By Catherine Kierce | Associate Editor
Tensely straightened bodies are suspended above the floor, supported only by open palms placed at shoulders length apart and outstretched toes. “It’s all a mental game,” the teacher instructs as her dancers’ muscles begin to quiver. Toned abdomens begin gently dropping to the floor, strong shoulders giving out from stress.
Towards the back of the darkened dance studio, one dancer remains in position, body shifting occasionally, but showing no signs of dropping from her plank. Sweat begins to gleam on her shoulders as she holds the stance with a rare determination. It becomes evident in and out of the studio what sets Maddie Stewart apart.
At the end of practice, Stewart gathers her belongings and puts her shoes back on alongside fellow dancers. Small talk and scheduling takes over what was previously a focused studio. “I think I’m gonna get a bagel, eat it really fast, and then come here,” Stewart explains to the young woman beside her. She puts her arms through the grey straps of her backpack, the front of which is covered with pins and ribbons of various campus organizations and activities. The water bottle she slides into the side drink holder of the bag appears the same way, with an array of tattered stickers covering the entire bottle.
It would be impossible to guess that the young woman who held the longest plank position in the class had recently recovered from shoulder surgery. One also couldn’t guess that her backpack appears so stuffed with clothes because she had to execute a quick outfit change in Rodgers before rehearsal, as she was coming straight from a meeting about her upcoming service trip to Nicaragua. At first glance, it’s clear that Stewart is busier than the average college sophomore. Below the surface, however, lies far more meaning in each everyday task she takes on.
A New Hampshire native, Stewart is currently a sophomore business marketing major with minors in dance and communications at Salve Regina University. If that course load isn’t busy enough, she also participates in Extensions Dance Company and SRU Dance, as well as holding a student employment position at the school’s student call center, where current students reach out to alumni for donations to the school. Stewart stays active in her free time as well, going for runs and attending yoga classes with fellow dancers.
Despite the fullness of her schedule, each activity in Stewart’s life seems to synchronize with the next. Life, however, was not always this way.
Stewart began dancing at the age of 4, and fondly recalls jumping around with ribbons in the basement classroom of a dance studio. From there, she progressed around age nine to a competition-based dance setting. “I used to be passionate about competitions,” Stewart describes of her mindset. “I loved to win, I loved having the trophy, and that was something that pushed me in my head to win.”
Devoting ample time to dance was always a necessary component to success, but it was not always the easiest choice. “There were plenty of times in middle school and high school where I just wanted to be at the basketball games with my friends, but I was in the studio practicing for a competition,” Stewart remembers. Looking back, she has never regretted a single moment spent practicing, as it paid off both longterm and short.
She remembers one occasion where she did not put in the practice time for a solo piece, and this showed when she forgot the steps during the performance. “I was making it up as I went, it was awful!” Stewart says. She had to perform the same piece the next day, and she describes going home that night and practicing in front of a mirror until she was confident. “To this day, I go back and watch the video of me performing it the second day and I’m like, ‘You did good Maddie,’” Stewart recalls.
Besides her own dedication to the sport, significantly shaping Stewart’s dance journey is having two sisters who share the same passion. Stewart and her older sister Lexie Stewart reflect on a performance they danced in together as a powerful point in both their relationships with dance and with each other. While on stage, they locked eyes, and both sisters felt a connection that was beyond words. “It was a moment when time stopped, and it was just the two of us,” describes the older Stewart sister.
“I always wanted to be the best, but I also wanted my sister to be the best too,” shares Lexie Stewart, recalling the unique dynamic dance has placed on their relationship.
Neither of their parents ever pushed them into being dancers; Maddie Stewart describes dance as a passion the three sisters naturally grew into on their own. When entering college, she feared her inner fire for dance might begin to burn out. The opposite turned out to be true.
“The Salve dance community is small but it’s powerful,” Stewart describes. Her focus in dance shifted from a competitive mindset to an individual one, focusing more on finding her own style than on receiving the highest score. Stewart describes feeling more passionate about dance than ever before: “Salve has pushed me in the creative sense, along with being an athlete like I was trained.”
During her time at Salve, she hopes to become a part of the executive board for SRU dance. Stewart’s current Extensions dance instructor and Salve alumni Cayley Christoforou sees huge potential in Maddie, saying “She is one of the ones who takes it seriously no matter what. I can definitely see Maddie being a great representation of the dance program if she continues to have that push and drive. She is one to watch out for.”
After graduating college, Stewart plans to audition for a professional dance company and spend a number of years traveling and performing. Eventually, she sees herself slowing things down and entering the field of arts administration, working in a public relations or marketing position also for a dance company.
For now, Stewart remains not only in the classroom and studio, but also out in the world helping others. She not only volunteers her time on a local level by teaching dance classes, over her winter break from college she will be traveling to Nicaragua for a week to volunteer at an orphanage for disabled children with a group of fellow Salve students.
“If you’re in tune with yourself, you’re able to feel good, and then you can give that to somebody else,” Stewart describes of the activities she chooses to fill her schedule with. On what enables her to offer her best side to the world, Stewart says, “In the studio, when I’m sweating in shorts and a tank top, is when I feel the most powerful. When I feel this, I can then allow that energy to flow into everything else.”
