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Caity Healy | Lifestyle Editor<\/span><\/p>\n Dancing can be a valuable tool in several ways: it provides an exceptional form of fitness, an escape from stress and, in many cases, fun. And, for some, participation in this type of physical activity is more than just exercise \u2013 it becomes a passion. For sophomore education major Kaiana Bradley, this remains true.<\/span><\/p>\n While it\u2019s something of great importance to her now,when she first began, this wasn\u2019t quite true.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI started dancing in the second grade because my mom knew one of the ladies who had a dance studio in town and just signed me up,\u201d said Bradley. \u201cAt the time, I just loved getting to wear a leotard, and eventually I learned to love dance itself, too.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Over the past 12 years, her love for dance has continuously progressed <\/span>\u2014<\/span> as did her reason for practicing her passion.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhen I dance, all of my problems fade away. Any outside stressors just disappear and the movement takes its place. It is really freeing,\u201d Bradley explained.<\/span><\/p>\n While her passion for dance is immense, so is the time it takes. With countless rehearsals, recitals and pieces she\u2019s taken the hours to learn, dance is truly a time-consuming practice that for some, could be too much. Despite this, Bradley is able to maintain a regular academic and social life.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI guess all of the rehearsals I had growing up taught me to get my homework done when I was available to do that \u2026 in high school, I had evening rehearsals and I was so used to coming home from school and continuing to do schoolwork, that I kept that practice going as I started college,\u201d Bradley stated.<\/span><\/p>\n Not allowing dance to make an impact on her school life took years of practice and an understanding of how to fit everything into her schedule. And while some may assume it would negatively impact her social life, Bradley explains that it did the opposite.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt provides an excellent social support,\u201d Bradley said. \u201cI have met some of the most amazing people in dance rehearsals.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n For students at Western interested in dance, Bradley urges that you simply go for it. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201c(Interested students) should sign up for a beginning level dance course for the next term. I would highly recommend using a dance class to fulfill one of their arts LACCs,\u201d Bradley mentioned. \u201cThe faculty are incredibly talented and all around amazing people who would love to bring new dancers into the department.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Dancing has taught Bradley many lessons. Whether it be about life, school, herself or anything in between, it\u2019s affected who she is as a person.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cDance has grown me into a more independent, confident individual than I would have been without it,\u201d Bradley stated. \u201cAnd becoming a coachable person is something that will help me later on in life.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Contact the author at chealy16@mail.wou.edu<\/span><\/p>\n Photo by: Paul F. Davis<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Caity Healy | Lifestyle Editor Dancing can be a valuable tool in several ways: it provides an exceptional form of fitness, an escape from stress and, in many cases, fun. And, for some, participation in this type of physical activity is more than just exercise \u2013 it becomes a passion. For sophomore education major Kaiana […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1030,"featured_media":7760,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1030"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}