Corinne Hampton

I slammed the brush onto the counter, my fingers still tangled in the long, knotted coils of golden locks. I let out a loud sigh as I swooped the frizzy mess into its usual ponytail, attempting to conceal my unruly curls as much as possible. I despised my curly hair. It didn't resemble the silky straight strands of the white cousins on my mom’s side, and my curls weren’t tightly coiled like those of my black cousins on my dad’s side. Growing up biracial, no one knew how to style my hair. Because I could never figure out how to make my curls look good, I regularly wore ponytails, braids, and buns. My hair was a persistent reminder that I was both black and white but would never fully belong. 
The feeling of not belonging carried into my passion for dance as well. Despite dancing since the age of four, I constantly grappled with the thought that being biracial meant I would never be as good a dancer as everyone else. My teachers would make stereotypical comments about black dancers naturally being good at hip hop and having good rhythm, and white dancers being better at ballet. I didn’t feel talented in any of those styles. When asked to add my personal flair to dance movements, I always panicked, unsure of how to add stylistic moves that were authentic to me. In my head, this served as yet another reminder that I didn’t have a clear identity. 
These negative thoughts about being biracial began to shift at the beginning of my junior year, when I joined a new dance company that introduced me to concert dance, a mix of various dance techniques and genres, including ballet, modern, contemporary, and jazz. This new dance community and instruction showed me that I didn’t have to align with a specific dance genre or role. Instead, I should discover the dance genres I was most passionate about and lean into my unique talents and interests. After years of conforming to other people’s expectations of who I should be as a dancer, I discovered that I could strive to become the dancer I wanted to be without pressuring myself to fit into certain boxes. 
This switch in how I viewed myself as a dancer showed me that my difficulties weren’t due to my alleged lack of rhythm or talent; it was that for far too long, I had listened to outside voices, treating people’s statements as facts about me and, in turn, had ingrained a multitude of negative self-talk in my mind. Only after I began to trust and believe in my abilities rather than thinking I was only as good as others told me I could be did I truly love my craft, revealing that the way I speak to myself matters. As I began trusting myself more and more, I stepped into roles as a Fine Arts Ambassador at my school and the co-Artistic Director of my dance program’s annual student-led concert. Seeing the successes I had in dance after strengthening my personal mindset ultimately led me to realize my desire to help instill confidence in athletes and performers as a sports psychologist. I want to encourage and support others to believe in their abilities rather than tear themselves down, and to not take to heart what others say they are and aren’t capable of doing. As a dance BFA major seeking to pursue a career in sports psychology, my education will allow me to continue growing as an artist while also strengthening my understanding of the mind-body connection in dance, other sports, and performing arts.

Major
Dance 

Other Academic Interests
Sports Psychology 

Extracurricular Activities
Student choreographer

What drew you to the Forty Acres Scholars Program?
Attending a big school like UT Austin initially felt very daunting to me; however, my experience with the Forty Acres Program changed my outlook. The strong community that this program provides makes the campus feel so much smaller. Having the ability to collaborate with peers across majors enables the formation of new creative projects, the establishment of lifelong friendships, and engagement with people who are very different from one another. This makes FASP a space that allows for deep thinking, innovative ideas, and exposure to people from diverse backgrounds. Further, it creates opportunities to connect more deeply with long-time members of the University of Texas at Austin community who are eager to help scholars succeed.