"I’ve grown as a dancer and as a person."

Sayer - Class of 2010 Wenham, MA

Talk to Sayer for five minutes and the Don Henley song “All She Wants to Do is Dance” might pop in your head. Whether it’s starring in two to three major dance productions a year, running the Blue Strut dance group, or taking extra classes outside of school at the Boston Ballet, Sayer’s life at Andover is fully entrenched in dance.

But Sayer might never have achieved so much if she didn’t recognize that she wasn’t fully taking advantage of her opportunities. “I applied last minute [to PA], like 30 minutes before the deadline, but then I got in with scholarships and it was something you don’t pass up. But I had a really rough freshman year adjusting and just wasn’t making it work,” she says. “Luckily, I had dance as an outlet and my friends were there for me.”

Now in her upper year, Sayer is thankful that she stuck with it, changed her outlook and turned a negative to positive. “My instructors have pushed me because they know what it’s going to take to achieve my goals. I’ve grown as a dancer and as a person.”