Meet Class of 2011 Salutatorian Samantha Pankiw

Dancing has been a huge part of Samantha Pankiw’s life since she was just three years old and now this recent high school graduate is on her way to one of the top dance programs in the country at Point Park University in Pittsburgh.

“Dancing has taught me to work hard no matter what,” said Pankiw, the salutatorian of the Hasbrouck Heights High School, Class of 2011. Although she knew she was not going to pursue an academic major in college she would still push herself to work as hard as she could in school.

Pankiw said she was extremely lucky to get into the Point Park University program which takes 30 out of 1,000 dancers who auditioned. She also knows she is fortunate to know exactly what she wants to do with her life and will begin to train for it on the first day she starts at the university.  For the first semester instructors chose their classes for the program. Pankiw will take 15 dance classes and one English class in the fall.

Pankiw has been dancing with the Unique Performing Arts Center in West Orange. She dances in regional and national competitions all over the country. She earned a title with Dancers Inc. which gave her to the opportunity to perform in Disney World where she got to work with choreographers who are now on the TV show “So You Think You Can Dance.” She would love to tryout for that show herself one day.

Pankiw said she even got to perform at a halftime show at Knicks game.  She is currently preparing for a National dance competition which will take place  in about a week.

In her 14 years of dance she has performed every style of dance there is but she will focus her study on jazz dancing. She would love to perform, choreograph and even teach dance in the future.

 Pankiw didn’t fall in love with dance immediately. In fact when she was 3 years old, her mother put her in dance class and Pankiw said she absolutely hated it. She took about a year off and suddenly began begging her mother to let her take dance again. She went back and she hasn’t stopped dancing since.

Pankiw said she was involved in many clubs in high school. She was part of the student council, Key Club, National Honor Society and R.E.B.E.L. (Reaching Everyone By Exposing Lies) an anti-drug and alcohol group. She also participated in Heroes and Cool Kids, a program that prepares sixth grade students for high school educating them with anti-bullying, and anti-drug messages.

Looking ahead into the future, she wants to perform in just about any opportunity she can and eventually would love to dance with a contemporary jazz company and maybe even start her own one day.