Hopkins has Educated Young Dancers, Worked as a Life Coach and Built Immersive Worlds on Stage in Her Master of Fine Arts Program
When Bronte Hopkins came to BYU in 2012 planning to pursue physical therapy, her passion for dance was far from her mind. However, life would surprise her. She began collaborating on dance projects on the side, and decided to turn her talent into a career.
In 2020, Hopkins earned her bachelor's degree in dance education from BYU. Since graduating, she has taught dance in schools across Utah and communities in Morocco.
Continuing to hone her talent, Hopkins has spent several years pursuing a Master of Fine Arts degree in dance from Sam Houston State University in Houston, Texas. For the past three years, she has been a graduate teaching assistant, conducting research with a focus on world-building, immersion and dance theater.
While Hopkins has found success in dance performance and education, she originally wanted to go into physical therapy.
“When I first came to BYU, I was studying something completely different. I thought I had said goodbye to dance, but then I got involved,” Hopkins said. “Everyone was like, ‘Come do this project, and this one.’”
After completing a physical therapy internship in New York City, Hopkins realized she wanted to do more than heal injuries; she wanted to prevent them by instructing dance classes. She credits her professors for helping her notice her talent and for encouraging her to apply to the dance major.
“The more I studied professional dancers and their injuries and recoveries, the more I realized I wanted to be on the front end in education and injury prevention,” Hopkins said. “After my internship experience, I switched to dance education.”
Hopkins is thankful for the hands-on experiences BYU provided her with.
“BYU gave me internship experiences, mentors, grants and scholarships that allowed me to imagine what a career in the arts could look like,” Hopkins said.
After graduating from BYU, Hopkins was certified as a life coach through Promethean Spark International (PSI), an organization that uses dance to teach life skills to impoverished youth. She used her skills to teach dance in schools across Utah, directing the Mountain View High School Dance Department in Orem, Utah, from 2020-2023.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, she used dance to help her students adapt to challenges.
“It was hard for them to remain focused, exercise emotional resilience and create bigger goals and visions for themselves and their futures,” Hopkins said. “My students and I were learning to become more reliable, trustworthy and to show up not only for ourselves, but for our team.”
Additionally, she traveled to Casablanca, Morocco, to teach life skills through dance with PSI.
“Seeing youth in Casablanca dream of possibilities and create goals for themselves educationally, emotionally, spiritually, and physically through dance and fitness was incredible,” Hopkins said.
Hopkins emphasized the importance of showing students the opportunities available to them.
“The youth in the communities I taught in don’t always have examples around them to help them envision different professions,” Hopkins said. “Having those examples for myself and then facilitating experiences as a life coach later on was enriching.”
Beyond participating in a diverse range of experiences, studying dance at BYU allowed Hopkins to appreciate the art form through a spiritual lens.
One unforgettable opportunity for Hopkins was embarking on a cross-country trip from Provo to Palmyra, New York. Along the way, Hopkins and other CFAC students performed the same dance across multiple Latter-day Saint history sites.
“We were visiting church historical sites with dancers, visual artists, musicians and videographers,” Hopkins said. “We had created a dance that we would perform across the country.”
This experience allowed Hopkins to embrace her faith while dancing in different environments.
“We danced through tall grass at Winter Quarters, on farmland in Palmyra, in a waterfall near Nauvoo and against windy gusts in South Pass,” Hopkins said. “The experience of repeating the dance while facing the new elements taught me the power of spiritual rituals.”
Hopkins has carried the lesson she learned with her throughout her life and faith journey.
“Often in life when we’re praying and studying our scriptures, the circumstances of our lives change and evolve. Suddenly it’s hard, and you're getting the wind knocked out of you,” Hopkins said. “BYU gave me the opportunity to see dance through a spiritual lens, and to not rid myself of that lens and embrace it.”
In addition, Hopkins advises current students to embrace dance’s power to communicate truth in unique and creative ways.
“I think the world needs to be inspired by truth,” Hopkins said. “As believers in Christ, we certainly do not hold a monopoly on truth, but I have found that using one’s spiritual lens in the arts can illuminate those truths in very unique ways.”
Hopkins says bringing truth into a creative space can help one “reach audiences in a unique way that speaks to them individually and personally.”
While completing her thesis research, Hopkins decided to share a compelling story using a childhood storybook character: Beatrix Potter’s Mr. McGregor. While Mr. McGregor is considered a villain, telling the tale from his perspective allowed audience members to see him with compassion and empathy.
“I am grateful for my generous cast of dancers. I’m also grateful that I involved the Lord and that I was trying to be prayerful. I was trying to create something that shared a message of redemption,” Hopkins said.
The performance focused on relationships, uncovered fears and brought a dark twist to the childhood tale. Looking toward the future, Hopkins hopes to continue bringing childhood characters to life on stage through dance and performance. Recently, she applied for a grant from the Artists Residency at the Center for Latter-day Saint Arts to help her accomplish her goal.
“I would like to be able to produce more immersive theater works in locations throughout Texas, Utah, or wherever I’m situated,” Hopkins said.
In the fall, Hopkins will return to BYU’s College of Fine Arts and Communications as a faculty member, where she will teach contemporary dance.
Reflecting on her accomplishments, Hopkins believes that staying involved and forming strong communities can help dancers thrive in the arts.
“Keep building your creative friendships and building a community,” Hopkins said. “As I progress in my career, I am recognizing in the arts that dancers need strong communities to flourish.”