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Miranda Hashemi

Miranda is a 17-year-old senior at Commonwealth Connections Academy (CCA). She lives in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Miranda is a rising ballerina who dances for the internationally renowned Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet. Her mother tells her story below.

“Miranda has been dancing almost from the time she could walk.  At the tender age of two, she used to line her parents and grandparents up on the living room couch every Saturday night and dance for them (complete with “costume changes”) using the tiny marble fireplace hearth as her “stage” and ending her performances by imperiously pointing a pudgy finger at everyone moving slowly from left to right, demanding, “Everybody clap.”  She has always been very interested in anything in the arts—singing, dancing, drawing, clay modeling, sculpting, and mixed media.  She studied ballet, flamenco, contemporary, and tap dancing at Denise Wall’s Dance Energy (DWDE) in Virginia Beach; sang in the Virginia Children’s Chorus; and had some of her artwork exhibited at a school exhibit at the Contemporary Arts museum in Virginia Beach. 

Miranda was in the DWDE junior company and attended the gifted dance program in the Virginia Beach public schools for one year before announcing that her dream was to become a professional ballerina. That meant she had to put her interest in art and singing aside and concentrate on finding the best possible ballet training ground. She was accepted for dance study at the Governor’s School of the Arts, Virginia School of the Arts, and also at North Carolina School of the Arts for year-round ballet study.

However, we decided to move to Carlisle, Pennsylvania instead so she could study at CPYB. As she began to get opportunities to dance in CPYB’s productions, it became too difficult to juggle her brick-and-mortar school schedule with CPYB’s rigorous training schedule. CCA has been a godsend in giving her flexibility in her school and exam schedules so that she can still maintain academic excellence while meeting her 30+ hours a week ballet schedule at CPYB.  

Her dream is to get into a major ballet company after high school. She also wants to maintain grades that will allow her to attend college, while dancing. Her ultimate goal is to be a clinical psychologist to clientele in the arts after a dancing career. CCA is invaluable in helping her juggle these two daunting goals.”

"What I like most about CCA is…..the fact that even though it is a cyber school, I don’t feel disconnected. I still feel a sense of personal relationship with my teachers. The flexibility of when I can get my school work done and take exams lets me meet my ballet class and rehearsal standards and still excel academically. This is especially helpful during performance weeks. I also feel CCA helps me perfect the kind of time management and self-starting skills I am going to need for college work which I hope to fit in around a professional ballet career after high school.”

–Miranda Hashemi