Dancer Spotlight: Mariah Bennett

One of our greatest pleasures in working with dancers is meeting so many young ladies who have a passion for creating and sharing beauty with the world. Mariah Bennett is a lovely young woman from North Carolina who fell in love with dance the moment she first stepped out on stage at 3 years old and has been creating beauty on stage and off ever since. Now in her tweens, this pre-professional, multi-award winning ballerina is feeling the glow of the spotlight, but also feeling how it can burn. "I made a lot of friends at dance but as I grew older it got more competitive and a lot of girls mistreated one another," she tells us. The more the accolades came her way, the more the envy and jealousy turned longtime friendships sour. Her studio, always a place of joy and creativity, had become a place of hurt and sorrow. Mariah eventually chose to move to a different studio where she is making her voice heard, insisting, "Instead of picking out each others faults, being envious, or jealous, and down right being mean to each other, we should be each others biggest fans. We should cheer each other on!" And she is leading by example. Her classmates regularly hear her words of encouragement. Her Instagram feed is filled with positive motivations. She never hesitates to comment on the beauty and form of those around her. She is becoming a woman who