From ballet leaps to the body roll, sophomore Emily Eisert has danced her way through life since she was three.

She is the current vice president of Hip Hop Club and a current member of the Dance Team. Eisert is also a resident advisor and is majoring in mass communication.

“I liked [dancing] better than playing sports, being able to just go and move,” Eisert said.

Her first experience with dance was when her mother placed her in a ballet class when she was three.

“And then I never stopped,” Eisert said, who danced tap after ballet, then jazz and finally returned to ballet. When she came to Linfield, she danced hip hop for the first time.

Eisert danced in and out of school during her middle school and high school years she enrolled in Arts & Communication Magnet Academy in Beaverton, Oregon.

“We had pathways, so you could focus on an art form, and I chose dance,” Eisert said.

At the arts school, Eisert had many friends in the dance focus.

Some of them graduated and continued on to dance schools to make a profession out of it. Eisert decided that dance wasn’t going to be something she would do once outside of school.

“I decided not as a career, but [dance is] something that will influence me. It’s always something that I’ve done for fun,” Eisert said.

For Eisert the influence and the fun continued into college.

“I really only started doing hip hop this year. It was one of the only dance options outside of classes,” Eisert said.

The style holds many challenges for Eisert in the way it’s different from the other styles of dance she has experienced.

“Hip hop has a different feel to it than modern or ballet. You can’t be as tight; there is a different feel in the movement,” Eisert said.

Eisert became vice president after the seniors graduated last year.

“They asked if I would be interested in helping run it this year,” she said.

The club is more relaxed than Dance Team, which requires auditions and a more rigorous practice schedule, but both organizations perform at various events around campus, including football games, Hispanic Heritage Day and even a performance before the movie “Step Up All In.”

“We like performing. People in the club can show off what they have been working on,” Eisert said.

“I hope that [Hip Hop Club] continues to grow as well. We had a pretty good turn out this year,” Eisert said.

As her major, Eisert has chosen mass communication. Broadcasting is a possibility, but she is still exploring her options.

She thinks that dance will stay separate from that, although she admits that, “I could work for a dance company.”