Have you ever wanted to see the professional side of your sport? For Laina McMakin, she had the opportunity to dance with a professional ballet company for five weeks in Nashville.

“I lived with no parents for five weeks in the Belmont dorms. I had to learn how to take care of myself and live on my own,” Laina said.

For 1-5 weeks, kids ranging from ages 11-16+ can stay and learn training tips and things to help you reach your goal. The program’s available range is from Intermediate Program, Advanced Program and Pre-Professional Program. Laina participated in the Advanced program that is five weeks long, and hopes to return next year.

“When Lania learned about the training that she would need to have to be a professional dancer, she researched and knew she needed to audition, after being accepted she looked into each company she narrowed it down to the Nashville Ballet,” said Lania’s mom, Mrs. McMakin.

Laina has been dancing since she was 3, almost 11 years. She is determined to pursue dancing as a career in the future.

“I started when I was younger like how every little girl starts dancing and I kept with it. It starting as a hobby but I soon began to take it seriously and seeing it as a job for the future,” Laina said.

Leaving you home for five weeks is hard. Like leaving behind your family.

“It’s never easy to be away from your kids, especially when they are only 14 and its for five weeks,” Mrs. McMakin said. “Last year she trained with Nashville Ballet for two weeks and I stayed with her. So having seen first hand made the decision a little easier. I trusted the program and the people involved and knew I could be ready too. The hardest part was driving away knowing I won’t see her for five weeks.”

This experience shows you how this sport is taken to an extreme and if you really want to pursue it as a job. It also allows you to create lifelong friends.

“I have made great friends and some of them I still talk to,” Laina said.

However, getting to have this amazing opportunity, kids have to audition to get into the program. If you are accepted training is all day everyday from Monday to Saturday, after you have been placed in a group your level. Classes on the weekdays start at 9 a.m. and ends at 5 p.m. Classes on Saturday run from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.  At the end of the five weeks you get the chance to perform for you parents when they come to pick you up. If you want to a professional, this is the path you want to be on.

“Laina is on the right path right now to make it as a professional dancer,” Mrs. McMakin said. “I’m confident she will achieve her dreams someday, Perhaps it will be with the Nashville Ballet or somewhere else. Regardless of where she goes her dad and I couldn’t be prouder.”

Laina will continue to follow her dreams of being a professional dancer and sore to excellence.