You are the ‘turning queen’

Taylor Hartzog wasn’t sure — about UNC, about dance team.

It was April of her senior year of high school, and she had yet to commit to a college. Plus, she had already missed spring auditions, and having grown up dancing her whole life, Hartzog wasn’t sure she was ready to recommit.

But she was.

“I ended up auditioning and was really fortunate enough to make it,” she said. “And since then, it’s been a really fun ride.”

Fun, but not easy. The senior psychology major, admissions ambassador and dance team captain starts her days early and ends them late.

“I go to workouts at 6 a.m., and I usually get done around 7, 7:15,” she said. “I’ll come back and shower for the sake of my classmates.”

And for the sake of her teachers, she sneaks in readings before heading to classes at 9:30 a.m. After, she’s in the lab until 4 p.m.

“I go to the lab every day and either work with MRI stuff or transferring data,” she said.

At 5:30 p.m., it’s time for practice, which is usually dictated by the time of the year: Late spring is dedicated to practicing for National Dance Alliance’s annual competition, which the dance team attended this week. Yesterday, they secured a highly coveted spot in the final round.

Fall practices, held in the Eddie Smith Field House, focus on football game performances.

“We actually don’t practice at any of the dance studios on campus, especially because it’s really difficult to get that space — it’s usually reserved,” she said.

Other spaces are reserved for other dance groups on campus but aren’t built to host more than 20 dancers. Plus, the field house does not have mirrors, something crucial for dance performances.

“That’s the one thing we always struggle with,” she said.

And when they’re not learning dances, they’re teaching them to basketball players for Late Night With Roy.

“(The basketball players) are good about knowing that we put time into it, but if a basketball floats out into the middle of the court, bad things happen. We just lose their attention,” Hartzog said, jokingly.

And at Late Night her sophomore year, Hartzog caught the attention of a specific point guard — Marcus Paige, her boyfriend now for almost 2-and-a-half years. The two were dance partners for the song “Holy Grail,” prompting Paige to reach out afterward.

“I sent her a message and was like, ‘Hey, it was a lot of fun being your partner. We should hang out some time,’” Paige said. “I got lucky.”

Paige also quickly won over the approval of Hartzog’s friends, including former UNC dancer and Hartzog’s best friend, Yasamin Sanii.

“I’m pretty picky usually for my friends, but he’s been very good to her, and he’s so fun to be around,” she said.

Hartzog has also become close with Paige’s teammates.

“(Taylor) and Brice are really good friends. Every time Brice sees her, he’ll walk over to her and pick her up because she’s small. He’ll mess with her, like how I do,” Paige said. “Her and Theo are close. Sometimes it feels like she’s part of the team. She’ll joke around with the guys, like she’s part of the team.”

And while she messes with his teammates, her favorite person to mess with is Paige. She pulls up his old high school interviews, and he plays videos of her as a tap dancer.

“I’m always trying to innovate and find a new way to drive him crazy, so the YouTube videos of him — especially of him in high school — feel free to go Google. They’re hilarious,” she said.

Paige said there’s two ways to drive her crazy. The first: if he says he’s on his way when he’s not. The second is serious.

“Her first name is actually Kimberly. If I ever want to get on her nerves, I’ll call her Kimberly, or call her Kim,” he said, laughing. “That usually results in her attacking me.”

Despite the jokes, Paige said he’s proud of Hartzog and the team and thinks they deserve more recognition.

“It’s important for people to realize how hard they work. They train just like the sports teams do. They get up and do 6 a.m. workouts twice a week. They practice almost as much as we do. They need to be a little more appreciated,” he said.

And while Paige might be the King of Threes, Hartzog is the Queen of Turns, meaning she can skillfully pirouette, twirling her body multiple times while balancing on one foot.

“She’s our Turning Queen. She could do an endless amount and make it look easy. She’s so good at it,” Sanii said.

Hartzog said though only some strangers recognize her, classmates tell her she looks familiar.

“Usually we’ll come back to class, and somebody will be like, ‘I saw you at the football game — I waved to you!’”

For now, the Beyoncé of UNC chooses to spend her nights with her Jay-Z, getting YoPo and watching movies. He introduces her to popular films she hasn’t seen, like “The Shawshank Redemption,” “Pulp Fiction” and Paige’s favorites — both “Ace Ventura” movies and nearly all of the “Star Wars” films.

“We’re like an old married couple,” Paige said.

Reflecting back on her time at UNC, Hartzog said one moment still gives her chills: the Louisville game last year.

“It came down to a last-second shot, and I’m up there in the stands panicking, thinking, ‘I really think Marcus is going to take this shot, and I really hope he makes it.’”

Hartzog said it’d either be the greatest or worst moment ever. It was the greatest; Paige hit the game-winning layup.

“He just stopped and made this face, like, ‘I did it.’

I thought, ‘I’m doing the thing that I love, and you’re doing the thing you love — simultaneously.’”

@ryanschocket

arts@dailytarheel.com