“You are the reason I am here.”

It’s a message to students written on the door to Kassandra Serafini’s dance class.

The Bates Middle School teacher learned last month that she had been named the Maryland Dance Education Association’s K-12 Dance Educator of the Year. The 27-year-old Ellicott City resident has taught at Bates for four years.

She leads two programs at the school: a comprehensive liberal arts program for dance and a performing and visual arts magnet program for dance. She is also pursuing a master’s degree in interdisciplinary arts infusion at Towson University.

“I always say to my students that I am proud to be a teacher,” she said. “I’m more proud, however, to be a dance teacher, and I am the most proud to be their dance teacher.”

She’ll get the award at a conference this month. A bouquet of white hydrangeas, orange lilies and other yellow, purple and red petals was her award from students the day after the announcement. They gathered around Serafini to congratulate her with a big hug.

Apart from the impromptu honor, Serafini started her class the way she always does.

Outside the door, students line up. When it opens, she meets each dancer with a curtsy, and they reply with a curtsy or a bow — it’s a professional-level move that is done in the dance world, she said.

The beginning of class is a quiet, calm time. Students enter a dim room filled with relaxing music, take off their regular shoes, change for class, then sit down on the floor to complete vocabulary exercises.

That’s followed by a cardio warmup and a stretching and strengthening warmup. The studio fills with more up-tempo music, and Serafini moves along with her students. After the warmups, students begin to learn techniques.

Just before noon, she was teaching a group of eighth-graders, focusing on modern dance techniques. Class always wraps up with time for creative exploration, then a reflection, Serafini said.

The teacher’s consistency is one thing that makes her effective, said Nicole Deming, Anne Arundel County Public Schools dance education specialist.

Serafini’s passion for teaching stretches back to her high school days in Howard County. She’s been dancing since she was 3 years old.

At 16, she got her first taste of teaching, she said. It clicked.

“In that moment I realized this was my calling in life,” she said.

Serafini not only moves with her students during class, she poses questions to students after various exercises. During one segment, students moved to Sufjan Steven’s song “Chicago” and practiced balancing and finding their center with their eyes closed. Serafini asked the students the reason for the exercise.

Taking away a sense, like sight, helps the others stand out, one student said.

“It’s important to be able to figure out what’s going on in our body without being able to see it,” Serafini said.

In addition to offering a magnet program for performing visual arts, Bates is an arts integration school. That means art is included in other classes to support core concepts like reading and math.

Serafini has helped teachers incorporate movement in their classes to add an extra dimension.

She collaborated with an English language arts teacher at the school a few years ago to bring movement to a lesson about Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet.”

Students from her dance class were grouped with English students, and then together they came up with choreography and movements that summarized different parts of the play. At the end, they had a full dance piece for the play.

Serafini was nominated for state dance educator award by Judi Fey. She held Deming’s position previously and is now treasurer of the Maryland Dance Education Association. The winners in the MDEA contest are judged by a committee, Fey said, and in addition to a K-12 category, awards are also given for teaching artist, post-secondary and private sector dance educators of the year.

Fey, a retired dance teacher, was working for Anne Arundel County Public Schools when Serafini was hired. She said Serafini immediately struck her as a natural teacher. She’s seen many teachers during her 45 years in education.

“The kids just respond to her,” Fey said. “They always have, since day one. They are excited about being in her class, and they are joyful in her class.”

Keira Hofeling, an eighth-grader in Serafini’s class, and Callie Hofeling, a former student who is now a sophomore at Annapolis High School, wrote a letter to support Serafini’s nomination for the award. The central message of the letter — Serafini cares about her students.

In the letter, Callie said Serafini was the reason she didn’t quit dancing after losing confidence due to bullying. Serafini invited her to her studio during lunch, just to talk about what was going on at school.

Serafini always taught her to have a positive outlook, Callie wrote. Serafini has the biggest heart of anyone she’s met.

“It made a huge difference in my life just knowing she cared about me,” Callie wrote.

rpacella@capgaznews.com