When Annabelle Hunter ’24 was 2, she had her first dance recital.

It was a Mommy-and-Me ballet class, and at the grand finale, Annabelle exited the stage and ran straight up to her mom Erin who was off to the side.

“She immediately said, ‘How can I do that again?’” Erin recalled.

Most people are lucky if they discover their passions as they enter adulthood. Some people are blessed to find their passion much earlier. Annabelle Hunter discovered hers before she entered elementary school.

“My parents put me into dance when I was little,” Annabelle recalled. “And it just really stuck with me. It was something I never wanted to stop doing.”

She hasn’t stopped. From that first dance studio in Wake Forest, through her time at Ravenscroft and on to the big city of New York and all the way to Paris, France, Annabelle’s dancing feet have taken her to places she never would have imagined years ago after that first recital.

Annabelle has given her life to dance, and in return, doors have opened that have allowed her to continue to chase her dreams. In high school, she didn’t realize there was a career path in dance. She thought at some point it would all end, that she would attend college with her friends and maybe join a dance team. She was almost headed to Clemson, the school of choice for the Hunter family.

But when she discovered she could have a career in dance and began pursuing that right after high school, it was a done deal.

“I was like, I don’t want to stop,” Annabelle said.

Annabelle is currently enrolled at Northeastern University, New York City, one of the top performing arts schools in the world. She went from being in a small studio, where she was used to getting a lot of leading parts, to being surrounded by elite dancers from all over, really testing herself each day.

“I’ve met so many different dancers, and I really just do my best to try to soak in and take in and absorb literally everything from everyone I can,” Annabelle said. “I really feel like I’m a completely different dancer than I was in high school, in a really good way. It’s so diverse here.”

FROM PARIS WITH LOVE

Last year, Annabelle sat down with her adviser to map out how she wanted her summer to look. 

They talked about a few options, and her adviser mentioned a summer intensive, which is like a training camp for dancers, in Paris. Annabelle sent in a video audition and got the call that she was accepted.

Her summer intensive was with the Martha Graham Dance Company, the oldest professional dance company in the United States. Annabelle had recently started to familiarize herself with the Graham codified technique, created by Graham herself and considered the first fully codified modern dance technique.

“It was fairly new to me,” Annabelle said. “But it was amazing. Definitely hard, but I learned so much. I met so many people from all over the world. Some of the best dancers I’ve ever seen. I got to learn so much.”

It wasn’t lost on Annabelle that her time at Ravenscroft prepared her not only for the big stage over the summer in Paris, but also for the daily competition she faces in New York City.

“My teachers at Ravenscroft really taught me how to show up prepared,” Annabelle said. “I was able to present the best version of myself at every audition and interview, and pretty much everything that it does with college, I was prepared. I was overly prepared.”

Annabelle shared photos from Paris, including an amazing shot of her in front of the Eiffel Tower. She admitted there have been moments when she’s paused to appreciate just how far dance has taken her.

“I can’t believe something that started as a hobby has actually become my career and livelihood,” she said. “How did I go from just doing this for fun to getting to perform in New York and get to do something amazing in Paris, and it’s taken me so far.”

FROM PASSION TO PURPOSE 

Casandra Seed, LEAP teacher, gasped when she was asked what she thought about Annabelle’s dancing abilities.

Seed met Annabelle when she was a student in the Upper School and was invited to a few of her performances. Just the memory of seeing Annabelle on stage as a student took her breath away.

“I already admired her as an individual,” Seed said. “I went to see her dance, oh, new respect for what else she could do — dancing and singing. I was blown away by her.”

Seed noticed how well Annabelle did academically and how that was her way of honoring her commitment to school. Dancing, though, that was something else.

“When you saw her on stage, that’s when you saw this is a thing that makes her wake up in the morning,” Seed said. “This is the thing that brings her joy and excitement, and that’s her passion.”

Annabelle found that passion after trying her hand at several different extracurricular activities, including piano and cheerleading. She balanced dance and cheerleading until middle school, then shifted all her focus to dance.

That required school all day, followed by dance practice until 10 p.m. She remained focused, managing to stay an AP student.

Erin isn’t completely caught off guard.

“It does kind of blow me away,” Erin said, “but she is a very driven child. When she’s made up her mind to do something, she just has a way of making it happen. She’s very focused. She practices really hard to get better at things.”