By Michelle Rihovsky
Staff Writer
As she furiously dances across the Green Valley High School stage, determined to pick up yet another national dance championship title, the unthinkable happens. Her halter strap snaps, threatening a disruption in her routine, not to mention eternal embarrassment. But she makes a quick adjustment and keeps on dancing. The team ends up winning first place, and the girl with the broken strap gets a standing ovation, not because her top almost came off, but because she just kept on dancing.
It would take more than a broken halter strap to keep Katie Ebeling, a Pepperdine senior organizational communication major, from dancing. She’s been dancing for most of her life, and she plans to keep on dancing for as long as possible. Ebeling’s experience has landed her the position of information and communication chairperson for the spring’s Dance in Flight show.
Few on campus know this side of the 21-year-old California native. The members of Delta Delta Delta know her as a sorority sister. To those she works with as director of the Programming Board, she is a boss and co-worker. She shows her school spirit as a member of Riptide and Head NSO Counselor for the past two years.
But Ebeling has been dancing since the age of five, winning California state competitions and the title of National Dance Team Champions along the way.
Ebeling made the commute from her hometown of Lake Forrest to start competing for a studio called The Dance Factory in Los Angeles when she was in seventh grade. By eighth grade, Ebeling was dancing in halftime shows at college and professional basketball games, including Lakers and Clippers games.
Ebeling is shy about her accomplishments. As she brings a hand to cover her face, revealing different-colored polish on each fingernail, she says, “Gosh. This is where it gets embarrassing.” From seventh to eighth grade, Ebeling won the state title in her age group three times for solo performances.
By 10th grade, she won the Senior Advanced National Division title. Still, Ebeling, her own worst critic, feels the need to apologize for not winning first place in every competition. “Yeah, it’s three states and one national,” she said. “But, I always placed either first or second.”
After winning the national title, Ebeling stopped competing in solo performances and focused on group pieces because the award disqualified her from future solo competitions. Of group competition, she simply says, “We won a lot.”
People who dance with Ebeling today find her encouraging and dedicated. Haley McClelland, a 19-year-old sophomore theatre major, danced with Ebeling last year in Dance of Flight. McClelland says that Ebeling’s “striking presence pulls focus when she dances. And her love for dance encourages me to keep focused on what dance is all about and what’s behind it: emotion.”
In addition to her involvement with Dance in Flight, Ebeling also choreographed the dances for her sorority when they collaborated with Psi Upsilon at Songfest last year. Many involved in the show were surprised by her aggressive energy. “When I get involved with dance, the energy just comes out of me,” Ebeling said. “I’m not afraid to take charge and be aggressive when I’m passionate about something being done a certain way.” Ebeling won the Director’s Award for her work on last year’s Songfest.
Dancing is about more than the competition and the awards to Ebeling. Dance, she says, is a creative outlet and an opportunity to express herself in more ways that just the movement itself. She is also involved with the costumes and make up used in her performances.
On top of all this, she has choreographed award winning dance pieces and designed costumes for endless shows.
Perhaps the little incident with the halter strap explains why Ebeling now prefers designing her own costumes. After explaining that she has designed many of her own costumes, Ebeling whips out a little blue notebook that she always keeps with her for “ideas and stuff. You know, for whenever inspiration hits.” She reveals sketches, labeled with different fabric types and detailed with texture-like designs.
While showing a page with a picture of something that not even Britney Spears’ designers could come up with, Ebeling said, “I always like things that are unique and different, somewhat unexpected.”
And Ebeling is clearly designing more than the costumes for her dances. She started choreographing long before Songfest. “In sixth grade, I choreographed a cheer dance for a competition that my friends were in, and they ended up winning first place, even though all the other teams had professional choreographers or adults choreographing for them,” Ebeling said.
This year, Ebeling choreographed her first piece for Dance in Flight. It has “strong, aggressive jazz with a hip-hop flair.” Last year, she danced in five of the show’s pieces and plans on appearing in just as many this year.
On top of Dance in Flight and Songfest, Ebeling has also been taking classes whenever she can at a studio called The Edge in Los Angeles. “If it was up to me, I would take classes every day, but I just don’t have the time,” she said.
Where will dance find its place in her future? “I want to continue dancing,” Ebeling said. “I love it so much. I’ll always do it, even if it just has to be a recreational activity or an emotional outlet.”
“We’ll see where God leads me,” Ebeling continued. “ I want to dance for the rest of my life. To what extent I do it is up to the future.”
February 07, 2002