Your Money At Work

Alexandra Ballet

Most days, 17-year-old Makensie Howe travels 40 minutes to and from her home in Arnold to Chesterfield, where she rehearses and takes ballet classes with the Alexandra Ballet Company. She often studies and does homework in the car as her mother drives, and manages to get good grades despite dancing nearly three hours night after night. Makensie doesn’t seem to mind the hard work; in fact, she craves it.  

“Ballet is my passion,” she says. “Dancing is the best feeling in the entire world. Everything on my mind – worries about homework and tests – disappear.  I become a completely different person.” The hard work, too, has paid off.  Makensie recently learned that she earned a spot with the prestigious Houston Ballet’s second, apprentice, company.  This summer she will head to Houston for an intensive training program and then join the company in the fall.  Doing so means she will be giving up her senior year at Fox High School and instead complete her high school education online. “I feel a little sad not finishing my senior year,” she says.  “But I’m excited to start something new and start my life. I’m ready.” 

Makensie began dancing when she was 3.  She took a variety of classes in tap, modern and ballet.  By the time she was in sixth grade she realized ballet was the one form she most enjoyed and wanted to devote herself to it.  So at age 12 she auditioned for Alexandra Ballet and was accepted.  In early March, she danced the title role in the romantic ballet Paquita, drawing rave reviews.

“I have learned so much at Alexandra,” says Makensie, referring to the dance company that receives some of its funding through a project grant from the Arts and Education Council.  “They are very strict there, but they have instilled a sense of dedication and motivation and respect in me that carries through to everything in my life, not just dance.”