Street: What’s on your Penn bucket list?
AK: I came to Penn and I wanted to be on almost every group on campus...I feel like I’m going to get to fulfill that with Osiris, when we have the show at the end. I can kind of pretend I’m in all the groups.
Street: Osiris seems straight out of Fame—do you guys ever perform together?
Audrey Keller: We actually are having a show at the end of the year! The reason the group was born was to bring all these people who are really prominent in the arts together and have a big showcase at the end of our Penn careers.
Street: How did you get into dance?
AK: I started when I was three! My parents signed me up, and it was just something I kind of stuck with.
Street: Tell us more about Arts House.
AK: We do mostly contemporary and jazz dancing, we also dabble in ballet. I’m kind of the tap person of Arts House, and we do a little bit of hip hop...I eat, sleep and breathe Arts House.
Street: Is there a quintessential tap outfit?
AK: Just the shoes! I just got new tap shoes...they are maybe my most prized possession right now.
Street: What’s your least favorite article of clothing?
AK: I really don’t like pants that much. I find them constricting. It’s probably—it’s definitely because I’m a dancer.
Street: Do you remember your first show?
AK: No, I was 3. I taught at my dance studio and I would teach the 3-year-old classes and they always just never know what they are doing. Some of them pee on stage...that was probably me.
Street: Who is your favorite tap dancer?
AK: I really like Chloe Arnold because she is really advancing tap dance into pop culture. She has a group of female tappers called Syncopated Ladies and they make music videos to Beyonce songs.
Street: Where do you practice at school?
AK: Actually I used to practice tap in the hallway freshmen year, and the floor below me used to get mad. I didn’t know, so I didn’t stop for a while...oops!
Street: So how did you get into engineering?
AK: My dad is a mechanical engineer. He actually goes to Penn, he’s getting his PhD in mechanical engineering and I’m getting my bachelor’s.
Street: Have you taken any classes together?
AK: No, he’s been done with classes for a while. He’s getting his degree part time because he still works and is a dad and everything. I wonder if he’ll read this because he goes here! [Eds’ note: send him the link, 34st.com!]
Street: What is your favorite family tradition?
AK: My family is really outdoorsy. The first time I went backpacking we hiked the Mid State Trail up by Penn State. I was four and wore a dress and probably got carried most of the way...but we’ve gone and set up camp in the same spot almost every year since.
Street: What did you do this summer, engineering or dancing?
AK: I worked in the modular robotics lab which is part of the GRASP lab [Eds’ note: General Robotics Automation Sensing and Perception, naturally]. I led a project on some chemical gel that self-oscillates when in acid.
Street: Those words go way over our heads.
AK: They go over mine too! I’m not a chemist, it was a strange project for a mechanical engineer. But it was cool!
Street: What does your PennCard look like?
AK: Right now the plastic is peeling off, and I have a big chunk of gaff tape on it, because it was the only tape I could find in the lab, to put it back on. So most of it’s just covered in black tape.
Street: Does it still swipe?
AK: Yeah! It actually does. They still accept it. Sometimes they give me funny looks, but then I’m like, “Keep going, it’ll swipe.”
Street: How many have you had?
AK: This is my second one. But I didn’t lose the first one! It just stopped swiping, so I got a new one. So I feel like it shouldn’t count. 00 at heart.
Street: Do you have a favorite late-night snack?
AK: I really like lunchables. The pizza lunchables? They’re my go-to.
Street: What’s the most disappointing present you’ve ever gotten?
AK: The Christmas when I was 15...I didn’t ask for anything, and then my parents didn’t get me anything!
Street: What’s your stance on fliers on Locust? (do you take them? ignore them?)
AK: I usually tend to take them, especially if I’ve made eye contact. I’ve had to do my fair share of flier-ing, so I know what it’s like...I went through a phase freshman year where I was really aggressive with it. Sometimes I would touch people’s stomachs with the fliers so they’d feel awkward not taking them!
Street: If you had to be on a reality TV show, what would it be?
AK: So You Think You Can Dance...A boy in Arts House auditioned last year, so the whole company got to be on TV cheering for him for a few seconds. So maybe that already counts?
Street: What’s on your Netflix queue?
AK: I’m currently watching Friday Night Lights, but freshman year I watched all ten seasons of Grey’s Anatomy in one semester. I would sit in the common room and cry and people would be like, “Audrey, are you okay?” And they would look at my computer and be like, “Ohhhh, nevermind.”
Street: McDreamy or McSteamy?
AK: McDreamy!
