ETSU Student Profile: Kate Hollenbeck

From East Tennessee State University:

“From the time I could walk, I was dancing,” Kate Hollenbeck laughs.

And she hasn’t stopped.

While a student at Unicoi County High School, she combined dancing with acting and appeared in numerous school shows.

She has also been active with the Jonesborough Repertory Theatre, where she was seen in recent productions of “Guys & Dolls,” “Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella,” “The 1940s USO Christmas Show,” and “Steel Magnolias.”

This week, Kate begins her second year at ETSU and is majoring in theater and dance.

“Having the Martin Center for the Arts is such a big deal, and I can’t wait to get the chance to perform there someday,” Kate said.

The presence of the Martin Center and the theater and dance program attracted Kate to ETSU, as did the strong sense of community. And there was something else.

“I was really impressed by how ETSU responded to the pandemic,” Kate said. “I was looking at a lot of different schools, and ETSU showed that they were going to really make it work for the students.”

Kate says she has enjoyed her freshman year, and even though the pandemic meant the human interaction was limited, she has been impressed by how the faculty have gone above and beyond to keep everyone connected.

“Everything about the theater and dance program here – the professors, the students, the staff, the facilities – is just amazing,” she adds.

In addition to being a student of dance, she also helps inspire the newest generation of dancers. Kate is now on staff at Absolute Arts Dance Company in Erwin, where she teaches dance to elementary-age children. Seeing young kids get excited about dance is the most rewarding part of her job.

“We have students arrive for their first dance class ever and they are like, ‘I’ve never taken dance before,’ and by the end of the class they have learned a three-minute number. I had teachers who were passionate about dance; they inspired me so much and I want to do the same thing.”

This press release was produced by East Tennessee State University. The views expressed are the author's own.