Senior Bentlei Benak waited anxiously in the wings to perform on one of the most famous stages of all time: Radio City Music Hall. She knew this moment was special, but did not fully understand the impact it would have on her future until she started the performance.

Benak began dancing at the age of 2 after her mother, Beth Kindig, opened up her own dance studio. Being able to grow up at a dance studio helped to inspire Benak to continue as a dancer as she progressed into her teenage years. While watching her older sister perform on stage as well, she wasn’t positive that dance was a part of her future until last summer.

“These past couple years my mom has been helping me to find some local auditions and smaller things to be a part of while I’m still young,” Benak said. “So when we heard about the Radio City Music Hall audition for the Rockettes summer intensive, we jumped aboard that opportunity really quickly.”

In November, Benak decided to audition for the intensive after talking to some of her dance teachers who are former Rockettes. They told her that she should apply because they loved being involved in the program, and because they thought it would be a good fit for Benak.

A couple months later, she received an email that stated that she and 59 other girls had been accepted into the intensive program that took place July 5-10.

“I was obviously very excited,” Benak said. “The whole week was just a dream for me. Just realizing that I was going to be a part of the program and learn from new experiences seemed unreal.”

Benak’s family was very supportive of her decision to attend the intensive. One of her biggest supporters, Kindig, has always thought that Benak would continue to dance after high school. After Benak was accepted into the program, it just proved that both of their hard work over the years was not for nothing.

“It ensured me I was doing what I needed to be doing [as her mother],” Kindig said. “That 15 years of my daughter’s dancing career weren’t just for fun, they meant something. Bentlei and I both learned that this is what she wants to do with her future and I am right behind her in that decision.”

After finding out that Benak had been accepted into the program, her dance teachers offered to help prepare her in any way they could. During the months leading up to the intensive, two of Benak’s instructors helped four times a week teaching her how to dance in high heeled character shoes that the Rockettes wear. This was difficult for Benak at first because she had never worked in these types of shoes, but she picked it up quickly and was very comfortable in them by the time she left for New York.

In late June, Benak and Kindig flew to New York for the six day intensive. The intensive took place in Manhattan in the same studio that the Rockettes train in. Each day the girls worked closely with dance instructors and the Rockettes from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.

“At the beginning of the week I was super nervous because I knew that I wasn’t going to know anybody there, or that I wasn’t going to like it and that it might not be what I thought it was going to be,” Benak said. “But after even a couple minutes I had made friends and for the next week I had the time of my life doing what I love the most.”

Benak’s intensive classes included kick line, jazz and other areas that are needed in order to become a Rockette. Over the next couple days, the instructors taught the girls how to dance, kick, walk, do their hair, dress and live like a Rockette.

On the last day Benak said she was not ready for the intensive to be over. The girls performed three dances that they learned while at the intensive for their parents on the same stage that the Rockettes perform for millions of people each year in Radio City Music Hall.

“I was nervous to perform in front of my mom cause I wanted her to feel like taking me [to New York] was worth it,” Benak said. “So I danced as big as I could and we just had a great time. I will never forget that performance or that week.”

Kindig, never missing one of Benak’s performances, was in the audience when she performed.

“I cry almost every time I watch Bentlei perform,” Kindig said. “She spends so many hours training a week and seeing her on stage is the moment it all pays off.”

After the week was over and Benak and Kindig flew back home, Benak knew her mindset had changed when she stepped back into the studio.

“I was no longer just dancing for myself, but also for the people around me,” Benak said. “So coming back to dance I am dancing to be doing what I need to be going to get myself ready for the Rockettes. So now I actually know what I am training myself for and it is bigger than just going to class.”

After the experience, Benak said she is positive she wants to pursue her dance career after high school. She hasn’t decided if she will join a dance team at a university and then go to New York after college or if she will just go straight to New York after college. Either way she plans on auditioning for Broadway musicals as well as the Rockettes in the future.

But both Benak and Kindig said that they know that this experience helped Benak to become an even better performer, and to become more familiar with what a dancer’s life looks like.

“It taught her how to blend in as a dancer,” Kindig said. “Her whole life I have told her to stand out because she wasn’t born to fit in, so this was something completely different for her. She was able to really figure out what she wants to do in the future, and that makes all of what I’ve done worth it.”