Libby Kokes’ task was simple: write an eighth-grade research paper comparing woman authors from the 18th and 19th centuries. It was past midnight and Kokes was finally satisfied with her end product. All 48 pages of it.
The paper far exceeded the assignment. Her motivation wasn’t the grade, though. She’s just a perfectionist. “I was really interested and it was fun to spend time at the library,” Kokes recalls thinking. “I felt like a scholar.”
Not many teens would put that kind of effort into a school project. But Kokes is different. In the student world where academic success isn’t always easily reconciled with clubs, sports and other school activities, Kokes, 14, has learned to strike a balance.
As her father Steve Kokes says, his daughter has a “hunger for being involved” that drives her to fill every free minute. For years, her main focus has been dance. She’s spent hours honing her skills at studios across Portland, even quitting soccer this past spring due to scheduling issues. Now, she’s found that she has a new talent for running – something that could draw even more of her time.
Unfortunately, 24 hours a day is not always enough. Kokes says that although she tends to be a busy body, balancing activities is not always easy.
She began dancing ballet at Child Peace Montessori School of Portland at age three. With her gym teacher doubling as her dance teacher, Kokes remembers her beginning experiences of ballet being warm and inviting.
As Kokes moved forward with her ballet, finding a steady studio where she could dance was a challenge. The instructors at one studio called her a potato. Another kicked her out for choosing to participate in a soccer game over ballet.
“At this level, companies want their dancers to dance all day,” Kokes explains. “Girls will dance all day and be homeschooled or enroll in online or night school.”
That’s not something she and her family will ever do. “I don’t dance to make a career of it, I just love doing it,” she says.
Right now, she’s dancing at the Portland Ballet, preparing for a production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Every Saturday, Kokes is found at ballet where she dances into the evening. In addition, she dances Tuesdays and Thursdays. Woven between dance class and rehearsal in the fall, Kokes ran with the Grant High School cross country team.
Having never run competitively, Kokes joined the Grant team on a trial basis, influenced by her parents’ love of running. She didn’t expect to fall in love with it herself. “I took cross country as, ‘OK, I’ll try it and see how it goes,’” she says. “But it turns out I have a lot of fun doing it.”
Her coach, Doug Winn was happy to have her step up this year. “You watch Libby at any moment and she shows her dignity,” Winn says.
Throughout the season, Kokes had to sacrifice a lot to accommodate both running and dance. She had worked out a deal with her studio that allowed her to miss two classes or rehearsals a week in order to attend cross country. In turn, she did not participate in most of the weekend meets. During one week, she finished a weekday meet with one of the fastest times but she dropped down on the roster after missing a race.
After the girls team had taken first place at the District championship meet last month, Kokes ran in the state meet in Eugene. Despite the nerves, Kokes “tried to go into it with a no pressure attitude,” she says.
After running a 20:21 race, Kokes placed forty-fourth out of one hundred and eight girls. Only six freshmen finished ahead of her. Overall the team took seventh in state.
Kokes admits that constantly devoting her time to being active is hard on her social life. “I’m not really a social being,” she says, shyly laughing while admitting that sometimes she feels lonely.
She says she’ll spend Thanksgiving break rehearsing, which means she won’t see much of her family. And when asked if she can hang out after school, her friends have become accustomed to her putting ballet first.
With the end of cross country season also came exciting news from the ballet studio. On the same weekend that Kokes ran in the state meet, she received an e-mail that she will be moving up a level in ballet. That means an additional class and an additional time commitment.
Kokes knows at some point that she’ll have to make a decision about which path she’ll follow. But for now she’s OK with enjoying the running while she can. She knows Winn and the school’s track coaches will want her to compete.
“I want ballet to stay my number one passion, and I’ve had a lot of good ballet classes,” Kokes says. “We’ll see because I don’t know if I can do both.”
