FOR 21-year-old Jade Arscott, a world without dance is unfathomable.
Ever since she was two-years-old, Arscott has wanted to dance. She recalls watching dancers on television and telling her mother, 'that is what I want to do'.
Seeing her daughter's interest in the performing arts, her mother enrolled the toddler in ballet classes at the Vickers Ballet Studio in Kingston, and she took to the art form like the proverbial fish to water.
Nearly two decades later, Arscott has climbed the ranks in ballet and widened her scope. She is a principal dancer with Movements Dance Theatre Company.
"Ballet is my first love and will always be. I have reached grade five in the vocational grades and I am at the Advanced Two level, which means I can apply to the Royal Academy of Dance for final courses to be able to teach ballet. I have considered doing that, but right now I am focusing on my studies at the University of the West Indies... but you never know what will happen in the future," she said.
Arscott is a fourth-year medical student, and during this year's season for Movements, found it difficult to balance school and dance.
"I am not the best at time management, so I had to try to make it work. Furthermore, the season coincided with what is considered the hardest rotation in med school -- pathology and micro-biology. So I would go to school all day, then rehearse until 10:00 pm, and then head to the library after... but it's dance and I love it," Arscott tells Splash.
She was hand-picked by artistic director of Movements, Monica Campbell McFarlane, following a performance at Vickers.
"After the show, I was told that based on my performance Movements was interested. I was so excited. I had been exposed to the company's work over the years and was always in awe, so to be asked to join was a no-brainer."
Arscott continues: "Movements is really helping me become a better dancer. My years of ballet have really helped me with technique. The Movements experience is helping me bring out other sides of myself, making me more rounded. The way Auntie Monica (Campbell McFarlane) works, forces you to get better every time you do a dance."
Of the past season,
Arscott points to Searchlight, a new work choreographed by Campbell McFarlane to the music of singer Barrington Levy, as her favourite.
"I don't know what it is about the piece, but I am completely and totally in love," she notes.
The struggle and tension between choosing what society deems a 'real profession' and dance never really occurred for Arscott, as she firmly believes the two can co-exist.
After high school, she applied to famous dance schools in the United States, such as The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Dance Theatre of Harlem, and The Martha Graham School of Dance. These never materialised, but her application to medical school was accepted.
She comes from a family of medical doctors which had a strong influence on her decision.
"My uncle (renowned plastic surgeon Dr Guyan Arscott) and his son Ramon are my inspiration. When I see how hard-working they are, especially my cousin who is a Rhodes Scholar, that's what I want to do. I want to do something that has an impact on people's lives," she reveals.
Arscott is eyeing sports medicine as her specialty. It was inspired by an experience while training with the Ballet Nacional de Cuba a few years ago.
"I had some ongoing back and ankle issues and was introduced to a physiotherapist. He clearly understood how a dancer's body works and with his outdated equipment was able to work with me, and I have not had a problem since."
Despite her love of medicine, dance is never far from Jade Arscott. She admits that after medical school, should an opportunity arise to dance with a world-renowned company, she would take it.
"I would go for it... definitely, definitely, definitely. I don't want to ever live my life with regrets. I don't want the 'what if', and my medical career would always be there," she declares.
