Courtesy of Juliana Loretz ’30
Despite being in her first year at Connecticut College, dance and psychology major Juliana Loretz is taking every chance she gets to take to the stage, as a lifelong dancer and performer.
Loretz’ relationship with dance starts from even before she was born; her mother, Kate Loretz, is a longtime dance professional, having trained with talents including Dianne Walker, Earl Mosley, Kate Lydon, and many more. Her mother, Kate and father, Kristopher, owned and operated “CT Dance Force” starting in 2004 and until 2012, in Hamden, Connecticut.
“I’ve been dancing my whole life, like since I was a little baby … I always grew up around the arts.”
Loretz and her family moved to North Carolina, which is where her pre-professional training really began. She continued to detail her performance-packed upbringing: She’d enrolled in classical ballet classes from elementary school into high school, training under Bonita Simpson at Bonita’s School of Ballet, going to a magnet performing arts school, the Central Academy of Technology and Arts, where she continued her focus in their dance program, and her participation in both the Union County Youth Ballet and the Monroe City Ballet companies.
Before settling in on Conn, Loretz explained that she’d taken a gap year to continue her craft, and, in particular, to prepare and focus for the many dance auditions she’d signed up for as she toured and applied to colleges. After touring about a dozen schools, she described Conn as her “dream school” following her tour and prospective students day class, where she performed a solo.
Loretz reflected on her transition into college: “I think for me, just coming into myself is like a really big accomplishment. In the past two years, I think I kind of really found where I wanted to be as a dancer.” She said.
Her passions lie particularly in Choreography, due to her ability to create cohesive pieces with cross-collaborative influences and in part due to her personal physical health limitations. She explained, “I really, I want to go into choreography more than performance. I think I could see myself dancing for like a little while. I have a lot of chronic joint issues, things like that. So I don’t think it would be super sustainable for me to perform forever. I really do love to be on the creative side of it.”
Her air of indulgence of all things dance didn’t stop after graduation; at Conn, Loretz participated in the Dance Department Student Advisory Board as a First-Year-Rep, Dance Club as a performer and choreographer, and as a performer at the Dance Department show this Fall. She hopes to continue performing and choreographing as other shows, such as Student Works, come up.
“I just like to be very involved. I’d like to know what’s going on within the department, and I think it’s really important. There are a lot of opportunities for all students at Conn.”
