Two years ago, Taylor Stewart left her hometown of Siloam Springs for Jackson, Miss., with the dreams of becoming a professional ballerina.

Today that dream is still alive as Stewart was recently promoted to Ballet Magnificat! Alpha Company as an apprentice back in February and is on the cusp of being a full-fledged member of the company.

Stewart spent her last two years in the company's Training 1 and Training 2 programs -- one year in each whereas it takes some ballerinas a full two years to complete just one of them.

"I was kind of surprised because I was thinking I would get another year in the training program before moving on," Stewart said. "A lot of people left the company this past year. Usually only a couple of people are promoted. They only have so many slots in the company they can have. Four people got promoted into the company and a lot were let go."

Of the 40 trainees total, only four got promoted and only 12 remain in the highly competitive field, Stewart said.

One of the first events after getting promoted was a trip performing overseas with the trainee groups.

Stewart, 19, performed with Ballet Magnificat! for a week in Guam, South Korea and China in March.

In fact, she said the initial leg of her trip -- a flight from Jackson to Atlanta -- was her first ever plane flight. Now she can call herself a world traveler.

The trip went through Tokyo, Japan -- a 14½ hour flight -- with a six-hour layover. The dancers arrived in Guam at 2 a.m. and had a couple of days to get their jet lag out before performing.

However when they went from Guam to South Korea, they traveled overnight, got there mid-morning and performed that night, she said.

"Adrenaline kind of kicks in, definitely, but afterward you crash pretty hard," Stewart said.

Stewart's mother, Kristin, said her daughter is doing exactly what she wants to do.

"This has been her dream," Kristin Stewart said. "It's like a dream come true basically. And I want to go in her suitcase."

Taylor Stewart said the traveling around the globe is definitely a perk but it wasn't what she joined the trainee program for.

"I really just wanted to be able to dance and get paid for it," she said.

The last two years have been interesting, she said.

Stewart's first year she was in Training 1 and she loved that program. After the first year she went through evaluations.

"You go into a room with three of the teachers and they tell you what to work on," she said. "After Training 1, they basically just told me what I needed to work on, like you need to work on flowing in a group more and work on my technique, stuff like that."

The result after the first year was moving up to Training 2. It was anybody's guess what would happen in evaluations this past year, she said.

"You really don't know," she said. "You don't get a bunch of feedback from teachers unless it's in class. That's what evaluations are for. You really don't know what they are going to say. People are surprised they're let go. They say it's a true evaluation."

Cassandra Voborsky, the trainee director for Ballet Magnificat!, said it has been fun to see Stewart improve as a dancer in her two years with the company.

"It has been wonderful to see Taylor grow stronger as a dancer and adapt to Ballet Magnificat!'s unique style during her past two years of training here," Voborsky said. "I have seen her God-given talent blossom into a beautiful young artist, and I believe during her apprenticeship with the company even more of her potential will be developed as she travels across the United States and South Africa this year. Taylor is humble and works hard at what she does."

The next step for Stewart would be promoted to full-time in the company.

"You can be an apprentice for a couple of years, but the goal would be to become a paid company member," she said.

As of right now, she's not a paid employee, though she goes get paid per diem when the company is out on tour, which is actually coming up pretty soon. In September, the company is headed to South Africa for a month and then Brazil for two weeks.

"I'm excited to see what this next year's going to be like," she said. "I loved the trip I went on and I'm excited to travel this year. I'm sure it's going to be way different."

Stewart said her experience so far with Ballet Magnificat! has been awesome.

"So many people come to the ballet program," she said. "There's people from Israel, China, Guam, France, Japan, Australia -- it's just super awesome."

She's also seeing some of the hard realities of the professional dance world.

"Overall it's been really great," she said. "I've really made great friends there. It's really hard because a lot of them are leaving because they've been let go. It'll definitely be different (with) new people coming in.

"It's hard when you're promoted and you weren't expecting it. Even though it's a Christian environment it's still really competitive. It's hard when friends expect to get promoted and you were instead of them."

Stewart was back home in Siloam Springs in May, but even then she had to keep her fitness and learn three ballets while at home. She was back in Jackson on June 1.

"It's really flown by," she said. "It's been crazy."