Dancing into the spotlight

MOSES LAKE - Miss Moses Lake has a few tricks up her sleeve, dance tricks that is, and she wants to teach them to children.

"Children need to move, it's so natural," Miss Moses Lake Sara Rosborough said.

She is working with Youthful Horizons Physical Therapy in Spokane to rehabilitate children with disabilities through creative dance.

There is one rule. Leave your wheelchair at the door.

She is developing her own low-cost program for this summer. She hopes to conduct a mini-session in Moses Lake for one week in December.

"I really have a heart for children with disabilities," she said. "They are mentally clear but their bodies don't function the way they want them to."

Rosborough's love for dance began at an early age.

"Mom always wanted me to take ballet lessons," she said.

When Rosborough was 3 years old, she took several "moms and tots" ballet classes.

She continued with the program and other ballet activities on and off until she was about 8 years old. But ballet interfered with her nap time, Rosborough joked.

She was not emotionally ready for the discipline required of ballet dancers, she confessed.

When she reached the age of 9, Rosborough changed her mind.

"Mom, I'm ready," she recalls saying.

Rosborough was ready for ballet.

She recalled always being late to her dance classes. Rosborough has three other sisters going to different places with her mother being the sole transportation.

"You got there when you got there," she said.

Since Rosborough was 9 years old, she kept up with dance consistently.

She studied ballet and modern dance at Texas Christian University from 2003 to 2006.

Within three years Rosborough obtained a bachelor's degree.

She is now taking prerequisite courses at Eastern Washington University to obtain a doctorate degree in physical therapy.

But the stage continued to call her. Rosborough grew up watching pageants.

"I wanted to be up there on that stage," she said. "They have a crown, that's a big deal when you're ten."

When Rosborough was a junior at Moses Lake High School, she won the Jr. Miss title. Rosborough went on to compete at the state competition placing first runner-up.

A few years after the Jr. Miss competition, she decided to push herself to do the Miss Moses Lake competition.

"I was eager to jump into Miss Moses Lake because I had a good experience with Jr. Miss," she said. "I'm a sucker for attention."

Rosborough and four other women competed for the title and she came out on top winning a few categories.

She took home the title and was awarded the Miss Congeniality Award, an academic award, lifestyle and fitness in a swimsuit award, People's Choice and top talent.

"Winning was very exciting, kind of surreal," she recalled.

While Rosborough was on the stage, she remembers thinking to herself, "this is going to be my life for the next year."

The program pushed her to do things she planned on doing in the future now. Her pageant platform was rehabilitating children with disabilities through dance. Rosborough felt confident she could start her dance program.

"It really makes you know who you are," Rosborough said of the competition.

Her future plans entail being a physical therapist for dancers and she wants to work part time with a university dance program practicing physical therapy.

Rosborough's weekends are booked with teaching creative dance to children with disabilities.

Eventually she wants to go back to school to obtain qualifications to teach ballet, modern dance and Pilates classes.

No matter what Rosborough is doing, she wants to work with children through dance.

Her passion for children stems from her own childhood when her parents divorced.

"It's been a blessing in disguise," Rosborough said. "It's given me great compassion for other people, especially kids."

She had a hard time dealing with the divorce.

"I didn't really process the emotions until I hit college," Rosborough said.

She began to work through her issues with the divorce.

"It's like a funeral that never ends. Your whole world changes," Rosborough said. "You continually grieve. It's one of the few tragedies that gets completely ignored. The children don't have anywhere to go."

Her three sisters helped her through the divorce.

"They were the ones who were always there," she said. "I wouldn't have been able to survive without them."

It wasn't always that way.

"At one point in my life, I would have given them to you," she laughed.

Her oldest sister Quinn Rosborough, was her best friend growing up.

"She's an amazing person," Sara Rosborough said.

Her other sister Brooke Rosborough shares the middle child role with Sara Rosborough.

The pair are roommates at Eastern Washington University.

"She enjoys saying things that will shock you," Sara Rosborough laughed.

Sara Rosborough describes her sister as having an ironic dry humor who loves to debate over ethics and philosophy.

Her youngest sister Brittany Rosborough will be a senior in high school next year.

"She's still trying to find herself," she said.

Sara Rosborough advised all the sisters missed out on the quiet gene.

She recalled her sisters loving to get on each other's nerves when they were younger. The sisters would get a kick out of telling Brittany Rosborough she was a boy, she recalled, laughing.

"We're all just so different personality-wise," Sara Rosborough added.

She won't be trading her sisters in anytime soon.

Sara Rosborough said her sisters have been a source of strength and have pushed her to achieve.