On their way Sunny Hitt

Editor’s Note: “On Their Way,” a new occasional column written by Bangor Daily News staffers, checks in with young Mainers making their way in the world beyond the Pine Tree State.

Sunny Hitt, a 22-year-old college senior, saved, raised and applied for money to attend the American Dance Festival, a prestigious modern dance intensive that takes place summers at Duke University in North Carolina. Her hard work paid off and, in July, she made the long, hot drive from her home in Morrill, near Belfast, to North Carolina. During the six-week session, she was chosen to be a featured dancer in the world premiere of a dance by Indonesian choreographer Martinus Miroto.

“I started dancing when I was 4,” said Hitt after the show. “I had a general interest. And my parents are great. If their kids come home and say they’re interested in something, they’re right on it.”

As a girl, she danced with Ivy Forest in Belfast, then in summer programs with Andrei Bossov in Waterville and at Walnut Hill School in Natick, Mass., where she had her first exposure to Martha Graham’s modern technique. “I didn’t really like it,” she said, scrunching her nose.

Delicate though she may be, Hitt is also tough. After graduating from Belfast High School, she lit out for the ballet program at Purchase College, part of the State University of New York.

“I remember watching the fall concert there,” she said. “I went every night. I really fell in love with modern dance.”

Suddenly, ballet seemed like the wrong barre. She returned to Maine and immersed herself in dance classes in the Portland area and eventually entered Marlboro College in Vermont. Next semester, she’ll complete her Alvin Ailey-inspired senior thesis: a series of choreographies about the influence of personal memory on dance.

Her career goals reflect that background: “I’d like to dance professionally in a company where I could feel like I’m making a contribution. I’d like to move to a city. I wouldn’t mind living in New York City, but I don’t have my heart set on it.”

Her work may carry her away from Maine, but Hitt’s philosophy about life is home grown. She looks to her father, the actor and director Robert Hitt, for a life philosophy: “He always said: ‘Any opportunity that comes your way, you have to snatch it up. When is it ever going to come again?'”