ROBERTSDALE, Ala. — For Trista Barry, a seventh-grade student at Summerdale School, dancing is an all-consuming passion.

That also goes for her friend and dance school mate Alyssa Holley of Silverhill. Holley is a senior at Robertsdale High.

“It’s a way to get away from everything,” explained Holley.

Both young women have been dancing from an early age, 3 for Barry, and 4 for Holley. While both young women got their start at a number of area dance studios, they currently train at Sheffield’s School of the Dance in Mobile.

“My mother put me in to try it out,” said Barry. She added that she has been doing “competitive” dance since she was 6.

“My mom decided to put me into dance,” said Holley. “I was bouncing off the furniture.”

While different studios do things differently, for Barry, being a competition dancer has meant training to compete and appear at conventions.

It’s an honor, and one of the first indications that a young dancer might be able to go further with the art than most. Holley was also invited to dance “competition,” and both young women have flourished with the challenge. Both dance jazz, ballet and “lyrical hip-hop,” which Holley describes as a “slower version of jazz.”

“She is amazing,” said Holley of Barry.

Barry later said that she found Holley’s dancing just as amazing. Both started their dance training with ballet. In fact, many of the dance terms they learned in their first classes are the language of dance, the terms their instructors use, such as “Pas de chat,” or cat’s step, and “jambe” or leg come from ballet.

While she has yet to go “en pointe,” or dance on her toes, the hallmark of a ballerina, Barry hopes that she will be getting her first pair of pointe shoes for Christmas. While they started younger, today, dancers wait until they are grown before going en pointe to prevent damage to growing tissue.

Both young women prefer jazz to ballet.

“I like jazz best, said Barry. “It’s upbeat.”

Both women have paid a physical price for their art. Barry says her hips hurt for a while, and she was prescribed exercises to strengthen them. Holley, on the other hand, injured her ankle.

“I went for a jump,” Holley recalls of the time two years ago. “I came down wrong. It was a few days before a competition.”

Despite her injury, she took classes and took part in the competition, saying she, “took a lot of painkillers.”

“I didn’t go to the doctor until afterward,” confessed Holley. She added that her physician was less than impressed with her dedication.

“But for both, dancing is life I just love it, it is my talent,” said Holley. “Dance is my passion, it is what I do.”

Both have earned their share of honors for individual competition. Barry earned a scholarship to the Tremaine dance convention in New Orleans last year, and was on her way to earning one for next year until she realized she would not be eligible because she had already won a scholarship.

“I made it to the final,” said Barry. “I think they saw the energy and loved the combinations.”

Juggling school, friends, finding practice time and getting to a dance school across the bay in the Mobile area that Holly says is “45 minutes away” has taught both young women the value of time management.

“I have learned a lot about discipline and confidence,” said Holley. “You have to learn how to balance school and dance, and you learn that you have to respect everyone.”

Holley says dancing has helped her in her studies. She already has been accepted to the University of South Alabama and other colleges. She hopes to join her college’s dance team and later audition with Disney.

Barry hasn’t developed any firm career goals yet, but she says that dancing has “given me confidence,” and she finds that she, “gets better as i get older.”

“I was so shy,” said Barry, “I get lost (in the dance) and it feels really good to let go.”

Barry does know no matter what the future brigs she wants to “do something with dance” for the rest of her life.