“Now that I’m doing martial arts, I’m toughening up,” 16-year-old Rachel Filsoof joked.

The actress, singer, dancer and Professional Children’s School junior has been training in mixed martial arts for the past three months for a film. The yet-to-be-titled picture will be released in theaters in 2013, and Filsoof has a lead role. “I play a girl manufactured by the government to kill a bunch of bad dudes,” she explains.

This marks Filsoof’s first foray into the action genre, where she will play a character very unlike her young, shy self. Filsoof admits to being teased and found it difficult to confront her tormentors when she was younger.

Although she now lives in Battery Park City, she moved here only three years ago from Atlanta with her family. In Georgia, her fellow students were venomous when it came to her budding career: “Kids were not nice to me. I would miss school for auditions and rehearsals without being penalized, and they resented that. I also dressed in my own style, like wearing pink furry boots, and they would pick on me for looking different. It was rough. Now I go to school where everyone is like me. It’s awesome. I’ve made so many friends.”

At the age of 9, Filsoof began performing in local theater productions, including Annie, and modeling in advertisements for companies like Macy’s, Escada and Home Depot. The smooth beginning of her career reads like the type of fairy-tale story many young girls secretly dream of: Filsoof was discovered by a scout from Elite Modeling agency while walking her dog. Modeling opportunities led to acting gigs and Filsoof soon found herself traveling during summer breaks to New York and Los Angeles to perform on stage and in television roles.

Eventually, she had booked enough jobs to warrant a permanent move to New York City with her parents in tow. Her father, who works in real estate, still makes regular trips to their old stomping grounds.

“Everyone just left for me and my career. My parents had to completely sacrifice their lives for me. I really appreciate it,” Filsoof said.

Tess, Filsoof’s mom, added, “We didn’t want to prevent her from reaching her potential as a performing artist since it is what she loves and she is so focused, disciplined and determined to make it in the business.”

Over the past few years, Filsoof has toured with productions of High School Musical 1 and 2, starred in the Lifetime movie Flying By, with Billy Rae Cyrus and Heather Locklear, and landed a part in the ABC Family film Mean Girls 2.

Filsoof is also simultaneously embarking on a singing career, and recently signed with a record label as part of a new girl group. She will be featured with her vocal coach, Trapper Felides, on a reality show debuting on the Oxygen network in February called The Next Big Thing.

Almost three years ago, 14-year-old Jesse Manning moved to New York City with no family and the chance to pursue his passion: ballet. Originally from Orlando, Fla., Manning studied at the School of American Ballet near Lincoln Center for a summer as a young teen. The school was so impressed with him that he was invited to continue his study full-time.

Manning, now 17, made the move alone from the Sunshine State to the Big Apple. Until last year he lived in a dormitory at the school; his parents have recently joined him and the Manning clan now lives in the Financial District.

Starting his freshman year of high school in a new city without the presence of his mother and father was understandably challenging. “It was really overwhelming when I first moved here for a number of reasons. I was homeschooled in Florida for 7th and 8th grades, so I had to get used to going to school again as well as the increased workload. I was also pretty homesick because I wasn’t living with my parents. Eventually I got used to it. It wasn’t easy, but it was good because I grew up really fast.”

In the world of dance, the School of American Ballet is known as one of the most rigorous training programs in the country. It is regarded as a feeder school for the New York City Ballet, but even those students who don’t make it into the prestigious company generally end up performing with other top ballet troupes. Manning dances at the school six days a week, three hours a day and his coursework includes everything from technical ballet instruction to weight training.

He has also performed with the New York City Ballet as an extra in a few of their productions, including Firebird and Vienna Waltzes. In addition, he is a student at the Professional Children’s School, which affords him the time and flexibility to pursue dance.

When asked where this passion stems from, Manning said ballet is in his blood: “My mom inspired me to dance. She performed with the Joffrey Ballet back in the 1980s and went to Professional Children’s School, too,” he said.

Although Manning plans to audition for spots with various ballet companies next year, his ultimate goal is to join the New York City Ballet. “When I was living in Florida and learning about the School of American Ballet, I made the decision that it was the only company I wanted to be part of,” he said.

By Mary Stachyra

Years ago, Erika Petersen dreamed of becoming an actress. She enrolled in the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU, but dropped out to pursue acting full time. After her daughter was born, she decided that the out-of-town trips were too taxing and enrolled in Hunter College, where she earned bachelor’s degrees in history and secondary education, and a master’s degree in theater history.

Erika Petersen, who acted professionally before she became a teacher, still takes dance classes in the summer.

Today, that knowledge comes together in the classroom at the Professional Children’s School, where for the past eight years Petersen has taught social studies, along with history to students who are learning English.

“They kind of dovetailed,” said Petersen, 61, who still takes dance classes in the summer. “It gives you a certain tool to kind of hold the audience—although I don’t believe you have to be constantly entertaining. You have to engage [the students] so that they stay concentrated on the learning.” She added, “Of course, you have to give them their time in the spotlight as well.”

At Professional Children’s School, an independent school where students pursue artistic professions alongside academics, that method is a hit. Students say they love Petersen’s tendency to “act out” scenes in the classroom.

“Ms. Petersen has a background in the theater, so her classes are never boring,” said Victoria Grempel, a former social studies student. “She is the exception to every single social studies teacher.”

Grempel also credits Petersen with teaching her how to write.

“She helped me put words together in this way that I never thought I could do,” said Grempel, who is now in 10th grade at the school and still goes back to visit Petersen. “She is one of my major influences, besides my parents, in my life.”

Petersen, a native New Yorker who has lived in her Upper West Side apartment for nearly 40 years, said she is proud of the work she did with Grempel. In her 14 years as an educator, there have been a lot of students who left an impression. Once, a student at Brandeis High School, where she previously taught, thought Peterson wasn’t dressing well enough—“and I probably wasn’t,” she acknowledged. So at Christmas, the student bought her a new suit.

“These kids didn’t have a lot, and I thought that this was the most lovely thing,” she said.

When students respond with such thoughtful gestures, though, it’s probably a reflection of Peterson’s daily classroom goal: raising the craft of teaching to an art.

“Teaching at the highest level you can teach at is important,” she said. “If you really know a lot, [the students] become fascinated.”

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Erika Petersen
Social Studies, Professional Children’s School