Local dancer earns full acceptance to entertainment-focused college

MARQUETTE — Marquette Senior High School Junior Lauren Kurzawa has been competitively dancing since she was 10 years old, and now the sport she loves is providing her with a viable option to continue her education.

While attending the Fluid Dance Convention in Minneapolis last month, Kurzawa was awarded the Prestigious College Acceptance Award, and she is the only one to receive the honor out of hundreds of other dancers from across the nation. The award gives her full acceptance to Studio School in Los Angeles, California, formerly known as Relativity School.

“I was pretty in shock,” said Kurzawa. “I didn’t know what was going on really. I didn’t even know that getting a college acceptance was an option. So, when they were telling me, I was kind of just like ‘Okay, this is pretty crazy.’ I’m excited, though.”

Kurzawa currently dances at Studio Dance Arts in Marquette. She also teaches hip hop classes at the studio in her spare time.

Studio Dance Arts’s director, Ashley Tremblay, said Kurzawa is an asset to both the studio and the community.

“I always say ‘Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and, most of all, love of what you are doing and what you’re learning.’ That’s Lauren. Lauren puts everything into everything she does, whether it’s school or dance,” said Tremblay.

While a full college acceptance may make a high school junior’s post-college decisions a little bit easier, it has arguably made Kurzawa’s more difficult. She is currently weighing the options between two different fields.

“Now, at this point, I’m trying to decide between either becoming a biomedical engineer or pursuing dance,” she said. “I would love to be a back-up dancer for someone, or work at a convention would be super cool, or maybe own my own studio, like Ashley.”

If she chooses to attend Studio School, Kurzawa will receive a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Commercial Dance.