Ben Schleifer: Dancing King

“Dancers are the most hardworking people, that’s the tea,” Ben Schleifer informs me confidently as I grill him about his schoolwork. Somehow, Ben manages to get straight A’s while balancing his four-hour-a-day dance schedule.

One of the best Academy Three dancers at Atlanta Ballet, Ben was given a spot in the pre-professional division when he was only twelve-years-old. The pre-professional track at Atlanta Ballet includes  training for many hours a day, everyday of the week, with the main goal being to pursue dancing as a career. “It was a big decision to go into ‘pre-pro,’” as he called it, “because that’s when it started to become a possible career and not just a hobby.”

Now, at age fourteen, dancing is definitely a feasible path for Ben’s future. In his many years dancing, he’s already been in over five of Atlanta Ballet’s productions. He danced in the Academy’s annual gala and played Fritz in The Nutcracker, a village child in Beauty and the Beast, a chipmunk in Sleeping Beauty, and a kidnapped child in Princess and the Goblin.

Furthering his dance education, Ben has been going to summer programs all around the country to become well-rounded and have the opportunity to learn from other instructors. Last year, he received a scholarship for $750 to University of North Carolina School of Arts’ summer program. He’s already starting the audition process for ten different programs for this upcoming summer. So, let’s wish him luck!

“Dancers are the most hardworking people, that’s the tea”