Casey Van Newenhizen '18

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Casey Van Newenhizen

Hometown: Atco, N.J.
Class Year: 2018
Major: Dance with a concentration in Pre-Movement Sciences with a minor in Holocaust & Genocide Studies


 

CVN

 

Casey Van Newenhizen told us four years ago that dance would be in her future. Now, she's a dynamic dance instructor who has faced the pandemic and came out the other side swinging and with more knowledge about the field, including the work behind-the-scenes. Learn more about how Stockton prepared her for her journey in the arts.

 

Casey Van Newenhizen (2018)

Casey Van Newenhizen in 2018, in the middle of a dance

Why did you choose Stockton?

I chose Stockton because it had the perfect major for me. Dance/Pre-Movement Sciences allows me to continue dancing but also get all of my prerequisites for Stockton’s Doctor of Physical Therapy program. It is also only about 45 minutes from home, which is just far enough. I live in a very woodsy area and seeing Stockton’s main campus, especially Lake Fred, made me feel at home.

What kinds of opportunities have you gained within your academic program?

During my freshman year, before classes even started, I was asked and paid to dance in a flash mob. I also had the opportunity to attend the American College Dance Association's regional conference during my freshman year and will attend the regional conference again this year. During my sophomore year, I was invited to perform at a Mediterranean Arts Festival in New York City.

Do you remember interviewing for this profile? Can you describe that experience?

I mostly remember getting the pictures taken because it was a whole photoshoot happening! I was in the Performing Arts Center (PAC), and they put me in costume. During, I was thinking, “Wow, this is really cool.” My dance professors were there and helping me out; I definitely felt like a VIP that day.

What does your typical day-to-day look like? How did Stockton prepare you for it?

So, I am both a dance and Pilates teacher currently. Some days, I’m in the studio, some days I’m in Pilates, and, on others, I’m at both! In my old profile, I was a Dance major with a concentration in Pre-Physical Therapy and was originally going to go to Physical Therapy. In the program, we had take Dance courses and something else because we, as dancers, should have something non-dance related in our back pocket.

I changed my mind and decided that I was going to keep dancing and stay involved with dancing somehow. One of my Dance professors suggested that we did an Independent Study course to help me figure out what I’m going to do post-college. The professor had a really great friend who runs a Pilates training program in Philly and thought that I might be interested in trying it, so it sounded like a great plan: I’ll be a dance teacher and teach Pilates as well.

The year-long program was the most amazing thing ever; we studied anatomy and how the body works, which I felt overlapped a lot of what I learned already in the Pre-PT program. A lot of the clients that I work with in Pilates are people who have just finished physical therapy or have issues like scoliosis, and I get to help them through that. Everything that I have learned at Stockton, I use every single day.

Since COVID-19 upended many lives, we wanted to give you the opportunity to reflect on your life pre-and-post-2020. What’s different about your career/field now?

When everything first happened, everybody’s first thought was “Well, we can’t just stop dancing.” This was back when everyone thought that it was just going to be two weeks, so everyone started offering online classes with the idea that we’ll be back in person after those two weeks of dancing at home. That did not end up happening though.

As dancers, we’re constantly moving around between rehearsals and other jobs, so it was kind of cool to have time to slow down and think about my relationship with dance. Obviously, the world is changing, and I had to figure out what kind of role or priority dance was going to have now. Also, virtual dance classes are still a thing, to this day, so it made classes, even ones in New York, more accessible to anybody around the world. There were even dance companies that started subscription services to see their recorded performances. Another sort of silly effect of the pandemic was the fact that everyone downloaded TikTok; choreographers posted their dances and were getting discovered." 

I will say- it was not fun dancing at home. It made me really appreciate the studio space that you get when you dance, so it was kind of a reality check for me and other dancers: a) we need to appreciate what we have when we have it and b) we have other parts of our personality besides dance. 

What is your next goal? Do you see yourself coming back to the nest or another university for graduate school?

Every once in a while, getting a Master’s in Fine Arts crosses my mind, but I think that might be something that’s further in the future. Right now, I think I’m just kind of seeing what happens. I’m also about to start working with a dance organization that’s starting to put on full-length productions and our first show is going to be in December.

I’m looking more towards the production side of things, like administration, running rehearsals, and choreographing for a show and I can’t wait to see how that grows. The woman that runs the organization is very business-driven and I love getting to be creative and helping with the organization and planning of a show, so I think that our strengths really balance each other out. She has very big goals and I’m just like “If you lead me there, I’ll come along with you. Let’s see where this goes!

What advice would you give students who are interested in the Dance field? Are you open to mentoring students currently in the program?

  1. Enjoy it! I loved the program so much when I was there and learned a lot about myself. Learning from a modern-based program like this helped me grow and evolve as a better dancer. Like, when I was younger, I wanted to dance ballet exclusively and go straight into a ballet company. But then I decided that I did want to go to college, so I explored other styles like jazz and hip-hop when I joined the Dance Team freshman year.

  2. Learn everything you can: The amount of information and training that I got here was wonderful. Honestly, I just feel like Stockton’s program lines up better against other programs because of the supportive professors, awesome opportunities, and I always felt like I could explore different avenues no matter what. 

  3. Put yourself out there kiddo: I remember, as an orientation leader, giving tours and hearing people ask if Stockton was a “suitcase” school where everyone went home on the weekends. I would tell them that they can’t just expect the events to come to them; it was up to the student to go out and find things to do. You have to put yourself out there because that’s the way that life after college goes too.