SPOTLIGHT: Mercy High School Dancer wins a Fall Fan Choice Award

Anna Buckman wins for Favorite Dancer

  • Mercy’s varsity dance team’s captain
  • Competitive dancer
  • Favorite style of dance: contemporary and hiphop
  • Favorite Dancers: Jessica Starr and Ella Horan

Mercy High School’s dance team took the Spotlight after senior, Anna Buckman won favorite dancer for the Fall Fan Choice Awards. The dancer says that she began dancing around 14 years ago when she was only 2-years-old.

"I started with ballet and tap dance," she says while standing in the hallway of the high school.

School just ended for the day and Anna, dressed in her white collar shirt and plaid skirt uniform, was on her way to dance practice. Just before leaving, the dancer shares what a typical day is like for her.

“Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, I dance from around 3 to 9 p.m., I don’t really have a lot of breaks so it’s hard to juggle school and dance,” she says. “Tuesday and Thursday morning, I have dance from 6 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. and Sunday, from around August to Thanksgiving weekend, I have Nut Cracker practices almost all day.”

Despite her busy schedule, Anna plans to continue her dance career through college next fall as a Dance major.

“I plan to double major in dance and something else, I’m still undecided about that,” she says. “But when I was little I wanted to be a professional dancer in commercial dancing or dancing on Broadway.”

Some professionals that Anna felt inspired by includes choreographer and dancer Jessica Starr and famous Instagram dancer Ella Horan. “She [Jessica Starr] always has a very positive attitude towards life and when she teaches us dancing at her studio, she really pushes us to be our best, and she just inspires me every day," say Anna. “And Ella Horan-- the way she dances is incredible, she can do anything.”

As for her favorite style of dance, Anna says she enjoys contemporary and hiphop. "For contemporary, I can use emotions and I can get out my feelings when I can't talk them out, and for hiphop, its just fun to just grove.”

The 12th grader is also the team captain and All-Catholic award winner of her dance team, which explains why her teammates nominated her to win this award.

“I’m really honored, it’s just such a great accomplishment because I’m the captain of the dance team,” she says. “To be captain-- it’s a big leadership role, it’s not just about telling people what to do, but also showing them how to be leaders themselves.”

We’d like to thank our 4Frenzy sponsors for their support: DMC Physical Therapy and Sports Medicine, Hungry Howie’s, Meijer, Southeast Michigan Ford Dealers, and Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation