Third-year visual communications student Bryden Simmons never guessed that after 15 years of dancing experience she would ever be taking an introductory dance class again.
Simmons has been dancing since she was three years old and didn't stop until her freshman year of college. As a dancer, Simmons had to juggle what was basically a part-time job, school and a social life.
“I think my body needed the rest, because I had been going and going and going and never stopped. I danced all summer and I danced probably close to 24 hours in a week which like a part-time job,” Simmons said.
During that time, Simmons had three shows per year. She danced in a fall show "The Nutcracker" in the winter and a storybook ballet like "Cinderella" or "Sleeping Beauty" in the spring.
“'The Nutcracker' is always my favorite. I never get tired of it, even after being in it for so many years I still get excited about 'The Nutcracker' every year. It’s a part of my holiday tradition," Simmons said.
Growing up right outside of Atlanta, she knew she liked urban areas but wanted a change of scenery for her next four years out of high school. She chose USC for these reasons, and because her mother is from South Carolina. However, Simmons said she was initially attracted to USC for their dance program.
“I knew that [USC] had a well-known dance program and that it was actually a good program because you don’t really find good dance programs in state schools," Simmons said.
Still, she decided to use her small break from dancing to see if there was anything else she liked, but eventually found herself returning to dance.
During her small break from dance, Bryden was in the Capstone program. When she decided to pursue a dance minor during her sophomore year, she took an introductory ballet class and realized how out of practice she was.
“It’s not like riding a bike at all. I had to build all my strength back up because I had lost all the strength in my feet. It requires so much strength in your feet that you just forget about,” Simmons said.
Although one might assume taking an introductory class after a life of dancing would be frustrating, Simmons said it wasn’t. She said she was only one of about three students who had any dance experience, and her class got very close. Her favorite dance class she’s taken is West African dance, which she is enrolled in this fall.
Simmons is finishing her minor this semester, but she still plans to take the occasional class. She says she would really like to take ballroom dancing because she’s never done that.
As for her major, she takes classes and is an intern at Columbia City Ballet where she uses her visual communications skills to create emails and programs including advertisements. Although she has only just started working there this semester, she said she's fallen in love with the job.
“After even just working there for a month now, I think that I’d like to work for a bigger company, obviously. Columbia City Ballet only has five full-time employees that aren’t dancers. They have 30 dancers," Simmons said.
Simmons believes that a smaller company is a perfect start to finding a job in the future in the field. Simmons said she would like to go back to Atlanta and do what she is doing now at the Atlanta Ballet. She also said that it would also be fun to go to New York because she loves it but could only live in a city like that for about two years.
If a job at a dance company does not work out, she could see herself working for her hometown baseball team, the Atlanta Braves, where she's worked summer jobs before.