Sophomore Hope Jimenez sang quietly to herself as she finished the last problem on her Algebra 2 worksheet. Seeing that the bell would soon ring, she gracefully slipped out of her seat and half walked, half danced to turn her paper in the box at the front of the classroom, practicing her choreography for the next drill team dance as she did so.
Jimenez performs in theater, Varsity drill team and choir at school, as well as taking voice lessons at home.
“I love what I do with a passion,” Jimenez said.
With three school activities, all of which occasionally demand after school practice time, their schedules sometimes overlap.
“I usually go to the class other than drill team when two conflict because I have drill team right before school ends, and my teacher knows that I’m responsible enough to get my work done,” Jimenez said.
Not only does she act in theater, but also holds the titles of dance captain and choreographer for any show in which it’s needed, which allowed her to be nominated for a Betty Buckley Award for best choreography in the musical Urinetown, performed in 2014.
“I get to help with this because I’m the only person in drill team that’s involved in theater and that has a passion for pursuing theater,” Jimenez said.
She doesn’t just plan on pursuing theater during high school though. She also wants to follow through with it in college, majoring in musical theater and going on to become a choreographer for broadway plays.
“My house always has musicals such as The Phantom of the Opera playing, which is what first got me interested [in music and theater],” Jimenez said. “Music is a huge part of my life. I don’t know what I’d do without it.”
