PA College Magazine - Fall 2022 - 4

TEACHING &
LEARNING
Professional Dancer
Trades Pointe
Shoes for Imaging
Equipment
By Rochelle A. Shenk
Stretching, flexibility, dedication and
keeping on her toes is something
Carleigh Denlinger '23, a student in
our Associate in Radiography degree
program, knows all too well. She has
studied ballet since the age of 3, and
she was invited to Russia to train
with Moscow's famed Bolshoi Ballet
Academy at 15 years old.
Before that coveted invitation, she
trained with the Bolshoi in the US
during their " summer intensive "
programs. " Training with the Bolshoi
Ballet Academy [in Moscow] was like
an international boarding school; we
lived there and we had classes there, "
Carleigh says, " Sometimes I was
homesick, but I was doing something
I loved and the training was rigorous.
The coolest part about taking class in
Bolshoi Ballet Academy is knowing
that famous dancers have trained in the
same studios and studied with many of
the same instructors. "
Carleigh not only completed Bolshoi
Ballet Academy's four-year academic
program in Russia, she also graduated
from Lampeter-Strasburg School
District in 2015 - completing her
sophomore, junior and senior classes
via cyber school. She learned to speak
4
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Russian and now has an appreciation
of the culture thanks to her time in the
Academy.
" Most people don't speak English,
so I learned Russian; it's not an easy
language to learn, " she says.
Russia, and the city of Moscow, have
a different vibe than Lancaster or even
New York City. " My classmates at the
Academy who lived in Moscow took
mass transit to school. They would
leave their homes wearing one set of
clothes, change into their uniform at
the academy and then change back into
their traveling clothes to go home, "
Carleigh says, " Because their economy
isn't as good as ours, Russians have to
work longer and harder for things that
we {Americans} would simply purchase
and put on our credit cards. "
One of those items is American blue
jeans. " Levis and American blue jeans
were popular-they really love them, "
she says with a smile.
" My goal since I was little was to
dance professionally in Russia,
and I did just that. I danced with the
Moscow State Ballet's corps de ballet
for three years, dancing throughout
Russia as well as touring Germany.
I also had an opportunity to see a
number of tourist sites like Saint
Petersburg. I saw the Kremlin and often
crossed Red Square, " Carleigh says.
Ballet was always and still is a passion
for Carleigh, but she re-examined her
goals during the COVID-19 pandemic.
" The COVID-19 shutdown in Moscow
began two or three weeks later than it
did here. Everyone was quarantined.
You couldn't go anywhere, especially
if you relied on mass transit since
that was operating under different
regulations, too. I had to wait for two
months to get a flight home since the
borders were closed, " Carleigh says.
Once she got home, she considered the
next phase of her life. " The whole world
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PA College Magazine - Fall 2022

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