Written by Sabrina Cusumano
Everyone has a hobby, sport, or craft that they are passionate about. For some, their hobby is an outlet for them to express themselves emotionally. But, what if we were physically incapable to do what we love? What if one day you were told that you may not even be able to ever enjoy that activity ever again?
Hours. Days. Months. Years spent dedicated to our craft, as a piece of our identity is stripped away from us within seconds. How long would it take for one to be pushed to their limits? This was a dilemma that Tara Cochrane had to deal with as a 16 year old
Tara Cochrane was born on January 13th, 2004, raised by her parents Stephen and Lynne Cochrane, as well as growing up with her older brother Micheal. The Cochrane Family resided in Bethpage, a small town on Long Island in the state of New York where the couple grew up. At the early age of 3, Tara was enrolled at Broadway’s Stage Door, a dance studio in the town of Bethpage, owned by Bonnie Faggione. Tara spent years taking recreational Jazz and Ballet classes, where she made so many friends and memories. At the age of 9 she begged her parents to enroll her into a competitive dance class where she would compete at dance competitions yearly with her team furthering her love and passion for dance. This ignited a fire for Tara to become better, one may say she was a perfectionist. She even had a dance account, “ dance.with.tara”, where she would post videos of herself daily on Instagram of her improvement, self-taught skills, and dance combinations she learned in class that week. This was all familiar to her: Dance.
As High School rolled around, Tara was eager to try out for her school's Varsity Kickline Team. It was a rare occurrence for a Freshman to make the varsity team at Bethpage High School. But Tara knew she was able to achieve this goal. In June of 2018, as tryouts for the team were around the corner, she put in extra hours at the studio practicing and perfecting her technique.
At the end of the week, Tara was relieved to find out that she had made the team as a Freshman on the team! She trained with the upperclassmen several times a week after school, after practice then would go straight to dance till later at night. This became a cycle that was common for Tara. People would often think she was crazy for the hours she spent dancing, “If anyone can do it Tara can.”, “Don’t worry Tara can do this trick!”, “How is she not tired?”. Her coaches, teachers, and teammates often relied on her to do the acrobatic skills that many were unable to do. In the 2019 season, Tara was in a total of 10 dances between her dance studio and high school team, soon this amount of stress on her body would take a toll.
As stated before, Tara was an acrobatic dance, she was able to bend and contort herself in different ways that the average human was unable to do. And would often complain about back pain but would ignore it for the sake of her team. December 2020, the midst of her Sophomore year of high school, Tara suffered from an intense back injury where the joints that connected her lower back and hips were inflamed. Cochrane states, “ It made a simple activity such as walking or sitting down difficult, I am a person who doesn’t like to sit out so I pushed through the pain as long as I could…the more I pushed myself the worse it was. Tara was encouraged by her coaches to seek medical help; however she could almost predict how this appointment could possibly occur.. She was told that she had to sit out of dance for two weeks and attend physical therapy before being reevealtued. As the 2020 Nationals were approaching in March, Tara was reluctant to take a chance of being replaced in routines that she had so truly worked hard to become a part of. How could she possibly let her team down at a time like this? Despite what the doctors would say, she continued to dance and compete in hopes that her coaches would think she was capable of dancing. Nationals season contained the most grueling practices where the team spent 7 hours everyday perfecting their routines before they left the following week. “I refused and kept pushing although it was challenging I made it through Nationals season.” March 6th, 2020, Tara and the Bethpage Kickline team, flew to Orlando, Florida to compete at the National Dance Association where Tara held a spot in all four of their competing routines. When asked about this eventful weekend Tara responded, “this set back has allowed me to persevere, I choose to keep pushing to accomplish my dreams” As she continued to push through the pain she led her team to victory as they placed 2nd in the nation for their Kickline routine. One week later, March 13th 2020, as the COVID-19 Pandemic shut down the world, so were the studio doors.
Her outlet of creativity and expressing emotion was closed indefinitely, she was filled with uncertainty as she wondered if she would ever be able to return to the studio. Unknowingly, Tara was able to use her time in Quarantine as a healing period. As the months went by “my back pain quickly improved, after I healed I got right back into pushing myself and getting better everyday…I practiced in my basement and would take virtual dance practices to track my improvement.” And although Tara’s dance season had been canceled for the rest of the year, she was determined and hopeful for her future.
From March 2020, Tara was able to compete and travel nationally with her studio and high school for two more seasons as well as being the captain of the kickline team in her senior year, until she graduated in June 2022. Throughout her senior year, Tara questioned whether she wanted to pursue dance in college at the Division I level, considering her injury and the intense amount of pressure college dancers are placed under. “Being a collegiate dancer has been a dream of mine from an early age and as well as being a part of a team with a bond as strong as my team in high school.” So when it came down to making the decision for college, she had the intent of continuing to dance competitively while still being able to seek out new opportunities that college has to offer. In the fall of 2022, Tara planned on continuing her general and dance education at The College of New Jersey; majoring Early Childhood Education and becoming a member on the school’s Division III dance team. In the 2022-2023 season, Tara’s team competed at the Universal Dance Association in Orlando, Florida and were 3rd in the country for the Game Day Division. Over this past season through many ups and downs, Tara constantly reminds herself of the end goal, “no matter how tired I get and how much I want to give up, I think about what I am working for and how proud I'll be if I succeed.” After graducation in 2026, Tara hopes to become an Elementary School Teacher as well as teaching at a studio of her own to share her love of dance to generations after her.
As a dancer, when injuries arise they have to learn to hide their pain and emotion when faced with adversity. Ones’ mentality and attitude plays such an important role in performance. Tara doesn’t let her injury define her nor uses it as an excuse though it may have been difficult; moreover, she promotes such positivity onto herself and her teammates, which has made her such an inspiring leader. She accredits her dance family for the person she has grown to become, “dance has allowed me meet somany different people from so many different walks of life, and understand them through moving together, there is no bond stronger than the one that forms from dancing with another teammate, and dance has certainly made me the person I am today.”