Brittany Hyslip

Brittany Hyslip is a new dance teacher at the high school this year. She taught for nine years before starting here. At the high school, she seeks to make dance a reflective and mindful practice.

How did dancing become a reflective practice for you?
When I was younger, I would just learn a new dance performance and then move on. Then when I was in college, I had a ballet professor who made us journal, and it changed my perspective as to why we do things and how even sitting and thinking about it can help you become a better dancer, but also a better human in a lot of ways. I now make my students journal biweekly in class.

Do you have any words of advice to anyone aspiring to dance or any sport?
Just to keep up with it. Even on days that you feel bad about yourself or that you’re not good enough, it’s fine to step away for a minute or for a day, but you know it’s going to pay off once you get back in there and keep working. Definitely from a professional dancer standpoint, you want to start auditioning. You’ll get 10,000 no’s before you get a yes sometimes, but you got to get through those no’s in order to get to where you want.

What is your favorite part about teaching?
Building relationships with students, as well as going to school-held activities, like sporting events.

What impact do you want to have on your students?
I just want to help students use art as a way to gain confidence and see who they are as a person because that’s what dance gave me. It helped me grow into the human that I am now.