1. Kelley Threlkeld
April 9, 2012
AP Lit
Mrs. Corbett
When I was three years old, my parents enrolled me in ballet class at the Woodstock
School of Ballet. I was captivated with the dance world from that moment forward. I knew I
wanted to continue dancing through my teen years, teach classes, and maybe own a studio one
day. I knew the dance aspects of running a studio, but the business end was foreign to me which
led me to doing my research paper on small businesses. I was very intrigued by all the factors an
entrepreneur needs to consider when selecting location and naming of the business. I also asked
my project facilitator, who owns her own studio a lot of questions involving running your own
business. For my senior project, I assisted with a children’s dance camp. I have a scrap book
documenting the camp and final performance at the end of the week. My journey with my
project helped me learn a lot about myself and my future career path.
First, I had to figure out a project, which is where my facilitator, Mrs. Dana S. Crain was
a great help. Mrs. Crain has training in Classical Ballet as well as Modern Dance. She began her
dance training with Stanley Zompakos and continued learning from many other teachers. She
danced professionally with the Carl Ratcliff Dance Theater of Atlanta. In 1992, she established
the Cherokee Ballet Theatre and is currently the owner of the Woodstock School of Ballet. She
has been my ballet and modern teacher as well as mentor since I was three years old. I
approached her wondering what kind of project I could do that would involve working with her
and the studio as a whole. She offered to allow me to assist with one of the children’s summer

2. dance camps, which I gratefully accepted. A few days after our annual recital, Mrs. Crain and I
decided on the Princess and the Frog theme and I got started right away on the script.
Next, when I sat down to write the script, which you will find at the end of my
scrapbook, I was at a loss as to how I could write a story for many girls based on a story of just
one princess. After a talk with my facilitator, we came up with a perfect solution because we
both knew it wouldn’t be fair to have just one princess. We made all the girls friends that want
to own a restaurant but get turned in to frogs on accident, but after a little self-evaluation they get
to be princesses in the end. As I continued writing, I thought about all the valuable lessons I’ve
learned because of dance that are completely unrelated to dancing, such as: the value of
friendship, patience, individuality, and appreciating what I have to work with in life. There are
so many valuable friendships I’ve gained from dancing; I don’t know what I would do without
them. I’ve learned to be patient and persevere because I know you have to work hard at
something to get results. I learned in modern classes from Mrs. Dana, that individuality gives a
dance a certain emotional affect that can take it from choreography to art, this has transferred
into my everyday life as well. I have terrible extension, but my teachers tell me that I have an
expressive face and upper body, so I work with that to make my dancing look as good as it can,
but it also taught me that just because I’m not good at one thing doesn’t mean there aren’t
thousands of other things I’m good at doing. Thankfully, I found ways to incorporate these
aspects into the camp and the moral in the script. Once I put the finishing touches on the script I
was anxious and excited to start the camp.
On the first day, I taught a ballet class in the morning. Then the girls decorated princess
crowns and colored a picture. After lunch, we watched part of The Princess and the Frog movie,
and I asked each of the girls what their favorite parts of the movie were. Later, we worked on

3. choreography for the show. On the second day, I taught ballet class, and I allowed the girls to
pick out their own princess names, which ranged from their regular names to Princess Purple or
Princess Sparkle Rainbow. Then, we practiced the choreography we learned the day before.
After lunch, we colored pictures, watched another part of the movie, made sparkly bead
necklaces, and learned another dance for the show. On the third day, I taught ballet class, we
finished the movie, and decorated the ladybugs and butterflies to hang from the ceiling in the
swamp studio. After lunch, we colored pictures, learned the speaking roles for the show, and
rehearsed what we knew so far. On the fourth day, I taught ballet class, all the girls tried on the
frog costumes, and decorated their folders and bags. After lunch, we practiced the dances,
learned a new dance, practiced our lines for the show, and read The Frog Prince. After all the
girls left, I stayed to set up and decorate the studios for the show. One studio was the café,
where the girls initially become frogs and the other was the swamp where they turn into
princesses. On the last day, I taught ballet class, the girls tried on their princess costumes, we
organized all of our crafts, and practiced all of our dances and lines. After lunch, we ran the
whole show twice, and then when the parents arrived, we performed the show. The girls were all
so happy and the parents loved it. I couldn’t have been happier with the way it turned out.
Finally, after the camp was over I started making a scrapbook to document the camp. I
chose to make a scrapbook because I thought it would be something fun and creative to make
and also because after I was done using it for Senior Boards, I could give it to my dance studio to
display as advertisement for future summer camps. I organized it to document all the activities
the kids did at the camp in order. I ran in to a little trouble at the beginning of my scrapbooking
experience because I had never even attempted making a scrapbook before, but after a few truly
awful pages and some wasted stickers, I was very satisfied with the way it turned out.

4. When I was completely done with every aspect of my project, I reflected a lot on what I
had learned from the experience and how I had grown as a person. I learned that while I enjoy
teaching some children and have gained a lot of patience for them, there are many that I just do
not have patience to deal with. I learned how to make a ballet class more geared to children so
they stay interested. I discovered a variety of ways to deal with children who are poorly behaved
or don’t want to dance, which I have used in the classes I teach on a weekly basis at the
Woodstock School of Ballet. I also learned how to help a person that has never danced before
learn basic moves, which has helped me in choreographing not only beginning ballet students but
also the show that my musical theatre class is working on right now. After writing the script and
later hearing feedback from parents I was pleased to find out that the subtle morals that were in
the script were appreciated by them and that they were glad to have someone like me as a role
model for their children. In doing this project, I realized that while I enjoy dance, I don’t really
want to own a studio. The business end isn’t as fun as I thought it would be and starting my own
studio would be very costly and risky. I will definitely continue teaching when my schedule
allows, but owning a studio is just not something I want to commit to doing. I’m glad I was able
to discover so much about myself and my career path from doing my senior project. Thank you
for generously offering your time and attention, are there any questions?