Anya Zoltko is a 13-year-old dancer from Brookline, New Hampshire. She dances at Kathy Blake Dance Studio.

“The energy when you walk into the studio is unlike any other. It’s filled with love, encouragement, and the idea that taking risks is expected and that it’s okay to fail.”

How does dance have a positive impact on your life?

Dance has given me an outlet, but most importantly, it’s given me valuable life skills. Certain things can’t be taught. You have to learn them yourself. Hard work, cooperation, perseverance, how to support someone, empathy, and how to push yourself, all things I would never have learned had I not enrolled in my first dance class. The energy when you walk into the studio is unlike any other. It’s filled with love, encouragement, and the idea that taking risks is expected and that it’s okay to fail. The studio is my home, and it always will be.

How do you want to use dance to be a positive influence on your community?

At my studio, we believe in giving back. Every time we have a fundraiser that helps with dance costs, we participate in a community outreach project. So far this year, we have established a mentoring program that pairs older and younger dancers together, prepared Halloween bags for dancers of all abilities, sponsored and wrote holiday cards for our military, and danced on Zoom for a local nursing home. We still have our collection of food, hygiene products, and pet supplies for our local food pantry in December and our annual “Keep Our Community Beautiful” trash pick up in May.

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