Moa is aiming for EHL in Lausanne

Moa travelled to EHL in Lausanne this spring by special invitation after winning their writing competition. Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne (EHL) is well renowned among Hospitality & Leisure Management Universities and Moa hopes to be accepted there after her final year at SSHL.

Students at SSHL are regularly accepted to
top ranking universities across the world and this year is no exception.
We have spoken to three of our ambitious students about their future adventures.

Moa Andreasson is always on the go, never standing still or slowing down. Before arriving at SSHL, her one and only goal in life was to become a professional dancer. She started dancing as a ten-year-old and gave her undivided attention to her studies at the Royal Ballet Academy in Stockholm and the Zurich Dance Academy.

One day the unthinkable happened, Moa fractured her spinal column. The doctors told her she would never dance again. In despair, she packed her things and returned to her family stationed in India. Back in India, she focused all her efforts on rehabilitation. Since there were no suitable schools available for her where her family was stationed she made the decision to move back to Sweden and study Business Management here at SSHL starting around Christmas 2017.

She was half a year behind with her academic studies by then, but she managed to catch up in only a single term.

– From day one I was commuting to dance rehab in Stockholm from SSHL in Sigtuna, Moa explains. I was slowly but surely able to start dancing again all while going to rehab. By February, doctors confirmed that my back was healed!

Moa har lagt dansskorna på hyllan och är tillbaka på SSHL.

Her goal was still to be a professional ballet dancer. So, once again, she auditioned for the Royal Swedish Ballet School in Stockholm and returned to her studies there after the summer break. She resumed over 25 hours of dancing, six days a week with a simultaneous course load of academics. At the end of the school year, she was accepted to join the summer intensive at the acclaimed New York American Ballet Theatre, ABT, through a scholarship awarded to her by the Royal Swedish Opera:

– New York was fantastic and dancing at ABT was a dream come true! But after those weeks, I was so tired, she says with emphasis. It was such hard work. The constant pressure to achieve perfection killed my motivation. Was it worth it for the chance of a career dancing on stage? I was never able to rest, never be free… I really didn’t know what to do.

A few days before school was about to start, she simply decided to quit dancing. She sent an email to SSHL asking to be allowed to return and because she had proven her ability to catch up she was admitted to SSHL once again to join a new class, in another program and move back into her old boarding house. She is now finishing up her 2nd year (grade 11):

– My old friends and teachers were really surprised when I showed up here again, but their reactions were all positive and I felt o welcome here. I love dancing, but life is more than that. School here is great and now I have a new, “normal” life!

The trip to Lausanne and her visit at EHL was very inspiring. And a journey that brought Moa a new goal in life.

About Moa
Age: Turns 19 this summer
Class: Social Science SAM
Hobbies: travelling, reading, writing
Lives: in India and at SSHL
Favourite place: on an aeroplane, on my way somewhere
Plans for the summer: hotel work in Stockholm, travelling with friends, visiting family in Skåne, getting my drivers license and flying to my family in India at the end of summer.
Fun fact about me: I am very curious, even to the point that the teacher had a talk with my mom when I was only seven years old to explain that “it’s okay to not have to know everything, all the time”