RiverPointe Dance Academy students didn’t need someone to tell them their teacher was the best, but nonetheless, owner and teacher Bridgett Hunt brought home the Most Outstanding Teacher Award for 2015 from Dance Revolution.

Hunt called the accomplishment humbling and rewarding.

“They open it up to any studios who go to this huge convention in Dallas (Dance Revolution) every year,” she said. “They could opt to put their teacher up for the award.”

Those wishing to nominate their instructor could write essays about why they believed their teacher was deserving of the award. Hunt was up against teachers from studios across the nation, from Los Angeles to New York City.

“This was incredibly humbling and rewarding for me because it’s not like they could just turn my name in,” she said. “They had to write about it, and it was really confirmation for me that what they’re getting here is a lot more about life lessons and relationships as well as their dance techniques.”

Hunt said she was able to see the letters after she won the award, and they were all sweet and consistent.

“Many of them said I was more than a dance teacher to them,” she said. “They said I was someone they trusted and they could bring their problems to and someone who looked at them as a person and not just a dancer who needed correcting.”

Hunt was nominated by her staff, and the 13 dancers who went to the convention wrote letters in support of her nomination. A few parents also elected to write in, Hunt said, lauding their children were dancing somewhere they had a Christ-like example and role model outside of their own families.

“It wasn’t based on the studio size, but it was based on what the letters said and the difference they felt like was being made,” she said.

Hunt said she tries to stay involved in the lives of her students and the relationships she builds may be centered around dance, but they’re also much more than that.

“If I know they’re struggling with something, I’m going to check on them during the week, not just when they’re here,” she said. “If they have an injury or they’re sick or they’re absent we contact them. We try really hard to carve out time for them if there’s something they need or they need someone to confide in.”

At RiverPointe, students are taught dance is about commitment, hard work and dedication, Hunt said.

“It’s about comparing yourself to who you were yesterday, rather than comparing yourself to the person standing next to you,” she said. “You can’t go through life comparing yourself to everyone else. Ultimately, we always tell them you’re only supposed to try to be who Christ wants you to be.”

Hunt says the hard work and dedication required by dance will translate to every class and every job her students will ever have.

She’s teaching life skills.

“Everything they’re doing in life, they should do well and work hard,” she said.