| Grebel Dance and our own Miss Alabama contestant! |
| Raquel Martin was crowned Miss Wiregrass on Saturday, November 4, 2006 and will participate in the Miss Alabama Pageant, June 3-9 in Birmingham. The winner of the Miss Alabama Pageant will go on to the Miss America Pageant. |
| Meet Miss Wiregrass: |
Raquel Martin is a junior majoring in communications at Huntingdon College and is a Hawk Cheerleader, Phi Kappa
Delta Student Honor Society, National Honor Roll, and Chancellor’s List of American College Students. Her passion
for dance began when she could wiggle her toes, as she was born into a family of performing artists. At age 12 she
was accepted into the dance program at Alabama School of Fine Arts as a boarding student. The following year she
was accepted as a boarding student at the Kirov Academy of Ballet for gifted ballerinas in Washington D.C.. Upon
entering high school Raquel attended the Hungarian National Ballet Academy in Budapest where she studied ballet
and music intensively for two years. She quickly rose to the top of her class and was selected as the youngest
American competitor at the Prix de Lausanne in Switzerland. The following summer she accepted a scholarship to
summer study at the prestigious Juilliard School at Lincoln Center in NYC. Raquel performed as a featured ballet
soloist for six weeks in Italy with international artists at the “Rome Festival” the following summer. She spent this past
summer dancing in Cannes, France at the Ecole de Superiuere. She has studied and/or performed with: American
Ballet Theatre, The Arizona Ballet, San Francisco City Ballet, an apprentice with Ballet Hispanico and the
Montgomery Ballet. Raquel has been studying in Pelham with Stevan Grebel since age 10. Raquel is currently a
senior at the University of Alabama and is working towards degrees in dance and mass communications. She is
employed by The Dance Centre in Tuscaloosa.
Raquel became passionate about her platform “Chain Reactions” with the March of Dimes when her little brother
Bobby was born 3 months premature. She has been actively involved since she watched her brother fighting for his
life at birth. She has a first hand understanding of how pre-maturity can cause significant health problems later in a
child’s life. She remains committed to the March of Dimes awareness campaign to help families have healthier babies
through her continued work and dedication with WalkAmerica by organizing and promoting fundraisers for research
to prevent birth defects and infant mortality.
Delta Student Honor Society, National Honor Roll, and Chancellor’s List of American College Students. Her passion
for dance began when she could wiggle her toes, as she was born into a family of performing artists. At age 12 she
was accepted into the dance program at Alabama School of Fine Arts as a boarding student. The following year she
was accepted as a boarding student at the Kirov Academy of Ballet for gifted ballerinas in Washington D.C.. Upon
entering high school Raquel attended the Hungarian National Ballet Academy in Budapest where she studied ballet
and music intensively for two years. She quickly rose to the top of her class and was selected as the youngest
American competitor at the Prix de Lausanne in Switzerland. The following summer she accepted a scholarship to
summer study at the prestigious Juilliard School at Lincoln Center in NYC. Raquel performed as a featured ballet
soloist for six weeks in Italy with international artists at the “Rome Festival” the following summer. She spent this past
summer dancing in Cannes, France at the Ecole de Superiuere. She has studied and/or performed with: American
Ballet Theatre, The Arizona Ballet, San Francisco City Ballet, an apprentice with Ballet Hispanico and the
Montgomery Ballet. Raquel has been studying in Pelham with Stevan Grebel since age 10. Raquel is currently a
senior at the University of Alabama and is working towards degrees in dance and mass communications. She is
employed by The Dance Centre in Tuscaloosa.
Raquel became passionate about her platform “Chain Reactions” with the March of Dimes when her little brother
Bobby was born 3 months premature. She has been actively involved since she watched her brother fighting for his
life at birth. She has a first hand understanding of how pre-maturity can cause significant health problems later in a
child’s life. She remains committed to the March of Dimes awareness campaign to help families have healthier babies
through her continued work and dedication with WalkAmerica by organizing and promoting fundraisers for research
to prevent birth defects and infant mortality.
