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Maliah Hassler, a Bellwood-Antis senior, has been dancing outside of school at Dance Fusion in Tyrone for over 13 years.

Dance has been a huge aspect in the life of Maliah, who started twirling around the stage when she was just 5 years old.

“Dance is a stress reliever and it truly has shaped me into the person I am today,” says Maliah.

Maliah currently takes lyrical, hip hop, modern, and jazz classes, throughout the week with lyrical being her favorite. As well as being a student in those classes, she also becomes the teacher for a pre-ballet class. She teaches the little kids techniques,  dance moves, and choreographs the dances they perform during the recital.

Maliah’s biggest dance accomplishment is getting her lyrical teacher’s first ever platinum and 1st overall. Along with that, she is very proud of just placing high and sweeping awards at multiple competitions.

Maliah dances around 8 hours a week now, but used to dance 20 hours a week when she did competition dancing.

She started competition dancing when she was 10 years old all the way up until high school. She spent her whole weekends and weeknights dancing and competing and although she loved it, she decided to go back to regular dancing because she needed to focus on other areas of her life. Maliah still misses competitive dancing but she enjoys her classes now.

Maliah’s biggest mentor has been her dance teacher, Ms. Lindsay Pullara because, “she always pushes me to my fullest potential.” One of her fondest memories from dance is the pray-and-stretch circles with all the girls and teachers before a show starts.

After performing on the Bellwood-Antis stage last week in the Dance Fusion’s Christmas recital, Maliah’s last ever dance recital will be in May, once again in Bellwood’s auditorium! Good luck Maliah!