Sarah and Courtney spoke with Alea Brown about her experience as a pre-professional student. She brings a fresh perspective on the challenges of being a pre-professional dancer in the era of COVID, college auditions, and everything in between. Alea is a 17-year-old high school senior and pre-professional dancer with the Colorado Ballet Society. She plans to attend the University of North Carolina School of the Arts this fall to continue her training in classical ballet. To follow Alea's college journey, follow her at: @Alea.YunCai.Brown To check out her jewelry business, please visit her website at https://joyfulcloudsdesigns.wixsite.com/joyfulcloudsdesigns  and on Instagram at @joyfulcloudsdesigns To follow Colorado Ballet Society, please visit their website at https://www.danceinthesprings.com/ and follow them @ColoradoBalletSociety on Instagram and Facebook Please remember that Sarah and Courtney are mental health professionals, and anything you hear them say are experiences from their lives and should not be considered medical advice. If you are in crisis, please call 1-800-273-TALK (8255) to reach a 24-hour crisis center, text MHA to 741741, call 911, or go to the nearest emergency room. To find a local MHA affiliate who can provide services, check out https://www.mhanational.org/ Theme music is, "A Journey" by Kevin Hartnell It has been edited and reproduced under the Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0). Follow us on Instagram! Dance; Better Podcast @dancebetterpodcast Courtney @courtulrich Sarah @techballet Send in your questions or episode suggestions to [email protected] If you relate and found this episode helpful, please click follow/subscribe and leave us a review. (We might even read it on the next episode!) This helps to make our show more searchable, and will make it more accessible to more people...plus, we’d love to hear from you!