Julia Oudiz
Features Editor
Senior Molly DeSimone teaches dancing to little kids as a way to give back to her community and to pursue her love for dance.
DeSimone began taking dance classes for a few months when she was five years old, but she truly committed to dancing when she was 12, after realizing how fun it could be. She began her pursuit of dance at Dance 1 Studio in Redondo Beach.
“I started dancing because I wanted to do something after school and I loved the show ‘Dance Moms’ and thought it was really cool and fun,” DeSimone said. “My Mom thought I’d like it, so I thought I’d like it, and it turns out I did.”
DeSimone first got the opportunity to teach dance about two and a half years ago, when the owner of Dance 1 reached out to her and said that they needed someone to start subbing dance classes. Once the owner saw that she could handle a class, she let her start teaching her own classes, DeSimone said.
“Dance is just genuinely really fun and is so fulfilling to pass down my knowledge and love of dance,” DeSimone said.
For the most part, DeSimone teaches dance to students who are four and five years old. She currently teaches a ballet class for toddlers and a tap one class. She also occasionally works as a substitute for dance teachers and teaches their classes when they are absent.
“The hardest part is adapting to new classes, especially if I have one after the other when I am subbing for different ages, because there’s a huge difference when you’re teaching between three-year-olds and five-year-olds and their attention span and how much they know and are able to learn” DeSimone said.
DeSimone has been inspired by several people to dance, Beckanne Sisk, who was one of the dancers on the television series, ‘Breaking Pointe’. The show is about ballet students who dance together and compete with one another.
“Another one of my inspirations is Christopher Albrett,” DeSimone said. “He does the choreography for the Mira Costa spring musicals and I always love his choreography and his classes, and how he teaches us more about theater.”
Although DeSimone is currently teaching dance, she still attends one to two classes every week and takes part in the school musicals to improve on her own skills. She plans to major in dance in college and continue to teach it. She also hopes to work on doing more choreography.
“I like to teach dance because it’s just really fun getting to do what I love and sharing that with younger kids,” DeSimone said. “It’s fun and a great way to use my knowledge.”
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