As the daughter of two professional dancers and the owners and directors of Pas de Vie Ballet, Seah Hagan is carrying on a family tradition. “I’ve been around ballet since before I was born and I was 4 years old when I did my first performance with Pas de Vie.” Now 17, Seah is literally following in her parents’ footsteps as are many other Pas de Vie students.

Seah’s father, ballet master Charles Hagan also got an early start. “I have danced since I was 7 years old. I started as a tap dancer and my teacher made me take ballet because it was necessary if I wanted to be a dancer. I fell in love with it.”

Propelled on a similar trajectory, Seah’s mother, dance instructor Natalia Botha began ballet training as a child under the guidance of her mother, also a dancer. By the age of 11, Botha was awarded a scholarship to study at the Joffrey Ballet School in New York. She and Hagan went on to enjoy professional careers with the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre.

“We’re trying to pass on what we’ve learned and our experience,” explained Hagan. “We’ve worked with all kinds of people, all over the world, my wife and I, and we’re trying to pass that on to our dancers.”

Pas de Vie offers a summer intensive program which provides young dancers with extended time to advance their skill and technique, an option not available to them during the school year. “In the fall, they’re coming two to three times a week for an hour and half to two hours. Well, these guys are coming five days a week and doubling that amount of hours so they’re actually doing in one week what they might do in a month,” said Hagan. “It is unbelievable how much they progress over a summer.”

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