dance in the studio. So after that I went into competition and then competing in three dances turned into competing in eight dances over the years, so I was doing eight dances a year before I left to join a dance team when I was a sophomore. I was on varsity all three years that I was on the team, and I grew to like it even more as I did it with my team.”

Were there any challenges or struggles that you had to deal with while you were competing and learning to dance?

“Ballet, definitely. In seventh grade, I was awful at it. My instructor actually approached me and said that I wasn’t doing very well, and they pulled me back for ballet because I wasn’t doing well enough. It made me think and realize “Oh wow, maybe I’m not as good as I thought I was.” But I pulled through and in eighth grade I got bumped up to the top and you know how the rest went!”

– AnnMarie Engebretson

Beneath The Crown is a project created by Nick Theisen (‘15). It is inspired by Humans of New York (HONY) and aims to bring the community of Gustavus Adolphus College closer together by providing the perspectives of the many different people who live and work at the school.