TBCDE Student is "Driven"

15 year old Calley Skallnik is interviewed by Mike Simons of the Tulsa World. Watch the video here.

The evening sunlight hits Calley Skalnik as she sits on the floor of Tulsa Ballet Center for Dance Education.

She smiles as she stretches with others in the top level of the pre-professional division. She knows that at 15 she has already chosen a career with a 100 percent injury rate. She hopes the big injury doesn’t come until she’s ready to retire.

Sometimes she sees herself in the mirror during practice and thinks it’s good enough. Her teachers are quick to tell her it isn’t. She knows, “it seems harsh.” She appreciates it because, “you realize you can do more than you thought you could.”

She practices four and a half hours a day, 6 days a week. She attends a mixture of formal school and home school.

Her dream is to be in a professional company somewhere, “just to be able to get paid to do what you love; just to be an artist would be amazing.”