Every little girl at one time dreams about being a ballerina dancing on stage in a glittering tutu, but senior English major Melissa Welsh was reluctant to become part of the mold. She found her own creative style and her passion for life and dance shine through every obstacle in life.
Melissa, a Pennsylvania native, started dancing when she was young girl at Touch of Class dance studio in Broomall, Pa. “I started dancing when I was 3 years old like every little girl does and I hated it! I danced for four years. I kicked and screamed my way into that studio every week. I hated it,” said Welsh.
Melissa comes from a strong family tradition of dance. Her grandfather set the stage with his fascination of his childhood dance “the jitterbug”, which she says he’d often did around the house. Melissa also has a three year old niece that is currently learning how to dance. She says the little girl is so excited to start dancing that she yells “I go dance! I go dance!”
You can say dancing was in her blood from birth.
“My influences would definitely be my sister, she is 14 years older than I am. She danced her whole life, so I always saw her on stage,” said Welsh. Like many younger sisters, Melissa wanted to emulate the movements of her older sister,but lacked the poise to dance ballet. As to avoid conflict over her less than perfect ballet abilities Melissa stopped dancing. “I stopped for a long time, I wanted to do the kind of dance that I wanted to do,” said Welsh.
During the time that Melissa was away from dancing, she played sports. She played any sport imaginable; basketball, soccer, softball, field hockey and volleyball. Melissa wanted to stay physically active and involved. It wasn’t until she was 13 that she finally returned to dance. She enrolled in a hip-hop class and was immediately hooked.
Welsh evolved her love for dance in to a unique hip-hop style.
Accepted students day was the first experience Melissa had with dance at Cabrini. She watched the dance team in Nerney Field House. The company at the time had a jazzy style that involved leaps and aerobatic movements. Melissa was again reminded that this type of dance wasn’t for her. “I’m not a graceful person and I knew I couldn’t fake it in front of all these people,” said Welsh.
Despite being reluctant of the type of dance she would be doing at Cabrini, Melissa joined the formally named Cabrini College Contemporary Dance Company her freshman year.
Dance for Melissa hasn’t always been an easy road. Like many dancers, Welsh has suffered from injuries. Melissa has a long history of knee issues that challenged her collegiate career. Each year of performance at Cabrini included a injury that forced the dancer to the sidelines.
In her junior year, Melissa decided co-create a new and revived dance company at Cabrini, but she got hurt. This was the last step for Welsh. “I ended up having my knee surgery last April,” said Welsh. The surgery negatively impacted the group forcing them to cancel the spring recital. Even thought the rest of the company was upset about the cancellation, they were all more concerned about recovery of their captain.
In her final semester at Cabrini, Melissa is avenging everything she has worked for in the past. Melissa and Lauren Hight, junior communication major and co-captain, planned to build the dance company again from the ground up. A change in name to the Cavalier Dance Company and Melissa’s new role as choreographer are among the first changes.
Melissa can no longer perform due to her medical injuries, but she finds happiness in choreographing for the Cavalier Dance Company and inspires everyone in the company, making dance practices fun and exciting.“Dance for me is fun, it is a way to express myself and be who I really am.”
In less than 100 days Melissa will be an official graduate of Cabrini. Although she will not be able to complete her experience as a dancer, she will always be known as a compassionate captain for those in the company, a choreographer and a dancer at heart.
