Brooklyn Porter earns Giordano mentorship, scholarship after summer intensive

Hancock County High School Class of 2026 graduate Brooklyn Porter, 17, continues to build on years of dance training after being selected for a mentorship through Giordano Dance Chicago. The Hawesville native said the honor affirms her decision to keep pursuing dance in college while also following her long-standing interest in science and education.

Porter recently attended the Giordano Jazz Summer Intensive Program in Chicago — her fifth summer at the intensive — where she was awarded one of 10 mentorships offered through the company. Approximately 60 dancers participated in the college and professional track, with 35 applying for the mentorship, which pairs recipients with current company members and is designed for college students and emerging professionals.

The selective program pairs her with Giordano Dance Chicago performer Talia Luzzo, who will mentor her throughout the year and offer guidance on training, performance and the expectations of a professional dance career.

She will be able to call, text or FaceTime Luzzo with questions and will travel to Chicago again April 10-11, 2027, to work with the company in rehearsal, go backstage and attend the season-closing performance.

“Talia has already been a great resource for me as I get ready for college,” Porter said. “It’s just really exciting.”

She said the mentorship makes her look forward to becoming a teacher someday and shows her how she can inspire other dancers and children in the future.

Porter received a scholarship covering tuition to return to the Giordano Jazz Summer Intensive next summer, giving her another week of training with company members and guest faculty.

“I am extremely proud of her hard work,” said her mother, Kimberly Porter, a second-grade teacher at South Hancock Elementary School. Porter said her mother has traveled with her to Chicago for the intensive the past five summers, sitting in classes, helping coordinate logistics and supporting fundraising efforts that helped make each trip possible.

“Giordano is like a ball of sunshine,” Porter said. “Every time I’ve gone, the energy in the room could just light anyone up. Everyone in the company has big names for themselves. Giordano is one of the most famous jazz companies in the world. They could have taken that fame and just ran with it, but they are genuinely some of the most humble and kind people you will ever meet.”

She said she and her family value it greatly that such a renowned company remains warm and welcoming, especially because she comes from a small community where major prospects can seem rare. The company’s support and this opportunity, she said, have been instrumental as she continues building her career in dance.

She has participated in Owensboro Dance Theatre since August 2011 and has trained with Theatre Workshop of Owensboro since June 2019. Along with training, she has assisted with teaching a pre-kindergarten dance class. Porter has also performed with Bluegrass Children’s Theatre and in Shadowcast productions at RiverPark Center.

When she graduated from Hancock County High School in May, she had already earned an associate in science degree through the Early College Program at Owensboro Community and Technical College.

She plans to attend Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green this fall, where she will double major in dance and middle grades science education and pursue a minor in STEM/STEAM — science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics. She said she will enter WKU’s dance program at a “base 2 level” and progress through the course sequence.

“The Giordano mentorship and scholarship mean a lot to me,” Porter said. “Coming from my hometown studio, I’ve danced with the same girls growing up my whole life, and so you always kind of know where you essentially measure up to other people.”

Repeating the same December production each year, with coveted roles and competitive casting, helped her build character, she said, but also sometimes made her struggle with confidence.

“I was asking myself, ‘Am I actually a good dancer? Is this something I should pursue? Or should I fall back on my science and focus more on that? Should I let dance continue to be something that I want in my life? I love it, but am I good at it?'” she said.

Getting out of that familiar studio space and traveling to Chicago shifted her perspective.

“Meeting other teachers, professionals and people who judge dance competitions and who see dancers all over the U.S., Mexico and Brazil, and knowing that out of all those dancers they chose you, it’s such a fulfilling experience,” Porter said. “I’m so grateful for it because I would not have those opportunities without my home studio. They are the ones who got me here and I’m so thankful for them. I’m grateful that they saw the passion for dance in me, and hopefully that I had the talent for them to pick me. It just instills that light in you that makes you feel like, ‘Ok, I am good enough to do this, and I need to do this because other people are giving me that chance, so I need to take it.'”

During college, she will audition for the Western Kentucky University Dance Company, an extracurricular that goes along with her dance major.

“At the start of this school year, I will audition for the WKU Dance Company,” she said. “If selected, I will get to perform with them in the fall and in the spring.”

She will audition each year for the company, with the goal of dancing on the team all four years while earning her bachelor’s degree.

“My goal after college is to hopefully teach somewhere using my science degree and start an arts program in a school that doesn’t already have one, like Hancock County,” Porter said. “HCHS offers band, theater and choir, but doesn’t offer dance as an extracurricular. Owensboro High School has a magnificent dance program. Two of the students from their program got scholarships to go to Giordano this summer with us. One of them won one of the other awards at the summer intensive. He wouldn’t have ever gotten that chance if it wasn’t for dance at his high school. I think that’s amazing and I wish more schools and more counties would offer it, so that’s my goal.”

While attending HCHS, she and Lydia Smith worked with HCHS cheer coach Aimee Estes to try to get a dance team started.

“There were only five people on the team, and it lasted two months then fizzled out,” she said. “That showed me there was interest, though. People did try out, so that tells me it would be great if it were offered.”

Hancock County is a big contender for where she might teach one day, she said, because she loves it here and wants to come back home after graduating from college.

The summer intensive in Chicago she participated in this month began on a Monday and ended on a Saturday, and students were there from the Sunday before until the following Sunday.

“I just love being in the arts, whether it is dance, theater or band,” she said. “I think it is so crucial. Kids need that side of creativity to learn and do anything; it just works a different part of your brain.”

She loves the science side too, she said, with learning physiology and anatomy. Her experience with HOSA, the science classes she has completed, and her continued education at WKU will all equip her with a better understanding of how to support dancers’ injury recovery, overall health and preventive practices such as stretching.

She said her years of dance experience give her a strong foundation, and that understanding physiology and anatomy makes a significant difference. It allows her to bring together her love of science and the arts and find a balance where she can use both to support others.

She said she is very thankful for five of her most influential mentors at Owensboro Dance Theatre: Jennie Boggess, Joy Johnson, Kim Johnson, Natalie Lopez and Jaysie Beth Royal.

“I want to say thank you to my mom, my ‘Nana’ and ‘Pap’ and my entire family, but especially my mom,” Porter said. “She has traveled with me for the past five summers and stayed every week. This year, she watched almost every single class we had. Just to take time out of her own summer, when she is a teacher and she is busy, and to come and spend a week with me in Chicago so I can dance, it means a lot that she’s willing to do that for me. Also, I want to thank everyone in the community. We do a lot of fundraisers because getting these opportunities is amazing, but they’re not cheap. We consistently have a village that backs us up. I wouldn’t be anywhere near the level that I’m at or achieving the things I’m achieving if it wasn’t for every person I’ve ever met believing in me, and that means a lot too.”

Porter was selected as a Jerry Baker Scholarship recipient in dance. The Western Kentucky University Dance program gives out two of those scholarships every year to auditioning freshmen. She also received the Potter College Creative Arts Scholarship, a competitive award for incoming freshmen majoring in specific arts disciplines in WKU’s Potter College of Arts & Letters.

She earned an award from the Hancock County High School Youth Service Center for completing more than 2,000 hours of community service during her high school experience. As a graduating senior, she received multiple honor cords and was also the recipient of several local scholarships.

During her high school career, she was active in band, color guard, theater and choir, and participated in HOSA-Future Health Professionals. She also worked at Holiday World in Indiana during her summers.

Earlier in high school, she was selected as a delegate to the Congress of Future Medical Leaders. She also held the title of Miss Teen Hancock County Fair in 2024.

Porter has served on three international mission trips to Honduras, where she worked in communities building pilas (above-ground water basins) and latrines, painting schools, installing water filtration systems and assisting with Vacation Bible School outreach.

Outside of school and dance, her interests include reading, church activities, dirt track racing, babysitting and spending time with her dog Lexi Jane, an Australian shepherd.

She is the daughter of Kimberly and Ryan Porter of Hawesville. Her brothers are Jayden and Mason Porter.