Student Artist Spotlight

Theater has been, and always will be, Davis Hasty's first love. But this semester, theater has taken a back seat to his newest love, ballet.

Hasty became interested in dance during high school through his involvement in musical theater productions. While he liked dancing in the shows, he realized he did not do it very well.

It wasn't until arriving at Duke, however, that Davis enrolled in his first ballet class. After a year of taking ballet classes, Davis said he was ready to take the next step in improving his technique. While it was a tough choice to make, Davis decided to take a year off to dance with the Maryland Youth Ballet.

"Imagine telling 60 fraternity brothers that you're taking the year off to learn ballet," said Hasty, who is a member of Delta Tau Delta Fraternity. Hasty said he also worried about leaving friends at Duke and spending so much time back home in Silver Spring, Md.

Now back at Duke, Hasty is a year behind his fellow juniors but said he has no regrets about his time off. He has continued to pursue his love for dance through taking the highest level ballet courses Duke offers.

Being the only male in the high levels of Duke dance has both positive and negative aspects, Hasty said. The program actively gives Hasty many opportunities he might have missed had he attended an arts school with a more competitive program.

"If there's a guy's part, I'm going to get it," he joked.

Hasty does, however, lament the lack of experienced male role models. "Men just dance differently than women," he said. In the Maryland Youth Ballet, the men often pushed each other and motivated each other to turn more or jump higher, Hasty added.