“I can’t remember a time I didn’t dance,” said Missy Hughes, a junior peacebuilding major from Oregon and former member of the BYU-Hawaii Dance Team. In addition to being a hobby for most of her life, Hughes, a single mother of one, said dancing has shaped her life by teaching her to never give up. Hughes said she began her dancing career as a hip-hop street performer in downtown Portland. “We would dance any chance that we got. [We’d] just throw down cardboard and dance.” said Hughes. By fund raising through door-to-door sales with Papa Murphy’s coupon cards, Hughes said she was also able to save enough money to afford private ice skating lessons. At 13, Hughes had an opportunity to attend the Ballet Dance School of San Luis Obispo in California. Working at a deli by day and taking lessons by night, Hughes reflected, “By this time I had a lot of people starting to tell me I was going to dance for the rest of my life.” After saving all her money for lessons, she said family hardships led to Hughes having to discontinue any training. After an abrupt relocation to a foster home in Woodland, Washington, Hughes met Jessica Sahim, the owner of Reach for the Stars Dance Studio and began training at her studio. Hughes explained how Sahim “was amazing, and trained me in ballet, jazz, contemporary – everything really. She ended up asking me to be her hip-hop teacher at her local dance studio. I trained with her for a solid six months during that stay.” In such a turbulent time of her life, Hughes said she firmly clenched onto the words of Sahim when she and the Mormon Continued on page 12 J AN UARY 2 0 1 7
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