Zoey Rochefort, a rising eighth grader at Roxboro Community School, (RCS) spent the first week of August at the New York City Dance Alliance (NYCDA) Junior Intensive. The acceptance-only training was held at Pace University.
Each day, Zoey trained from 9 am until 6 pm with faculty and guest choreographers from Broadway and commercial dance.
She explained that, “Dancers audition for spots to attend or are accepted automatically if chosen as an Outstanding Dancer in a regional city.”
She said, “I’ve been going to NYCDA for quite some time now and was named an Outstanding Dancer. Because of Covid, their Nationals were virtual one year and in Orlando and Phoenix the past two years. I have always wanted to go to New York City and the Summer Intensive gave me that chance this summer.”
She said the thing about the intensive that was the most fun was “meeting new people, including guest instructors from Broadway, television and NYCDA as well as other dancers from across the country. At night, I enjoyed exploring the beautiful city by attending a Yankees baseball game, a play, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, a musical, Funny Girl, and a photo shoot on Broadway and Times Square with New York photographer Chris Coates-Mitchell.”
The accompanying photograph of Zoey is from the shoot with Coates-Mitchell.
Zoey, who dances at Nina’s School of Dance in Durham, said, during the intensive, she “learned more about dance styles and the specialties of each instructor. I received corrections and more attention because the group was so much smaller than our weekend conventions. I also learned more about the NYCDA community and what it was like to dance in a college setting as we danced everyday at Pace University.”