As the winter season is filled with seniors finalizing their plans for life after high school, Avery Uitenbroek ‘26 has chosen a very different path than her peers. Uitenbroek will attend the CLI Conservatory, a 10-month competitive dance program in Southampton, Massachusetts.
“I’ll go out there, and I’ll live on my own in an apartment complex or in a little townhouse area. And then basically, I’ll be dancing Monday through Friday, and my days will go from like 9:30 to 5:30 or 6 every single day,” Uitenbroek said.
Uitenbroek’s classes at the conservatory will consist of dance technique, strength training and nutrition classes, but will also include financial and marketing education, such as learning how to audition and build a social media profile.
“…the point of doing all those [things] is obviously so I can keep up my training, but also so then I can connect with choreographers… It’s another great way to make connections, so then when you’re done with the conservatory, you know people out in the industry, and like when you go to audition, and when you go to work for jobs, you’ll have familiar faces around,” Uitenbroek said.
Competitive dancing is nothing new for Uitenbroek, as her dancing career began long before her plans to attend the conservatory.
“I started dancing when I was three years old, and I just started in, like, very beginner classes. I think I just started with maybe doing a ballet class and a tap class, and then as I got older, I started, you know, getting into more styles like jazz and hip hop, and the list goes on… By age 5, I started competing, and then from that point on, I’ve done competition ever since,” Uitenbroek said.
Competitive dancing at Uitenbroek’s level requires practice and discipline. On top of school work, show choir and other activities, Uitenbroek dances for multiple hours a day each week. Uitenbroek’s love for dance, however, remains steadfast.
“Something about it [dance] just gives me an adrenaline rush, and it just gives me a thrill. I’ve always just loved being able to perform and step into different characters and emotions, and, like, portray stories and different emotions through dancing. And so, my favorite part is being able to go on stage and to, like, share that with the audience, and just alongside it I’m with my friends, and I get to be with the people I love,” Uitenbroek said.
By the end of her junior year, Uitenbroek knew that she wanted to dance competitively in college. She knew she didn’t want to dance for a college dance team, and began looking at different alternative programs. Finding the CLI Conservatory, though, was unexpected for Uitenbroek.
“In the summer, I went to a nationals event for a dance company that I dance for, called NRG…and it turns out that there was a CLI scout there. I wasn’t even aware that I was auditioning, but basically, at the end of the week, I was rewarded a scholarship that gave me acceptance into the conservatory for the 2027 season, and gave me tuition off…and so that kind of just opened a door. From then, I looked a lot deeper into what the conservatory was and what it was about, and it was kind of just instantly, I was just like ‘I love that, and I think that’s where I want to go,’” Uitenbroek said.
Uitenbroek’s decision to attend the conservatory after high school, however, was also accompanied by feelings of doubt.
“It’s definitely not the traditional route, especially because everyone in my family has very much been, you graduate high school, you go to college, you get an education, and also, like, stay near in Iowa. All of my siblings, my parents, my cousins – they all stayed in state, near. So right off the bat, I feel like it was a really scary thought, thinking like, you know, I don’t really know what that’s going to be like, and also, you know, being around all my peers thinking about what they want to major in and talking about the colleges they’re applying for… it definitely has made me doubt, or just like think about, you know, will this work out? What is this going to be like? Because, you know, obviously I don’t have many people to relate to in that way,” Uitenbroek said.
Fortunately, Uitenbroek received her parents’ support for her decision to dance after high school.
“I think they were very intentional about making sure that I was confident and that [the conservatory] was what I wanted to do… When I told them that was what I wanted to do, they were like, ‘Okay, we’ll make that happen,’ like ‘we’ll support you in any way that we can.’ I will say, there’s definitely some other members of my family that were… just confused, because, you know…it’s difficult, because, what are you going to do then?… What are you going to do after that? And there really is no clear answer right now,” Uitenbroek said.
Despite the uncertainties that accompany her future, Uitenbroek is confident in her decision.
“I know how much I love to dance and how much I am determined and driven for that path, and so, I mean, wherever it takes me, I feel like I won’t regret my decision. [It’s] better to do it now than later, like I wouldn’t want to step away from dance and then, like, go back to it later. Like if I want to do it, I want to do it now,” Uitenbroek said.
After the conservatory, Uitenbroek hopes to be signed with an agency in either New York or Los Angeles. Both places are prominent art hubs in the country – New York centered on Broadway shows and musical theater, and Los Angeles on commercial dancing, movies, music videos and dancing for artists.
“I would say that I’m really looking forward to probably just seeing how I grow as a person…But I just feel like because it’s going to be such a big change from where I am right now and how my life is right now, I’m just interested to see what will I learn and how will my character kind of just develop as I go off on my own and make those decisions for myself… I’m going to meet so many people… Just overall, I just want to see how much different will I be from the person I am in high school to when I am going to be older and an adult working in the industry,” Uitenbroek said.
