I Dream of Dance

Okay, this is it.

This is what we've been working for.

Some of you've been working for this day for years.

Some of you, this might be your first year. It doesn't matter.

Are you all excited over there, you little ones?

Yes! Say yeah!

Yeah!

Parents, thank you for getting your kids here

for extra rehearsals,

so that we can have a show and not a recital.

I think we're gonna blow the roof off. What do you think?

-Yeah? - Yeah!

Go on. That's it! I feel it coming!

Lights and music, go.

I live to dance.

I breathe dance. I eat dance.

Yeah. I fell in love with teaching right away.

Just, uh, changing kids' lives and helping them, you know.

'Cause a lot of times, that's all these kids have.

My mom is crazy.

My mom is obsessive and she is passionate.

And it's all for the education of somebody else.

It's all for giving somebody the gift

that she was meant to give.

Denise Wall, who is, in my eyes, a dance legend.

Being with Denise as a teacher and a mentor

has really just changed my life,

because I feel like I'm at my best

because she allows me to,

because she believes enough inside of me to be my best.

She's one of the best dance teachers in the world.

We immediately-- I immediately started asking her questions

about, like, the body. Like, da-da-da.

No, he has actually got a foot.

He's got an arch. Look at this.

Look at that.

Like a living, breathing encyclopedia.

My confidence really built up because of Denise.

Um, and so when I saw Travis audition for So You Think You Can Dance,

and we were really, really close,

it inspired me to audition for the show.

It was all the things that Denise taught me

about respect,

how to present myself,

and how to kind of stay grounded in those situations

that made me more successful on the show.

It's incredible what she's done.

It's incredible, the reputation

that she's built for herself, in the dance world.

I mean, everyone knows her for the training

and what she's done with kids.

And, you know, people move here from across the country

to come train with her.

It wasn't like this growing up.

Because I always said, "Oh, I never wanna own my own studio.

It's too much work, you know.

Everybody else gets paid, you don't get paid."

So I always worried about that

because, you know, at a certain point I did become a single mom.

At the point that I opened up my studio,

I had three kids at this point.

Yeah, we didn't have a lot of money, you know.

Um, I worked all the time.

I made sure my kids ate.

Sometimes I didn't, you know.

But that's what you do. You do whatever you do for your kids.

Nothing was ever given to her.

No one ever taught her these things,

she literally had to go and find them and put them all together

into this huge beautiful pot,

and mix it up and serve it to everybody.

There's so many people that look at me, and they go,

"You're just like your mother." I'm like, "Stop it."

Mom, I love you so much. Everything is always for you.

I'm like, "I tried to sleep."

They're like, "Yeah, you're not sleeping. You're just like your mother.

You're not eating. You're just like your mother.

You're putting everybody else first.

You're working so hard. You're just like your mother."

I'm like, "Shut up!"

She taught me how to work hard.

What's really important about, um, you know, the importance about life.

She was a mommy and a daddy.

You know, we would move from this house to this house,

and, you know, she would go from this marriage to this marriage,

and I would go from this job to this...

I mean, we were just kind of...

Everything was always a complete, utter chaos.

And the only thing that was always the same was the studio.

Well, she's... You know her.

She's working like... She doesn't sleep for the studio.

She... she... gets, like, one or two hours of sleep, so...

If I didn't teach dance, my kids wouldn't be able to dance.

I think that's why God gave me the gift.

I think, you know, he knows what our journey's supposed to be.

The company that I have now, I've been cultivating for a while.

And they're one of my favorites.

I have more kids that really want to do this for a living.

If I say,"Jump to the roof," they're gonna do it.

They'll do whatever I say.

Because they know I love them,

I love them not only as their dance teacher

but, I mean, I truly love them.

They're in my soul.

They work... They work hard. They work hard.

When I come up with new things, they'll try it.

It's first step to the Dance Awards!

All right. What'd I tell y'all last year when you got home from Nationals?

When do you start working on Nationals?

Now.

No.

The day you get home from Nationals from the year before.

Here at the Dance Awards, this is the culmination of a year's worth of work.

The kids go to Nationals having put all this hard work into it.

Knowing that they could really take away with them a career.

We tend to attract some of the best talent in the country

because of the faculty we offer.

For instance, someone like Travis Wall, who is an Emmy winner.

And we have certain other faculty members who've also won Emmys

and are doing really great things in the industry

and really moving dance forward.

Every moment that you're in front of these people,

putting your name and your face out there,

really showing that you want this.

Because there's thousands and thousands of kids

at the Nationals that they're going to.

And it's the biggest event of the summer.

Any studios who have qualified throughout the season,

they have the chance to compete against all the other dancers

who attended from around the country or around North America,

and it's some of the best competition

you'll ever see anywhere ever.

Every ballet class, every ballet class, and every ballet class again.

Every contemporary class, every jazz class, every hip-hop class,

every class you walk into,

it's your goal to get to Nationals.

Okay.

Pull back your hair a little bit.

You look a little wretched!

-Did you work hard today? -Yup.

That kid, you know, she does it every class,

she's given 200%, every class.

I don't care if she's feeling sick,

you know, maybe her body won't push it,

but her passion to get it done is still 200%.

Just don't let the drillin' hit you.

-Okay, all righty. Thank you. -Thank you, Denise.

Just keep on going through those corrections.

I live in Texas, which is...

It takes 23 hours to drive here,

which is crazy.

My dad, he works for Homeland Security.

So he lives in Houston with my sister and my grandma and my great-grandma.

And, uh...

He does a lot for me and my mom.

He pays all the bills, obviously.

And, um, he's our rock.

He loves me and my mom dearly.

I mean, I think she's so brave.

I don't know that at 12,

I would have been willing to move across the country from my family.

This is a very emotional situation with her living here

and us there

because we have an older daughter, Hannah,

and that has been our anchor there with all of her activities in school.

I can't leave her, so we've had to split.

We call ourselves a bi-coastal family.

So it's a struggle on our marriage

and it's a struggle with our kids and the relationships.

But, um, through it all we've continued to push forward in it.

Here's the deal.

I'm not gonna be at Hallie's house for Thanksgiving

when she's 40 years old,

and we're not gonna talk about what might have happened.

If we had made that sacrifice and I had gone there, would something have happened?

We're not gonna do that.

I'm enrolled in K12. It's a public school in Texas.

So everything's online.

I associate with kids and teachers.

It's just like a normal life, but except it's online.

I miss school in Texas, but...

it's like, sometimes I just think about, like,

like, why, like, be like a normal kid, you know.

I have this great life right now, so...

I train probably 36 hours a week.

Seven days a week.

Monday through Sunday.

And then start all over again.

I call her in her sophomore year at Denise Wall University.

You can mention her name and everyone knows who Denise Wall is.

Yeah. Engage it. Spread that.

Like, engage that, okay?

You have to think that's your face right now.

Dance means absolutely the world to me.

I mean, that's all I do every day.

That's all I think about.

-Oh, no. -

I wouldn't say it's second nature.

It's like first nature. It's like breathing.

Denise is my second mom.