AU's cheer and dance teams awe crowds with their balance, gymnastics, choreography and enthusiasm.
But for dance team senior Abby Masenheimer, those attributes stretch beyond the dance floor.
Over her four years, Masenheimer had to balance her time between schoolwork and dance team, perform academic gymnastics to accomplish her dream of going to law school, choreograph her days not to waste a moment and stay enthusiastic through painful knee injuries.
Masenheimer and AU's dance and cheer teams travel to Daytona, Fla. to compete in the national championship April 10 through 14, and it's a trip that the dancing senior almost didn't make.
"She stayed around when all of her other peers have not stayed around," Head Coach Rachel Southall said. "She could've quit a long time ago, and she stuck with it, kept improving and not only that, but balanced so much."
Perhaps Masenheimer's best balancing act occurred when there were no crowds. Between balancing her schoolwork at AU with the dance team, she also studied for the LSAT. Combine those factors with studying abroad last spring and dealing with knee and hip injuries, the senior thought about quitting.
"Well, to be honest, I almost quit the team multiple times," Masenheimer said. "But, I felt like each year I improved, and the team improved, and I stuck around mostly for my teammates and for my coach Rachel."
Masenheimer stuck around even after she began having knee problems her sophomore year, an issue that was a direct result of dancing.
The pain was at its worst when she had to run or walk up stairs. A doctor told her she had inflamed cartilage in both knees. As a result, Masenheimer was in physical therapy for six weeks during the summer before her junior year.
"Coming back to the team was pretty hard," Masenheimer said. "But when I was abroad I really missed dance and I really missed basketball season. So I made the decision that I was going to stick it out for one more year, and I'm really, really glad I did."
However, her knees have not fully recovered. Her doctor told her that it's extremely likely she'll need a double knee replacement when she's older.
With the dance team taking up about 15 hours a week of her time, Masenheimer had to find time to study for the LSAT so she could fulfill her childhood dream: going to law school. What she's learned from dance, though, also applies to her future studies.
"The biggest lesson I learned was time management," Masenheimer said. "You really need to balance your time properly. That's something I had to learn my freshman year. Dance is a really big time commitment."
Southall also sees how the four years on the dance team has prepared Masenheimer.
"She's the shining example of someone who just took a chance on the team and wanted to be a part of something bigger and something special in her college career," Southall said. "And she did it all. She'll be way ahead of her peers when she's out of college because she knows how to handle everything."
Full disclosure: Student Life Editor Samantha Hogan is on the AU dance team.
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