In all, Miller dances nine and a half hours each week with ballet being her true love. “Ballet is my favorite because it’s graceful and it’s easy to express myself,” says Miller. “Sometimes I won’t be able to say anything, but if I dance, people will get what I’m trying to say or do.”
   However, ballet does not come without difficulties. Miller’s costumes cost about $55 each, and her other expenses have to be monitored. “Financially, I have to be careful that I’m not going over budget,” says Miller. In addition to monetary obligations, she has the stereotypical dancer to compete with. “I don’t really fit the body type to be a dancer. I’m not very tall or really, really skinny,” she says.
   Miller says the sport of dancing itself has taught her to be disciplined. She has ballet barres at home that she practices on during the weekends. She also comes in willingly and takes lower level ballet classes at least twice a week to help keep up with her technique and skills. “The lower level ballet classes teach more technique, so I get to focus more on ‘Am I doing the moves right?’ and so on,” says Miller. With the five classes she is already taking, an additional two are added just for this practice. 

Stiefel Steps
   Once a week, Miller takes her talent to Stiefel Steps, a dance studio in Lewisburg run by Erin Stiefel-Inch, who was a principle dancer in a Zurich troop. Miller found out about it from graduate Jocelyn Wright, who is an accomplished dancer in her own right. “It’s very small; it’s nowhere near as established as the Bloomsburg School of Dance,” says Miller. “The studio is in her basement.” 
Despite the studio’s size, her instructor is great at teaching technique in ways the dancers can understand it. There, the classes are also smaller with more one-on-one opportunities. “It’s only me and this one other girl so she can actually look at us more and fix our errors. At the Bloomsburg School of Dance, the classes are a lot bigger, and the dance teacher can’t be everywhere at once, so I don’t get as much attention,” says Miller.   

Preparing for the Future
  Along with all she does herself, Miller finds time to teach beginner level dancers. “Dancing and teaching dance are some things I just enjoy doing,” says Miller.
This helps prepares her for her future. Someday, she wants to own a dance school of her own. “Teaching now helps me get a crash course of what it’s going to be like.”
   In the next three or four months, Miller will be auditioning for multiple summer ballet programs that run five weeks, six days per week from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. with evening rehearsals usually from 7 to 9. “The camp’s an intense dance camp for students, but they’re very expensive, so I was only allowed to go one year, and I picked this year to go.”
Miller has been dancing for thirteen years, but her passion has not faded. “I just developed such a love for it, I don’t think I could ever stop,” says Miller. “I would be really unhappy if I had to quit. I don’t even know a life without dance.” With her energy and plans for the future, she may never have to.