Isabelle Breier: Dancing Her Way To NYC

Breier began her dancing career in response to “being that little girl looking up on the stage and at the ballerina tutus.”

Jocelyn Garrity, Breier’s Junior School advisor, said of her dancing, “Isabelle is an incredibly focused and serious student and that intensity is apparent in her dancing as well, but so is joy. The first time I saw her dance I was impressed by what a professional performer she was (and at such a young age); her face truly showed the joy and bliss she feels while dancing.” 

Classics instructor John Anderson, who saw Breier perform last year in Manhattan, said, “Isabelle’s dancing is exquisite. Her strength, grace, and expressiveness are inspiring.  Her accomplishment is doubly remarkable: one because of amount of time she has sacrificed on the road and in studio in NYC the other because of the amount of single-minded, passionate energy she has invested in her art. It’s one thing to have the raw talent, it’s another to have the determination to develop that talent without compromise.”

Breier has kept with dancing so seriously because of her enjoyment of the sport. She said, “[While performing] it just all comes together and you can be in the moment and be proud of what you’ve achieved. It’s really something special. I also get to tell a story and it’s a great mode of self expression.” Her favorite production is “The Nutcracker,” because she has performed in it during so many holiday seasons. She said “‘The Nutcracker’ never loses its charm.”

Ballet does not have traditional “competitive teams” as other sports, or even other types of dance do. Breier said, “We do competitions and you can enter as a solo or as a group of two or as a team, but it’s not a competitive team.” Of the competitions she herself has placed in, Breier said, “I came in the top ten at the Connecticut Classic Competition in 2013 and 2014, received a special prize and scholarship at VKIBC in NYC in 2013, was a finalist at VKIBC in NYC in 2015, and was in the top-placing group piece at Tanzolymp International Dance Competition in Berlin in 2014.” Breier will continue to pursue dancing in college at a recreational level but she will not pursue it professionally. She says, “While ballet will always have a special place in my heart, Hopkins has honed a greater love of academics. I have an ever-growing fascination with biology and medicine that I plan to pursue.”

As one might imagine, dancing takes over most of Breier’s life. Math instructor Elisa Turner, Breier’s advisor, said, “[Dancing] has had a big impact on everything from how to squeeze in all of her school work while spending so much time each day, traveling to which classes she can take so that her schedule allows her to have her free periods at the end of the day, and even how to make adjustments when we have all of these special schedule days!”