By GRACE POLANECZKY – Staff Writer
A series of twists and turns lead Asela Eatenson to take her passion for dance to the trapeze bar.
Clarke Central High School sophomore Asela Eatenson isn’t quite “normal” compared to the rest of her peers. She has attended seven schools, moved all around the country and even lived with her teachers, all for one reason: her deep passion for dance.
“I don’t think I was meant to be the normal kid,” Asela said.
Asela was born in Santa Fe, N.M. where she began dancing at age three. By eight she knew she wanted to spend her life dancing, brimming with the determination it took for her to make her dream a reality, accepting whatever actions she might have to take in order to get there.
“There weren’t any professional studios (in Santa Fe),” Asela said. “My ballet teacher told my parents about where she was trained in Pennsylvania, so I went there for a summer and I loved it.”
After the summer she spent at the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet in Carlisle, Pa., Asela made the decision to move there with her mom and focus on dance.
“My dad couldn’t move because of his job, he’s a lawyer. My mom could move, because her job was me,” Asela said. “I went to 3rd and 4th grade in Pennsylvania and that’s really where I think I got my technique for dance.”
“When people clap for me and are like ‘This is amazing!’ it’s great and all that, but really it’s never for me, it’s for my mom. Without her none of this would’ve ever happened.” – Asela Eatenson, sophomore
After two years of living in Pennsylvania and conditioning herself as a dancer, Asela’s mother was diagnosed with lupus, an autoimmune disease, and wanted to be closer to her family back in New Mexico.
“We moved to Houston so I could go to Houston Ballet and she could be closer to her family. There was a really good doctor for her there, so it was kind of win-win.”
But Houston didn’t have what Central Pennsylvania had. In the two years that she lived in TX, Asela felt as though she was moving backwards instead of forwards. That summer, she attended a summer program in Washington, DC at a ballet boarding school – one of the best in the country. She moved in to the boarding school there later that year.
“I fell in love with it,” Asela said. “I improved so much that year. Instead of going to school I would dance all morning.”
Things changed again.
DC was expensive and Asela’s sister got a job at the University of Georgia and was in need of support from their parents.
“I had a choice of staying and boarding there or moving here and, I think at that time I didn’t really think I could live alone, I was in eighth grade and I wasn’t really getting the education I needed which was one of the factors,” Asela said. “So we moved to Athens.”
Asela moved to Athens at the start of her eighth grade year and began school at Athens Academy.
“Socially I didn’t fit in and academically (Athens Academy) was really hard because I had to catch up that whole year on top of the all the work they gave me,” Asela said. “And then I found a studio called the International City School of Ballet.”
Asela immediately dedicated herself to dance, commuting to the school in Warner Robbins, Ga. every weekend. During long weekends, she would stay with her teachers, Georne Aucoin and Musashi Alvarez.
After two years of living in Pennsylvania and conditioning herself as a dancer, Asela’s mother was diagnosed with lupus, an autoimmune disease, and wanted to be closer to her family back in New Mexico.
That summer, Asela lived with her teacher, training every day for hours and hours. It was decided that for her freshman year she would homeschool and live with her teacher.
“The training was a lot on my body. I had really high anxiety and I looked up to my teacher so much,” Asela said. “It was a really weird dynamic.”
Asela wasn’t getting the quality education that she needed at a high school level. She was only doing academic work for around two hours a day, and the intensity of the training was painful. She missed her home, her friends and her family.
“My mom and dad and I felt like, ‘Well, dance is always an option but your education is not. To get a job you need your education.’ So we came back here and I refused to go back to a private school, so they agreed to let me go to (Clarke Central High School),” Asela said. “It’s been great but to be honest there’s this huge hole in my heart and there always will be. I regret and I have a lot of anger, I blame my family a lot for making me move here.”
The second semester of her freshman year, Asela found herself at a low point,dreaming of dance and unable to fulfill her passion.
“My mom, I think she just saw me being really depressed and missing dance so she heard about Canopy. It’s trapeze, aerial, it’s fabrics and pole (dancing) – it’s like circus. I was really resistant, I didn’t want to go at all but she had heard from a dancer that went there that it gave her the joy that she felt when she danced. So my mom and I made an agreement that if I went to one class and I didn’t like it I would never have to go back,” Asela said. “But I liked it.”
From there, Asela took her experience as a dancer and willpower as an artist and manifested it in her aerial work. She progressed quickly, fitting right into the community at Canopy and working with other young aerialists.
“I love helping Asela,” sophomore and fellow intermediate aerialist Mara Bastow said. “She’s so talented and it’s a way for us to be closer.”
“I have the knowledge that a professional dancer would have just because I’ve trained with the best in the world,” Asela said. “I’ve only been doing it for a year and I’m already an intermediate, I’ve improved a lot.” said Asela.
Throughout the chaos, stress, transitions and moving, her mom has been one constant in Asela’s life that has influenced her most.
“(My mom) completely gave up her life for me to dance. I didn’t really think about that but it’s completely true and I won’t ever be able to thank her enough for that,” Asela said. “When people clap for me and are like ‘This is amazing!’ it’s great and all that, but really it’s never for me, it’s for my mom. Without her none of this would’ve ever happened.”
