Carly Hebert, '15

Carly Hebert’s career as a dancer began with gymnastics classes at age three. By seven, she’d switched to ballet and modern dance, and a few years later added tap, jazz and musical theatre. At 11, Carly began a series of summer programs with dance companies, including Alvin Ailey, the Houston Ballet, the Nashville Ballet and the Joffrey Ballet in New York.

As a sixth grader at ESA, Carly performed in her first musical, and has been a member of every spring musical cast since. In ninth grade, she added singing to her repertoire, taking voice lessons at the Music Academy in Lafayette. For two summers, she attended programs with Camp Broadway in New York and performed twice in Carnegie Hall. Last summer, Carly traveled to the Catskills to attend Stagedoor Manor Performing Arts Training Center, where she was named dance captain of Rent and won the award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical.

This fall, Carly will enroll at the prestigious Marymount Manhattan College in New York, where she auditioned for and was accepted into both the acting and dance programs. She chose her first love, dance, as her major, with the goal of auditioning for dance companies following graduation and eventually opening her own company in New Orleans.

Along with theatre, chorus, art and creative writing, Carly enjoys studying French, a language she began speaking at five when she attended the French Immersion program in Lafayette. Between all of her other summer adventures, Carly squeezed in a language program at Université Sainte-Anne in Nova Scotia.

“The challenging education at ESA has kept me driven throughout the years,” says Carly. “Dance and theatre is so demanding. It never stops. Combining that with the challenges at ESA has kept me on my toes.”

As Carly prepared for her last ESA musical, she offered this advice to younger students: “Try to get involved in as much as you can. The more you put into ESA, the more you get out of it!”