Sophomore Nikki Ciesinski rushes into the crowded dressing room at the Kennedy Center. With her fellow ballerinas chattering around her, she pins up her long hair, pulls on her costume and stretches. On stage, the lights dim and the music begins as Ciesinski leaps across the stage.

Like Ciesinski, several Whitman students diligently rehearse and train to dance in recitals and shows like “The Nutcracker.” For some, ballet is just a hobby. For others, it’s a professional path.

Ciesinski performs with the Washington Ballet Studio’s professional track program. She practices a minimum of four hours everyday but Saturday, when she spends eight hours at the studio. She performs in about 30 shows a year.

“I want to be a professional dancer, and I am on the track to be one,” she said. “The Washington Ballet is one of the top ballet schools in America, so it’s a compliment just to get accepted into the program.”

When she performs “The Nutcracker” in the winter, her schedule becomes even more hectic with extra rehearsals in addition to normal classes.

Senior Ariella Steinhorn was also on track to become a professional dancer until she tore a ligament at the end of her junior year. Like Ciesinski, she performed in the pre-professional program at the Washington Ballet Studio where starred as Clara in “The Nutcracker” and danced in a show that a “So You Think You Can Dance?” judge directed.

“I wanted to go to college, and you can’t really go to college if you’re in a company,” she said. “It’s like a nine to five job.”

Now she dances at “Jazz Fusion,” a dance studio in Bethesda, and looks to continue dance as a hobby in college.

Other Whitman students, like senior Carolyn Connor, have always viewed dance as more of a hobby than a profession. Connor, who dances at the Corrine Phelps Robertson School of Dance twice a week, also participates on the track team and other extracurricular activities.

“It’s something that’s fun to do and a good way to meet people,” she said.

But, among the fun, many students said they agreed the activity’s one major drawback is the shoes.

“It’s a very painful hobby,” Steinhorn said. “You’re in the pointe shoes for sometimes four hours a day, and it’s basically like your feet being packed into boxes. When you’re not moving, your toes get bruised.”

Despite the discomfort, Whitman ballerinas said dance is a passion that they’ll continue to pursue.

“I started ballet because my mom put me in it,” Ciesinsky said. “But ever since I started it I’ve loved it.”