Central Indiana Academy of Dance and Central Indiana Dance Ensemble Celebrate Senior Dancers

Central Indiana Academy of Dance and Central Indiana Dance Ensemble would like to offer special congratulations to their Senior dancers, graduating this year and going on to pursue their future dreams. These dancers have spent close to 20 to 24 hours a week in classes and rehearsals this year.  Every single one of them has been offered scholarship money to schools they applied to.

The Senior dancers include Olivia Doan, Gabby Linton, Ava Juleen, Caroline Smith, Lucy Devenney, Oriana Gonzalez and Taylor Ralston.

Olivia Doan graduated from Westfield and will be attending Butler University where she will major in Dance-pedagogy and arts administration. She began dancing at Central Indiana Academy of Dance in 2010 and joined Central Indiana Dance Ensemble in 2018. In the 2021-22 season, Olivia choreographed “Fernweh” which was performed by CIDE's Mixed Rep and RDA's Emerging Choreographer's Night. Olivia has attended Butler University Ballet's summer intensive in 2021 and 2022 and Regional Dance America's choreography intensive in 2022.

Gabby Linton graduated from Carmel High School and will attend Indiana University with a major in Biology and a minor in Spanish. Gabby has been dancing at Central Indiana Academy of Dance since 2011 and has been a member of CIDE since 2015.

Ava Juleen also is a graduate of Westfield High School. She will study ballet with an Outside Field in Exercise Science at Indiana University. Dancing since age 3, Ava began dancing at Central Indiana Academy of Dance in 2012 when she decided ballet was her passion. She joined CIDE in 2015. In recent years, she has attended Joffrey Texas, Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet and Kansas City Ballet's summer intensive programs. She has taken part in Butler University's High School Enrollment program with the dance department.

Caroline Smith is a graduate of Indiana Connections Academy. She will be a trainee at BalletMet, a professional ballet company and dance academy in Columbus, OH, and will attend online college courses. She joined Central Indiana Academy of Dance in 2012 and joined CIDE in 2015. Caroline has attended Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet's five-week summer intensive.

Lucy Devenney is a graduate of Carmel High School. She will attend Indiana University as part of the Hutton Honors College; she hopes to double major in biology and dance. Lucy began dancing at Central Indiana Academy of Dance at the age of five and joined Central Indiana Dance Ensemble at age 12. She has attended the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet's summer intensive as well as the Boston Ballet's Summer Dance Program in 2022.   

Oriana Gonzalez also graduated from Carmel and will be attending Saint Louis University- Madrid Campus, majoring in International Business and minoring in French. She has been dancing since age 4 and joined Central Indiana Academy of Dance in 2015 after

moving to Carmel from Virginia. She is in her sixth year as a member of Cide. Last summer she attended Joffrey Ballet Advanced summer intensive in Chicago and was offered a position in their pre-professional program.

Taylor Ralston graduated from Herron High School. Taylor will also attend Indiana University where she will pursue a double major in contemporary dance and cognitive science. Taylor began dancing at age 3, but at age 6 fell in love with ballet after attending Ballet 101 at Butler. She is in her second year at Central Indiana Academy of Dance. Taylor has attended summer intensives at Pennsylvania Ballet, Boston Ballet, Indiana University, American Ballet Theater and Sarasota Ballet.

Central Indiana Academy of Dance and Central Indiana Dance Ensemble congratulates these seniors and recognizes the extreme levels of hard work that they have put into their dance careers so far. They wish them all the best in future pursuits and are proud to have had these talented young women under their instruction.

To see more about the dancers and enjoy photos of their younger days in dance, visit the CIDE Facebook page.

Registration is now open for the Central Indiana Academy of Dance for the upcoming 2023 – 24 season. The new season will begin August 7, 2023.

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