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Homegrown ballerina Monika Haczkiewicz is ready to go pro

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Ballerina Monika Haczkiewicz, 17, extends a pose while in dance class inside the Keith Kleven Institute on Wednesday, March, 25, 2015. She’s going to New York City in April with instructor Tara Foy to compete for a chance to attend a prestigious dance school or join a ballet company.
Photo: L.E. Baskow

The last time we spoke to Monika Haczkiewicz, the 17-year-old Las Vegas ballet dancer was preparing for the most important performance of her life: a spot in the finals of the Youth American Grand Prix ballet contest in New York City.

The event is both competition and showcase, a chance for young, ambitious dancers from around the world to show off their skills in front of ballet directors who can turn passions into careers and students into professionals.

“It was such an amazing experience,” Haczkiewicz gushed over the phone from Las Vegas, fresh off her trip.

Ballerina Monika Haczkiewicz During Dance Rehearsal

Out of approximately 7,000 dancers who entered preliminary rounds across the country and beyond, she was one of 457 finalists selected to compete in New York. For the next round, she performed a contemporary number choreographed by former New York City Ballet principal dancer Monique Meunier and a classical variation from Don Quixote.

The next morning when she got out of a class, her phone was flooded with messages.

“They were all screenshots of a Facebook thing that named 17 finalists,” she said. Haczkiewicz had made the list. She would be one of nine girls representing the U.S. in the finals at Lincoln Center later that week.

“Right before I went onstage, I was thinking, ‘This is not about the judges anymore. This is about how far I’ve come from little Las Vegas and my family and me and [ballet coach] Miss Tara.”

Haczkiewicz leapt onto the Koch Theater stage and had what she called the “most amazing experience” of her life. “Just standing on that stage, I knew: I have to be a ballerina or else I don’t know what I’m going to do with my life.”

And now, it seems, she will have that chance.

Not only did Haczkiewicz make it to the finals, but she also danced in a scholarship class where representatives from prestigious ballet companies scouted talent.

“I pushed myself to the front because i knew I had to be seen,” she said. “After class all these directors would come and swarm up and talk to girls. And I was like, ‘Please pick me. Please pick me.’”

Eventually a director from the Joffrey Ballet in Chicago approached Haczkiewicz and told her the ballet was interested in offering her a scholarship. Then the Royal Winnipeg Ballet said the same. On the last day of YAGP, the Las Vegas Academy junior learned she’d received both scholarships, effectively ending her days as a high school student and bringing her closer to her ambition of becoming a professional ballerina.

Now, the choice is hers. By May 10 she’ll have to decide if she’s heading to Chicago or Canada to launch her career.

“It’s honestly more than I could have ever asked for,” Haczkiewicz says. “I’m just thankful for everyone’s support. If you want to become a ballerina in Las Vegas, it is a possibility.”

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