Mady Mulder has been dancing since she was three years old, and now the Elmore County senior is getting the chance to continue dancing at the college level.
Mulder signed a National Letter of Intent to dance at Huntingdon College, a private Methodist college in Montgomery on Wednesday. While other dancers from Elmore County have danced at the collegiate level, she is the first dancer in school history to sign a scholarship to dance.
The possibility of dancing at the next level became obtainable when she reached Wetumpka Middle School. There, she started getting into school dancing and the “cheer style” dance that most high schools and colleges use.
“It feels really good to sign because I’ve worked really hard for this moment,” Mulder said. “I’ve been dancing since I was a little girl, so it’s been a dream of mine to dance in college since I can remember. It’s crazy to think I’m the first one to sign from here. I like having that title because I’ve worked as hard as I can for this opportunity.”
While she was used to the cheer style of dance at Wetumpka, she began theatrical dancing when she transferred to Elmore County and got involved with the award winning Maroon Machine and the ECHS Danceline.
The transition to theater dancing was difficult and took a few months for Mulder to master. She went from remembering cheer moves to running back and forth on the football field with the band and running out of breath.
When she gets to Huntingdon next school year, she’ll transition back to the cheer style.
“To me, the cheer style of dancing is harder to remember, so that aspect of the sport will be difficult to transition back to,” Mulder said. “I’ve done that style of dancing before so it will also be easy.”
For Mulder, her favorite aspect of dancing is the relationships she’s built with her various teams. When she was younger, the teams were bigger and had more cliques, but that has changed since she has gotten to Elmore County.
With as small as the team is and as as much as they practice, Mulder said her teammates are the closest friends she’s ever made in her life and said it’s been completely because of dance that she made those friendships.
None of her current teammates and friends will be joining her at Huntingdon despite her being the third member of the danceline to continue their passion at the college level.
While she will have to start over with a new team and new friendships, she is more than excited to get started. She felt the love from the minute her recruitment started with the program, and she knows that will continue when she gets there.
“I just loved the environment at Huntingdon,” Mulder said. “Everybody I met was really nice and sweet and they were just so welcoming. The uniforms were so cute and everything will be paid for, so it was an easy decision for me. I want to stay close to home because I don’t like traveling and I want to stay as close to my family and friends as possible.”
