P a g e a n t N e w s B u r e a u

The lithe fantastic

Photos courtesy of Tera McHenry

Folks say you have to be flexible to make it in the pageant world. But very few beauty queens are as flexible as Tera McHenry. This New England teenager is pageantry in motion.

She is, by definition, a dancing queen. Her titles include Teen Miss Dance of Connecticut and Junior Miss Dance of the United States. She performs ballet, pointe, jazz, tap, lyrical and acro-gymnastics. In her mid-teens, she's already a dance teacher and a choreographer.

But she's more than a mere Tera Two-Shoes. She's also studying acting and singing. She's a model, and she sometimes competes in pageants where performance is a lesser category.

She's an honors student and a winner of the Henry James Award. (And if you know anything about Henry James, you know this award has nothing to do with dancing.)

She's still young, of course, but Ginger Rogers started even younger. And Ms. McHenry is determined. While other girls spend their weekends partying, she's practicing or competing. A dancer is an athlete, who must have a love of competition and a desire to win. Tera McHenry has both.

In just a few years, Ms. McHenry will be eligible to compete in the Miss America system, where the ability to perform is a must. As versatile as she is, we think we know what her talent will be. (If you're guessing ventriloquism, you've been around too many dummies.)

P a g e a n t N e w s B u r e a u