All of her thoughts are gone and the music fills the room as she dances her way around the room. Leaping and hitting the perfect triple during the fast tempo before the song ends.

Freshman Alisha Khatwani is a full-time dancer at MÜV Dance & Fitness and she dances around 15 hours every week. Küpe and MÜV Cru are companies that are big part of her dancing, and she may also tack on Star Steppers this year as well. These companies are for different styles or types of dance that she is really strong in. Keeping up with all of these companies would be very difficult because she is brand new to high school so it is a brand new experience.

“I enjoy MÜV a lot, I have been there for two years and I tried out for Flüid two years ago because I was only dancing for a year before that,” freshman Alisha Khatwani said. “Then I kept dancing there and last year I auditioned and I made it.”

Khatwani has on average about 13 classes every week and spends 16 hours a week dancing on top of school and homework in just her freshman year.

“The workload is the same as eighth grade but the work and the activities I do outside of school causes me to not get a lot of sleep, so then I get bad grades on tests sometimes,” she said.

Khatwani is in the drill team prep class at school and is planning on auditioning for Star Steppers on top of her dance classes outside of school.

“I don’t think I will end up being on all four because if I make Star Steppers, then I would maybe do two other companies and work up to the MÜVment. I might do Star Steppers, the MÜVment, and Küpe or different variations of them. But I know for sure that I want to do Kupe because ballet is my favorite style and it’s really helpful in dance to know,” Khatwani said.

Being on these companies have really impacted Khatwani’s dance life and have helped her grow as a person mentally and physically. As a dancer, these three companies are unique and different because there are different teachers and you have required classes for each so you get to spend a lot of time in classes you may not have liked before.

“This helps me grow because it helps me do many things at a small amount of time. As a person, it helps me organize because if I am not organized and I have a test the next day then I will do badly in school because school is very important to me. If there is a call for two of my companies at the same time I have to communicate with my directors and organize how I will get everything finished. This will help me in the future as well,” Khatwani said.

Khatwani surprised herself because she tried out for all three companies in one year. Auditioning for all three was a total surprise because she had never done point.

“I knew I wanted to try out for Flüid at the beginning of the school year last year so that I was working up to anyways. And so I was like might as well try out for MÜVCru at the same time. I didn’t think I would try out for Küpe because I wasn’t on point when I tried out and you are required to be on point. When I tried out for Flüid, all of the directors were like, “You are so good at ballet you should try out for Küpe,” and so I was just like “Why not?” I will try out and worst case I won’t make it. For MÜVCru I wanted to try out because I tried out the year before because I always liked hip-hop. So Flüid and MÜVCru I knew I was going to try out for, Küpe I didn’t know I was going to try out for. I didn’t think I would make all three or make Fluid at the very least but I ended up trying out for all of them and making everyone and that was surprising to me,” Khatwani said.

Auditions and tests can pressure a bunch of people to either perform at their best or their worst. Khatwani had to go through two in a row for MUV.

“Tests and auditions really stress me out a lot. So I was freaked out and it was on a Friday after I had a long week of school and the day I tried out for MÜVCru I had Fluid right after so they were back to back. I was trying out with the younger girls because I had 8th grade formal that day as well so I had to rush and I couldn’t take pictures for that either. On Thursday, I felt very prepared because I had a lot of sleep the night before. In the actual audition itself, it was stressful because I felt like every move I made was being watched even if they weren’t watching me dance,” Khatwani said.

Even though she is auditioning for Star Steppers, her heart is always going to be at MÜV.

“I dance a lot and it’s a place where I can just let loose and be myself,” Khatwani said.  “It’s very relaxing especially when I have a stressful evening before I get to relax and dance.