Lydia Holland is a senior at BV and has big plans for her future. Holland was put into dance when she was two and her love for it has only grown since then. She’s working on taking this passion of hers and turning it into a career as a professional dancer. 

Holland plans on completing one professional semester at Broadway Dance Center and another professional semester at Steps on Broadway in New York. After that, she hopes to be on Broadway or in the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. 

“By the time I was 10 and people [were] asking ‘what [do] you want to do’, I’ve answered ‘I want to be a dancer,’” Holland said. “I don’t know anything different, it’s what I always wanted to do.”

Although Holland knows dancing is her calling, she has had moments of uncertainty, setbacks and struggles along the way. One of these challenges that Holland faces is keeping her head held high.

“In the competition world right now with all these teenage girls competing against each other, there’s so much drama, and it’s really hard to keep your self-confidence high,” Holland said.

Another battle that she constantly fights while dancing is keeping her shoulders in place. This is because her shoulders are double-jointed and occasionally fall out of their sockets when she’s dancing.

“I have a lot of shoulder problems,” Holland said. “Last October, my right one fell out of its socket on stage and I had to put it back in while I was dancing, but I accidentally put my humerus bone over my socket instead.”

Since then, Holland has been in physical therapy for about two and a half hours per week in order to get her shoulder back to normal. During this time she’s had to think about what might happen if her shoulder never recovers and plan for what that might mean for her goals. 

“I’ve been thinking a lot about how realistic [dancing professionally] is with my body because it is extremely hard on your body,” Holland said. “But I’m good with pain. I never take a break dancing even when it falls out, I just put it back in and keep going. There have been [moments of doubt], but I always come back to dancing.”

Even with all of the competition and setbacks Holland tries to stay positive and focus on her dreams. Her dreams and love of dancing and performing have only grown as she’s gotten older.

“I love being on stage,” Holland said. “I mean, I love it. I would never be able to speak two words on stage. I can’t do speeches, but being on stage and doing what I love to do, makes me so happy. Every show makes me feel so good and I want to make others feel that way.”