The Culture & Entertainment Notebook: Student finds place, voice as dancer turned scribe

Southeast Missouri State University student Rebecca Gangemella's plans for the future changed drastically when she discovered her dreams of becoming a professional dancer would be unexpectedly altered in 2017 following an injury.

And that's why you "always gotta have a backup plan," she said, which would eventually lead to her graduating soon as a double major -- dance and journalism.

Gangemella -- originally from Kansas City -- is 21 now, but her love for dancing started at a young age. Before attending Southeast, she had been dancing for 12 years, she said.

"And now it's about 14 (years), considering I've been off and on with injuries," Gangemella said.

She first arrived at Southeast and enrolled as a BFA dance major. Within the first week during the fall of 2015, Gangemella said she started developing severe back spasms and had to completely drop out of all dance classes.

Rebecca Gangemella poses for a photo at the Southeast Arrow Thursday in Cape Girardeau.KASSI JACKSON

"I told myself whenever I healed up, one more big injury takes me out for the rest of the semester," she said.

Gangemella understood coming into college being a professional dancer was not going to be up her alley, she said, because of back problems dating back to high school. The problems "had been around," but she thought taking a summer off between graduating high school and college would help -- but it didn't.

She always knew to have a backup plan because injuries are extremely probable with any type of sport, she said.

Gangemella picked up journalism as a minor by the end of the spring semester of 2017 after developing what would soon turn into severe Achilles tendinitis, she said.

"That ended up taking me out for actually a year," she said. "I was in a boot like the whole spring 2017 semester. It was pretty bad. But by then, it was during Christmas break, I decided to switch journalism and dance."

Because of her newfound concentration on journalism, she has been selected as one of seven students chosen to participate in the Institute for Dance Journalism and Advocacy conference June 6 to 9 in Washington, D.C.

"From my understanding, this is the first time it's going on. They have an institute just like it for theater journalism, but this is the first time we're doing it for dance," she said. "My interpretation of it is that it's going on at the same time as the national college dance festival."

Gangemella said she and the other panelists would be acting as dance critics for the pieces selected for the American College of Dance Association national festival.

"Every university will bring a couple different pieces," she said. "The judges will select a certain amount to go to the national festival, which is what this is."

To be considered for a panelist position, Gangemella had to first submit a piece of writing. She chose one written a long time ago, "just for fun," about why ballet is good for all athletes.

She gives credit to Southeast associate professor of mass media Tamara Zellars Buck and Southeast assistant professor of dance and dance area coordinator Hillary Peterson for helping her discover what would soon become her new emphasis: journalism.

"I've always really liked writing, and I've always kind of been good at it, too," she said.

When Gangemella was in high school, a lot of the writing she enjoyed wasn't creative or fictional writing, she said, but was more research-based. She liked the idea of researching and telling stories.

Gangemella will soon be a senior and said she is trying to "scrape by" and find enough classes to make sure she retains the status of full-time student the next two semesters. She has become invested in her journalism responsibilities and feels like she's found her place and her voice, and won't give that up for anything, she said.

"I became staff writer at The Arrow this past spring and was offered the video producer/editorial spot for The Arrow, too," she said.

Even though dance has been a major part of her life early on, Gangemella said she hasn't performed in nearly three weeks, with the last performance during the previous finals week.

She still tries to dance, though, as much as she can, but has decided to not participate in future dance concerts on campus.

"Last fall I was the stage manager during Fall for Dance, but I was so involved with that I was missing out on doing stuff for The Arrow and the OVC digital network," she said, "and felt like I had to give some stuff of that up to do dance stuff."

As for the future, performing for nearly 15 years has made Gangemella quite comfortable in front of an audience, she said. Her plans for what's to come are yet to be determined, she said, aside from knowing she wants to pursue broadcast journalism full-force.

jhartwig@semissourian.com

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