Some use dancing as an escape from reality, but to Sam McReynolds dancing is something that could not be more real.

“I started dance when I was 4 years old.  It was an obsession for me to watch my mom dancing on stage,” McReynolds, senior, said. “I used to watch her at the performances and then I’d also watch them on tape at home and try to copy every single thing she did.”

McReynolds grew up watching his mother’s auditions for showcases, and while waiting in the hallway, he would mimic the moves realizing he had the same passion.

Although a predominant hip-hop and ballet dancer, McReynolds has tried many genres.

“You have to try everything in order to be good at whatever your favorite [dancing style] is,” McReynolds said.  “I feel like, if you don’t have a background of so many styles, you won’t be able to get as far as you could if you did have that background.”

The feeling McReynolds gets when he is on the stage is unlike anything else.

“It’s almost indescribable,” McReynolds said.  “It’s the only thing I can feel that I know is totally real.”

The stage is also the place where he can truly let go and express himself.

“He just knows how to let go and express himself through dance,” Gina Ginocchio, sophomore and dancer, said.  “He has the potential to be an amazing dancer and to dance with very talented people in the future.”

His performances also allow other people to see all the different sides of him.

“There’s two sides of Sam, a goofy side and a really serious side, and I see both in [his] dance,” Jordan Ward, sophomore at Metro Academic and Classical High School and fellow dancer at Charmette Academy of Dance, said.

Students were given a glimpse of Sam’s many sides when he performed a hip-hop routine to Nicki Minaj’s “Roman’s Revenge,” Ciara’s “Gimme That,” and Willow Smith’s “Whip my Hair” at this year’s Mr. KHS pageant with Robyn Jordan, senior.

“It felt really good being up there on stage,” McReynolds said. “I think we rocked it.”

Though it can be a source of his freedom from the rest of the world, for McReynolds, dancing also presents challenges.  As one who might be considered to have a natural talent for it, he still has to work very hard and practice everyday.

“Even those people that are supposedly born with a gift to dance, they have to go through a lot of work to get there, and you have to dedicate everything to it,” McReynolds said.

However, the feeling McReynolds gets when he’s on stage overrides all the stress and hard work it took to get there.

“Once I get on stage, everything comes alive,” McReynolds said.  “It’s this huge amazing feeling that only I can experience when I’m dancing, and it’s surreal.”

McReynolds is now what one might consider an accomplished dancer already, having been given various scholarships through dance conventions, getting paid to do shows, and dancing at The Pagaent with his two friends for Far East Movement.  It is all a matter of where his dancing will take him in his future.

“It’s really important to him,” Ward said. “I know he’s going to continue dancing, because that’s just something that’s in his heart.”