“I had never seen anything like it and I knew I wanted to pursue ballet” Lucy Baird reminisces. At the age of 4, Lucy discovered her passion for ballet after watching the show Angelina Ballerina. At age 9, Lucy started getting more serious about it “after watching the Moscow Ballet’s performance of ‘Swan Lake’ at Mahaffey Theatre.”

Lucy has made life-long friends through ballet. Some of her friends she began dance with are still her friends today. Delaney Nipper, who’s been dancing approximately 8 years with Lucy, finds her to be an “amazing dancer, and the most positive and energetic person I have ever met.” Ballet began as “just a way to make friends and have fun but throughout the years I have grown much more serious about it and I would love to dance professionally if they opportunity came up,” Lucy says. Even outside of the dance studio, friends such as Morgan Mailhot find Lucy “inspiring and creative.”

Lucy first began training with Judith Lee Johnson, and then at 12 years old transferred to Macedonia with Dusanka Gridiski Ivanova who has formerly trained with the Vaganova Ballet Academy in St Petersuburg Russia and danced as a soloist in the Kirov Ballet. Lucy’s been training at Macedonia for 5 years. She’s extremely passionate about dance, and loves being surrounded by hard-working dancers. “Ballet classes typically start out with barre, where we do our warm-up and our teacher corrects us on our form. Barre is followed by centre which is when we practice performing different combinations of steps and jumps. After, we usually rehearse what we will be doing in our next upcoming performance.” Lucy is also on the cross country team. “Like with any sport or activity, it can be difficult” Lucy says, comparing dance to cross country. “Cross country and ballet are two completely different activities with similar aspects. Each require working as a team through achievement of personal goals. They are both filled with extremely positive and motivated people that I love to surround myself” Veronica Gonsalves, 10th grade, who’s on the cross country team with Lucy finds her to be “an inspiration to me and others around her. She balances everything she does, including dance, running and school work.”  But Lucy finds it all worth-while when she can walk out of the studio “knowing that you tried your best.”

“Balancing schoolwork can be a challenge but it teaches you time management skills and how to become a hard-worker. Every once in a while there is down time at dance that can be used for homework but it’s very rare” she comments, discussing the long hours ballet requires. “She’s hardworking, but gets easily stressed,” Mailhot laughs, “but she keeps her priorities straight.”

Lucy stays motivated, and encourages others to join ballet. She has observed girls begin at the ages of 15, and “with hard work have accomplished so much.”

“Always go after you want,” Lucy advises, “it is never too late to join.”

“The feeling of performing next to professional Russian ballerinas was a feeling I will never forget,” Lucy Baird remembers, speaking of her favorite performance in The Nutcracker with the Moscow Ballet. From being inspired from the Moscow’s Ballet performance to being able to perform next to her idols helps inspire Lucy to continue her passion for ballet.