BOSTON - Fredrika Hill has a large cluster of purple bruises on her right leg, remnants of the kind of wound that's instantly recognisable to anyone from Bermuda.As she peels off her warm-up gear to prepare for a ballet class at the Boston Conservatory, she glances down at the discolouration below her kneecap.“It's from road rash,” the 19-year-old says ruefully. “A week before I came back to school in September, I was in a bike accident. I had to avoid a car that stopped suddenly in front of me and the road was slick and oily, so my bike skidded and I fell.”Fredrika doesn't care about the bruises. She's disappointed at the training she had to miss at the start of her sophomore year while she waited for the injury to heal properly.“I had to sit and watch all my classes for a week,” she says. “I hated that. But I wasn't allowed to do any bending because it would stretch the scabs. I couldn't jump either, which is my favourite thing. Luckily, it didn't take too long to heal.”To those who know Fredrika - her parents, Diane and Archer Hill; her teachers at the Somerset School of Dancing, Sal Hodgson and Jayne Burnet; and Denise Pons and Olivier Besson, two of her instructors at the conservatory, where Fredrika is enrolled in the Bachelor of Fine Arts programme - the comments are typical of the serious young woman whose quiet demeanour hides a ferocious desire to succeed.Fredrika has one goal: earn her BFA and join a professional dance company. She wants a full-fledged career in dance.The Bermudian dancer has what it takes to do just that, according to her instructors at the Boston Conservatory.“Fredrika has a heroic presence, and a statuesque quality,” says Ms Pons, a former Boston Ballet soloist who, as part of the conservatory's recruiting team, has had her eye on the athletic Bermudian for some time. “We look for the dancer who's passionate and versatile. And we're not looking for just a ballet or modern dancer because no-one has the luxury to do just one thing any more.“Fredrika's potential is clearly apparent. She is able to work comfortably in ballet as well as modern, and that's our mission to train in both disciplines.”Mr Besson agrees. Fredrika is in his contact skills and improvisation classes, two courses that draw on the French-born instructor's decades of experience with dance legends such as Merce Cunningham, José Limon, Bill T Jones and Arne Zane.“This is my second year with Fredrika,” says Mr Besson. “When this work was presented to her during her freshman year, it was outside her comfort zone, as it is with most young dancers. It focuses on the kinaesthetic, rather than the aesthetic.“But as she became more accustomed to this type of movement process, she gained more confidence.“She certainly has the 'tools' to dance.”When Fredrika started classes at the Somerset School at the age of four, there was no indication that one day she'd set her sights on a career in dance.“Sometimes you can tell at three or four who is going to keep at it, and sometimes it takes a bit longer,” says school owner Mrs Hodgson who taught Fredrika as a youngster.“When Freddy started taking lessons with me at age ten, she was a bit feisty,” says ballet teacher Mrs Burnet with a smile. “She liked to dance but didn't have that love that she has now. I didn't think she'd be the one who would choose a career, although it wasn't for lack of talent.“But a year later, when she came in to class, she was a different child. More mature, focused, a bit older. After that, she just worked as hard as she could and she hasn't stopped since.”Fredrika, who credits Mrs Hodgson and Mrs Burnet for the training that got her accepted into the Boston Conservatory, remembers Mrs Burnet's reaction to her attitude in class.“Miss Jayne and Mrs Hodgson had the biggest impact on me,” she says. “I grew up with them in the studio. Mrs Hodgson never took second best from me and Miss Jayne pushed me all the time.“If I was in a bad mood, she'd say 'Snap out of it' or she'd say 'If you don't want to be here, I don't want you here'.“Miss Jayne also helped me understand the opportunities I could have as a dancer. She told me that just because my body type isn't like a typical ballerina, that didn't mean I couldn't have a career in dance.”Fredrika says this tough love approach to instruction and the Somerset School's Royal Academy of Dance curriculum in Bermuda prepared her for the ruthless audition process she went through as she applied to New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Juilliard, State University of New York at Purchase and the Boston Conservatory.“Most of these schools make cuts during auditions,” she says, “I was heartbroken when I got cut during a couple of them, but I got over it.“But the Boston Conservatory doesn't do that. You fill in the online application, send your résumé and a photo in first arabesque as well as a transcript of your school grades. Then you're given an audition date. I preferred to do my audition in person so I came to Boston. The audition and interview took most of the day.“This was my top school, so I was really nervous while I waited to find out the results. I was comparing myself to everyone else who auditioned. They came from all over the States and from Spain and Trinidad. I didn't think I'd get in.”Six weeks later, Fredrika was told that she was one of 40 students accepted into the four-year BFA programme at the Boston Conservatory.“I was ecstatic!” she says.Fredrika's parents are enormously proud of their daughter's achievement and fully support her desire to dance professionally.“I give her a lot of credit for pursuing this,” says Mrs Hill. “We've told her there will be a lot of rejection but she's been very straightforward about what she wants to do.“So many times in life, you fall into a profession and there's no thought. But Freddy's put a lot of effort into this. We're just so very proud of her.”Fredrika's father was concerned about his daughter “putting all her eggs in one basket”.“I was trying to encourage her to take something along with dance,” says Mr Hill. “She was so good in math. She made it look so easy and used to annoy the rest of the family when it looked like she didn't even have to study to keep up.”Mr Hill takes comfort in knowing that his daughter's degree will facilitate the option of teaching as well as performing and, in fact, this is part of Fredrika's long-term planning.“I want to dance for as long as I'm able to, and then go to the Royal Academy of Dance in London and get my teaching qualification. Then I'd like to come back to Bermuda and teach at the Somerset School of Dancing.”For now, Fredrika is working hard to prepare for an upcoming fall showcase for sophomore students. Her days start early and end late, with Mondays and Wednesdays being the most gruelling.In addition to modern, ballet, pointe, contact skills and improvisation classes, Fredrika is taking pilates, composition, repertory, dance history and pedagogy. Next semester, she'll be taking courses in anatomy and kinesiology.During a morning pointe class in one of the conservatory's studios on Hemenway Street, the brown eyed, 5'5½” dancer listens intently as Ms Pons leads her students through 20 minutes of strengthening exercises. Standing at the barre with a dozen other students, Fredrika slowly points and flexes her feet, warming up the joints of her toes and ankles before lacing on pink satin pointe shoes. The class moves on to a series of pliés, relevés and battements that Fredrika executes with careful precision.After almost an hour at the barre, the students move to the centre of the studio. Fredrika takes a position close to the mirrors that line the front of the room. She has no trouble executing the combinations Ms Pons gives the dancers. When she falters on a pirouette or arabesque, frustration flits across her face for a moment. Then it's gone, replaced by a calm concentration as she repeats the movement until she gets it right.A wide, easy smile lights up Fredrika's face as she joins the other dancers during a break in class. Gathered in a sprawling group on the floor, most have tape wrapped around their toes; several have braces on their knees. One has just rejoined class after suffering a concussion during a rehearsal. They chat about classes and assignments while they stretch and massage aching muscles.“I love being here,” Fredrika says later. “The difference between here and Bermuda is that everyone in class really wants to be here. At home, some of the kids are dancing because their parents make them. Here, you're surrounded by people who want the same thing as you.“I didn't realise how big the world was until I went to the auditions and until I came to the Boston Conservatory. Whenever I told people in Bermuda that this is what I wanted to do, they laughed at me. Once I got here, it gave me even more drive and determination.“If anyone from Bermuda asks me about a career in dance, I tell them not to quit and to keep working hard. Hard work pays off.“Sometimes it doesn't feel like it will, but it does. And it will be so good once you realise you've got to where you wanted to go.”