5...6...7...8

By Diana Curreri

“Wow. Um, well… I don’t really have one,” replied Kara Jordhoy when asked to explain a significant event in her life. “Honestly, I’m a pretty boring person.” I knew this could not be possible; there had to have been at least one life altering event in the past nineteen years of her life that stuck out more than any other. “Oh! I’ve been dancing since I was four. I love to dance.”

Kara Ann Jordhoy was born in Seoul, Korea on November 25, 1989. She was adopted at five months by the Jordhoy family from Chatham, NJ. At age two her family moved to Houston, TX and by age four she was put in dance classes for jazz, ballet, and tap. When her parents signed her up for dance classes, little did she know that this would be one of the most significant events of her life. It would also be just the start of her lifelong dancing career.

“It didn’t really start to get serious until sixth grade,” she recalled. In sixth grade, a girl on her school bus told her about the tryouts for the dance team. She competed against 200 girls to be picked for the following year’s junior high dance team. Only sixty girls would be chosen for the chorus line style dance they would perform. This was the first time dancing changed from a fun sport to a competitive one for her.

Just a year and a half later in eighth grade, Kara again found herself competing for a spot on the junior varsity dance team. Not only did she make the team, but she received officer position. In this position, she was responsible for choreographing entire dance routines, teaching the dances to the squad, and it allowed Kara to fix and change moves depending on the dancers’ abilities. This team competitively danced against other teams in the same category on local, state, and national levels. She also choreographed dances for football games and parades.

When high school came around, Kara knew dance would take up much of her time. In fact, she was on the varsity dance team all four years of high school and during her junior and senior years, she was given the title of captain.

Currently a freshman at Rutgers, she is double majoring in communication and social work with a minor in dance. Although she is not competitively dancing anymore, she is still practicing for a recital with the Rutgers Performing Dance Company, whose performance is at the end of the semester on Douglass Campus. “I do this because it is fun, I have such a love for it, and I’m really too busy with school to compete anymore.”

When looking back on her accomplishments with dancing, Kara stated, “Dance has taught me how to take criticism from other people. This has helped me motivate myself into trying harder and succeeding not only in dance, but in school as well.” Through dance, Kara clearly has the drive and motivation necessary to succeed wherever her future takes her.