University of Denver Spring 2025

ALUMNI STORIES

Balancing Act Going back to school while working is not easy, but when the job is dancing full-time on Broadway, it takes a special kind of determination. Paige Fraser-Hoffman is up to the task.

B y Heather Hein

“Everything you see exists together in a delicate balance,” the wise leader Mufasa tells his son Simba in Disney’s “The Lion King.” Mufasa is talking about the circle of life, but Broadway cast member Paige Fraser-Hoffman (MA ’24) has managed a delicate balance of her own for the past four years, performing eight shows a week while earning her master’s degree in arts and cultural management online from DU. A Bronx native, Fraser-Hoffman had been dancing professionally for several years when she got the call for “The Lion King” in 2019. “It was surreal,” she says. “I woke up and saw a phone number I didn’t know. I listened to the voicemail and I just, like, fell to my knees. I had auditioned, I think, seven times.” She chose the College of Professional Studies (formerly University College) over other programs offered through Disney’s Aspire program largely because of its focus on outreach. It was perfect for her, she says, because of her passion for community involvement and advocacy. Fraser-Hoffman has long been interested in helping others through dance, traveling to Haiti and Jamaica to teach classes for at-risk youth

for various nonprofits and schools. She, better than anyone, understands the importance of community support in overcoming challenges. A diagnosis and becoming an advocate At age 13, when Fraser-Hoffman was about to start her freshman year at a prestigious performing arts high school in New York, she was diagnosed with scoliosis. Because she was young and still growing, her parents opted to treat it with back bracing rather than surgery, which she did for months. “It was awful. I wore a brace all day underneath my T-shirts and sweaters,” she says. “The only time I felt free was dance, because I got to take it off.” The fact that she had already been dancing for several years and was aware of proper alignment and movement was a saving grace for her—as was the support of one of her dance teachers, who she learned also had scoliosis. “Here was this person standing in the front of the room, with this career, with scoliosis. And I thought, if she can do it, I can do it,” Fraser-Hoffman says. Her experience inspired her and her family to start the Paige Fraser Foundation in 2017, which offers free performing arts and wellness programs to people

Photo courtesy Michelle Reid

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UNIVERSITY OF DENVER MAGAZINE | SPRING 2025