A Safe Space
Photo Credit: Wendy Wetmore
By Olivia Bertino
Staff Writer
A lot can change over the course of 17 years, especially when that time encompasses most of someone’s childhood. For Elissa Person, dance was one constant she had growing up.
She started at just four years old, and she’s been dancing ever since.
Elissa Person
“With everything going on in life, dance was always steady,” Person said. “I can go to dance, I have my people there, I have my teachers, I have coaches, and I can move.”
Person is the second youngest of five children, but she was the first to break into the world of dance, followed by her little sister. Her mother was a nurse throughout the course of her childhood, and her father a surgeon. Her older siblings were also high-achieving. Her sister was en route to the Olympics for gymnastics before a career-ending injury. Person tried gymnastics herself, but immediately knew it wasn’t for her.
It wasn’t until the family moved to Sioux Falls and Person’s mom met Raena Rasmussen with Balleraena Dance Studio that she found dance. Performing arts was a whole new world for the Person family.
“ Both of my parents told me, ‘All that matters to us is that you do what makes you happy.’ Especially my dad,” Person said.
Person was trained in Cecchetti ballet and pointe, but her favorite styles are lyrical, modern, and contemporary. She said that the rules and technique from ballet carried over into her other styles of dance.
“I think for me it was such an emotional release,” Person said. “There's such an emotional connection to dance, especially with lyrical and contemporary, where you're really showing emotion through the movement.”
As she was growing up, dance became a larger part of her life. She began competitive dance and would travel for regional competitions. With that time practicing and away from home, Person became really close with her dance teammates.
“You spend so much time together growing up with the people you're dancing with, where they know everything about you,” Person said. “They see you in dressing rooms and on stage and when you're crying to your mom because you’re hurt. Having those people with you, it's almost like a safe space.”
Person said the friendships she developed through dance taught her how to be more open with other people in her life.
“They've seen me at my worst, me at my best,” Person said. “We've changed it in front of each other. We've yelled in front of each other. Dance is such a stressful environment where they've seen good, bad, the ugly, all of it.”
One of her friends throughout dance was the daughter of Rasmussen, Bentley. Person said their connection and watching Bentley persevere through her own hardships was one of her biggest inspirations to keep going.
“We held each other to that standard that you can't give up yet,” Person said. “You're not done. You can never quit at your lowest point. You’ve got to quit when you're feeling the high.”
When Person started her freshman year of high school, she joined its competitive dance and cheer team. Just a year later, Person’s competitive dance career came to a halt. She was simultaneously diagnosed with two chronic illnesses, gastroparesis and POTS, and she had to quit all dance.
“I was on the dance team at the time at Balleraena and after every run through, I was on the floor with my legs up, trying not to pass out,” Person said.
Because of the gastroparesis, Person’s stomach was paralyzed, leaving her unable to eat. She had to use a feeding tube for nutrition. Coupled with her increased heart rate from POTS, Person had no choice but to step away.
“That was super duper hard for me, just like trialing medicine and trying to get back and mentally how hard it was to not have that emotional release,” Person said.
After a little over a year away from dance, Person was able to return to the team her senior year of high school. For Person, being able to dance again was a way to express what she was going through, medically and emotionally, without having to talk about it.
“ Dance is one of those things where you don't have to speak words to show how you're feeling,” Person said. “There's not that human, word-to-word connection. You're expressing yourself and you can get it out and people can interpret it how they want, and then it's gone and you're good and you can move on. I didn't have to tell anyone how I was feeling. I could just show it.”
Person graduated from Washington High School in Sioux Falls and decided to step away from competition dance. She continued to dance with LiRa Dance Theatre Company as she started her career at Augustana University.
Now 20 years old, Person is finishing up her junior year of college. She’s on a pre-physician's assistant track with biology and Spanish majors. She also works as a patient care technician at Avera.
“I love helping people and I think a lot of the social skills that I learned from dance helped me in that aspect too,” Person said.
When she graduates from Augustana, Person hopes to attend PA school close to home so she can be around her family. That would also allow her to continue dancing locally.
“ I'd love to keep dancing with LiRa,” Person said. “I love it. I think it's a lower commitment than what I was doing growing up, which is nice because it doesn't take away from my other parts of life, but I still get to keep dance in my life.”