Sarah Schachterle - HERLIFE Magazine

16 HERLIFEmagazine.com
uncommon for her mom to find her making up routines in fun or just for her friends.
Her first paid gig was a small scale high school dance team that paid her $25. That
small sum made a big impact on Sarah. For the first time in her life, she realized
dancing could become a career. As she set her course some family members weren’t
so thrilled. “No disrespect meant, but some family members definitely asked me
what I was going to do for a real job or seemed nervous about my career path,” Sarah
says. “My mother has always been very supportive of my dancing; she has always
been my biggest fan. My brother, Josh, is a ridiculous musician. He has had several
CDs released and was the lead singer for the ‘Wind Up Merchants.’ He has also been
extremely supportive. My mom’s whole side of the family consists of actors, writers,
musicians, so I guess it runs in our blood. My dad is a great guitar player and loves
to sing. While I know he’s proud of me, I do believe at times he was a bit concerned
about my chosen profession.”
But Sarah put those concerns to rest. Today, her accolades are extensive and her
talent has reached across the world through performing and teaching dance, working
with some of the biggest names in the industry. She choreographed for the NBA
Jam Van appearance in Hang Zhou, China, as well as two European tours. She has
directed and performed to the Armed Forces Entertainment tours in Belgium, Turkey
and Bosnia, and is also the co-owner and creator of the Denver Dance Festival. Her
choreography was also featured at the 2005 NBA All Star Game. From 1999 to 2007 she
choreographed for professional sports teams including the Denver Nuggets (NBA),
Colorado Mammoth (NLL), and the Colorado Crush (AFL). She has also choreographed
for numerous high-ranking pom, hip-hop and jazz teams in both the college
and high school levels, and was the exclusive choreographer for the “RockStarz,” a
one of a kind dance group comprised of all NBA and NFL cheerleaders and dancers.
She has choreographed and performed with Ciara, Eve, Kelly Clarkson and MC
Hammer. “MC Hammer came to Denver to put on a half-time show and he was one
of my favorite artists to work with,” says Sarah. “He was like a big cartoon character,
very earnest and real funny. I really haven’t had any bad experiences working with
stars,” she adds. “There was one female artist that was demanding and didn’t want
any female dancers to have any light on them. All the female dancers were to be kept
in the dark and no light shown on them at any time because she wanted to be in the
spotlight. She wasn’t a great dancer either. When things like that happened you just
nod, smile and say okay—you go with the flow.”
With her busy schedule Sarah confesses it doesn’t take much to get her creative
juices jump-started, usually starting with a song she’ll hear or think of. “It has to really
strike me or it’s difficult to get into. From that point there really is no rhyme, reason,
or formula…it just kind of happens. Sometimes I work on it at a studio, sometimes I
just sit down and visualize it. I also love the teaching aspect of choreography and feel
the role I play is that of teacher and dancer, motivational speaker, comedian and role
model. There is some pressure involved, and I have definitely ‘hit a wall’ more than
once.”
One thing’s for sure, hitting a wall isn’t foreign to Sarah and her latest has
definitely given her the biggest challenge so far. “I was at home and talking on the
phone with somebody and got dizzy. The next thing I knew I was waking up, trying to
pick myself up off the floor. I couldn’t move. I crawled to the phone and called for help
because I had hit my head. When I got to the hospital, that’s when they found there
was something wrong with my heart.” Sarah was diagnosed with Ventricular Tachycardia
(VT), also known as “sudden death” and can come with very few symptoms. VT
causes palpitations and if sustained, can be dangerous because the ventricles cannot
fill adequately or pump blood normally. Blood pressure tends to fall, and heart failure
follows. If it worsens, it can cause ventricular fibrillation, a form of cardiac arrest.
“At first I thought this couldn’t be happening to me,” Sarah says. “Over and over
I kept telling myself that there was no way. I tried to think of a way to control it, that
there was some way I could keep it from happening.” By the time Sarah’s illness had
been caught, the damage had been done. Her only recourse was to go on a list for a
heart transplant. But with her new daughter (Reagan), Sarah wanted to weigh the
cost. With research today, a new recipient of a donor heart has the life expectancy of
10 to 15 years. Sarah has put herself on the inactive list for a donor heart. “I had to