It’s the final countdown here at the ADA as our Physical Theatre and Dance students prepare for their final performances, their farewell dinner, and departure day! We can’t believe how fast the time has flown by. This week, we asked UG Bloggers Lexi, Annie, and Maddie to fill us in on the most valuable lesson they’ve learned about themselves this semester, and if they had any advice to share with future ADA students.

Pictured from left: Lexi Solazzo, Julia Krawczyk, Christa Maxwell, Carly Haig, Sydney Burrows, Maia Potok-Holmes, Olivia Wood, Sean McCoy

Lexi Solazzo: Dance (Goucher College, MD)

Exceeded the limit…

As I begin to pack my suitcase I wonder, how much can I possibly stuff into these, seemingly smaller, suitcases? How do I fit the Villa, the Sala Danza, my teachers, my new friends, Monica and Kristen, the view from the top of the Teatrino, Nadia’s tiramisu and pasta, gelato, pizza, and everything else Italian that I have fallen in love with? It is sad to think that come Friday morning I will be making my final trek down the enormous San Fabiano hill. To think that just three months ago I was in this same predicament but dragging my two suitcases out of the taxi wondering what the heck I got myself into. It is all a bit surreal. The experience I have had here is indescribable. There is absolutely no way I can put these past three months into words because words would simply do it no justice. Being a part of Accademia dell’Arte this semester has been an experience of a lifetime, as cliché as that may sound. Here I have not only established who I am but I have become a part of a family of some of the most incredible people. In saying that I think the one thing, although there are truthfully so many more than just one, that I will take away is my will to do everything and anything. Being here I attempted to do as much as I possibly could. Within these three months there was no such thing as a comfort zone. Being here I rarely said no and just DID, and I am so incredibly happy I made the choice to be that way. If it wasn’t for this mindset I probably wouldn’t have gotten off the train in Pisa to run to the tower without any idea of the train schedule on a Sunday night. I also would not have been in a zombie burlesque piece where I barely wore any clothes or in a Butoh show where I danced until I could not longer breathe and walked on stage pretending like I was a dog. I have to admit there were so incredible things here but above all this one was golden.

Annie Corrao: Dance (Muhlenberg College, PA)

I wrote this in my journal last week and only a few days later, I heard the same statement made: “I am enough.”
I think that this is something that may be easy to know but not easy to understand and embody.

You are enough. You may doubt and you will search for the answers for a long time, but I hope that eventually you will come to the same conclusion as I did: you are enough.

Pictured from left: Michelle Ciccotelli, Vassileia Kazee, Laura Mullaney, Joe Boyce, Maddie Sosnowski, Emily Eldridge-Ingram

Maddie Sosnowski: Physical Theatre (Boston University, MA)

Over the course of my time at ADA, I have learned a lot of things about myself. (Thank God because I came quite a distance to do so!) I learned that I love tomatoes at all hours of the day, that I don’t jive with the “social atmosphere” of youth hostels, and that train rides can be medicine for any sort of ailment. If I have to name the most valuable lesson I’ve learned, however, it is that I owe it to myself to do what I want. I don’t mean abandon authority and pursue anarchy at all costs, but I do mean that I deserve to make choices that I believe in. Not because they are what I think I should do, but because they serve what I want for myself. Sometimes those choices mean that I can’t please everyone around me, and sometimes they mean that I do something that doesn’t entirely appeal to me in a moment, but will serve me down the line. All in all, my choices are for nothing if they aren’t for a purpose, so why not make that purpose meaningful for myself? To the future students of ADA, I say: be honest about what you want, and then pursue it with determination, but also with compassion and awareness. Beating around the bush is a waste of yours and everyone else’s brief time!