By day, Sage Stinson is a junior at Canajoharie high school, but by night, she transforms into a ballet dancer.
Stinson’s love for dancing sparked when she was four-years-old and received Bella Dancerella for Christmas. With her own bar and mat, she began her journey as a ballet dancer.
Stinson didn’t take ballet seriously until her freshman year.
“I realized I wanted to focus more on ballet because it was a fundamental style of dance for everything else.”
Up until this year, she was performing all styles of dance. Stinson focuses on ballet every day of the week, except for Sundays, as she makes the small trek to Schenectady every day after school to practice her passion with Northeast Ballet Company.
Stinson will perform on stage with the company for its annual Nutcracker performance at Proctors from December 6 – December 8.
On Friday, December 6, Proctors hosts a special morning showing of the performance for students in different schools around the area then followed by a q&a session with the principal dancers such as New York City Ballet principal dancers, Lauren Lovette and Taylor Stanley.
After high school, Stinson is hoping to dance around the world or use her dancing to go into a double major with dance and psychology to do dance therapy.
“There is something about the performances that bring inspiration to me because I knew there was a time in my life where I was the little girl in the audience being like oh my god she has a tutu on and now it’s me up there,” Stinson said.
“I’m starting to realize how influential the arts are for a young child or a girl my age; how inspirational it can be to start dancing and how expressive it is. You can tell any story you can with dancing. I think that is awesome. Getting to perform at Proctors is huge and something I am very grateful for.”
See Stinson perform on Saturday, December 7, at 7 pm and Sunday, December 8, at 2 pm at Proctor’s Theater in Schenectady.