Local dancers from NDI accepted to Juilliard
Two local teenage dancers with professional aspirations were notified this week that they have been accepted into The Juilliard School in Manhattan.
Terrance Matthews, 16, of Santa Fe and Hugo Pizano, 19, of Española, have attended National Dance Institute of New Mexico classes since elementary school.
Pizano said he was so emotional after receiving the call from Juilliard — “jumping up and down, screaming” — that the man from the school on the other end of the line began to laugh.
Attending the elite performing arts school has been a dream for years, said Pizano, who has been involved in NDI’s dance programs since age 9. He auditioned last year but wasn’t accepted, he said Thursday night at Pojoaque Valley High School, where he was helping with an NDI-North performance of hundreds of students from about 10 elementary schools in an area of Northern New Mexico stretching from Alcalde to Pojoaque.
True to the core values of NDI grads, Pizano never gave up.
“I went again this year, hoping I would get in, and sure enough I made it through the whole audition process,” he said.
When he got the call from Juilliard on Tuesday, “so many things were going through my head, like it’s actually happening. … It’s kind of spectacular. I am very excited.”
Founded in 1905, the New York City school is one of the world’s leaders in performing arts education, offering graduate and undergraduate degrees in dance, drama and music, including classical, jazz and vocal arts.
Ballet is Pizano’s specialty and his career goal is to join the Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle.
Matthews almost quit dancing in 2013 after breaking his foot playing basketball, his mother, Lori Lujan, told The New Mexican in 2015.
“I told him he had to finish what he started,” Lujan said at the time.
Matthews was overwhelmed after his acceptance phone call. “I screamed, I was ecstatic,” he said. “It’s such a great honor to be accepted to a school like that. Hopefully I will be receiving some financial aid.”
Matthews will graduate this spring from the New Mexico School for the Arts — a year early.