Schneller laughs while talking with the Stephens College Dance Team, which she coaches, at the end of practice on Friday, Sept. 9, 2022, in Hickman Hall at Stephens College in Columbia. She said she loves coaching the dance team because it’s like a family. “I think you don't feel good most of the time, actually, when you're that age,” Schneller said. “Like you just don't have a lot of confidence. You don't believe that you are going to be able to get out of the funk that you're in because it's hard, and college isn't easy, and you don't see the future. And it's really important that the people around you support you and see it. So, I just try to be that. I also had really none of my own [support] when I was that age from my coaches, and I really wanted it. And so I’m providing what I think I should have received.
BUSY WITH LOVE
Columbia resident Katherine Schneller, 30, seems like she never slows down. She’s a dance teacher, head coach of the Stephens College Dance Team, the assistant director at Cedar Creek Therapeutic Riding Center—which is owned and run by her mom—and she and her husband run a duck farm from their home, in which they sell eggs and ducks to local restaurants. Schneller said she enjoys staying busy and having a full schedule. Although she has a lot on her plate, she said she doesn’t feel like any of her jobs, obligations or daily activities feel like work because she’s passionate about all of them in various ways. She said she feels lucky to get to do everything she does.
“I'm passionate about helping people and making people feel special about themselves,” Schneller said. “And that's what being a coach is, and that's what working at Cedar Creek is, and that's what being a teacher is. In a way, I do the same thing, I just do it in different ways. I just try to support people. I just like to make an impact. I like to feel like I do something that matters. That's like the best feeling. I hate feeling like I'm just sitting on this rock doing nothing.”
Schneller and dance student Ellena Hinck do a port te bras in center floor toward the end of Schneller’s ballet class on Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2022, at Dance Expressions Studio in Columbia. Schneller started dancing at the age of 11, danced throughout high school and eventually joined the Conservatory at the University of Missouri at Kansas City. She spent some time performing in Kansas City, but moved back to Columbia in 2019 because the experience wasn’t sustainable long-term. Having previously taught at Dancearts of Columbia, this is Schneller’s first year teaching at Dance Expressions.
Schneller, right, and Stephens College Dance Team member Mallory Womeldorff sit in the bleachers and watch the Stephens College Dance Team perform sidelines at a Stephens volleyball game on Saturday, Sept. 10, 2022, at Silverthorne Arena in Columbia. Schneller took over as head coach in 2021 and said coaching them is her biggest artistic outlet right now. “I’m really excited to put them on the map as a school and hopefully grow with them,” Schneller said.
Schneller talks with the Stephens College Dance Team before they perform sidelines at a Stephens volleyball game on Saturday, Sept. 10, 2022, at Silverthorne Arena in Columbia.
Schneller works with horses on Thursday, Sept. 8, 2022, at Cedar Creek Therapeutic Riding Center in Columbia—the week before the center officially opens for the fall season. Even though she spent a lot of her childhood at the center, she said she didn’t fully understand how cool it was until she went off to college. She says working there is one of the most rewarding things in the world, and she enjoys the hard labor aspect of it. “If I’m not at the farm lifting buckets, and making horses do crazy things and getting stepped on or all kinds of weird shit, I'm in a dance studio, making my body do other things that aren't very nice to it,” Schneller said. “I just don't ever sit and do nothing.”
One of Schneller's dogs, Binx, hovers over her basket as she picks habaneros, habanadas and ghost peppers from her garden on Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2022, at her home in Columbia. She said their home garden was a big reason they moved there and that it’s something she and her husband bond together over. “I just like having my own oasis and space out here,” Schneller said. “It's nice having something that's just like—we created it.”
Schneller tends to her ducks before gardening on Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2022, at the duck farm at her home in Columbia. Schneller and her husband Jordan started a duck farm at their home in 2020 after taking in a duck their friend needed to get rid of. Now they have around 60 ducks and sell duck eggs and ducks to local restaurants like Barred Owl, Butcher and Beetbox.