Point Park University alumna Gianna Martello has been busy living out her dreams since graduation. Despite being a member of the Lifetime Channel show “Dance Moms,” Martello credits Point Park as one of the most memorable times of her life.

“The best four years of my life,” Martello said.

Martello splits her time between Pittsburgh and Santa Monica, working on her show, filming, and travelling around the country.

Martello, or “Gia”, as she is known on the show, started dancing at the age of four in a small basement studio, learning tap and ballet.  A year later, she wanted to explore other facets of dance, so she moved to Abby Lee Miller’s studio in Penn Hills, Pennsylvania, and has been with her ever since.

After Martello graduated from high school in the Pittsburgh area, her dream was to move to Los Angeles.  Her family urged her to attend a traditional university.

“I was a dancer who said that I wasn’t going to go to college, that I was going to dance,” Martello said. “My parents said, ‘you’re crazy; you’re going to school.’”

Martello said that Point Park had everything she needed in a school.  Point Park made the most sense to Martello because she could receive traditional education that her parents insisted on while still pursuing what she loved.

“I thought, I’ll be gone in a year; I’ll be here for a little while until they give in,” Martello said. “By sophomore year, my mom asked me, ‘what are you going to do?’, and I said, ‘I already picked my classes.’ I went there all four years. It was amazing. I regret absolutely nothing.”

While attending Point Park, Martello recalls that her favorite course was social media, which she took during her senior year.

“That was the one class I looked forward to each week,” she said. “We would go visit all of the [non-profit] agencies. I couldn’t believe this was a class.  Everything was so current, you know, and that’s what I enjoyed about it because it was all so new.”

This course was taught by Point Park professor, Heather Starr-Fiedler, who remembers Martello well.

“I remember her being an excellent student,”  Starr-Fiedler said of Martello. “She was very engaging in class. I required students to bring in articles about, you know, what was happening in social media, and she was always very on top of current trends.”

Starr-Fiedler is still friends with Martello via social media and continues to follow her career.

Martello offered some advice for the current dance students at Point Park University.

“I think they are in a great program, one of the best,” Martello said. “Give each class and give each mentor 150 percent, because that is what they want and that is what they need to do to be successful. Don’t just go into a class and say, ‘oh, I will work harder tomorrow’, because there’s no time for that.”

Students can watch Martello on the Lifetime show “Dance Moms” every Tuesday at 9 p.m. The mid-season premiere of Dance Moms aired just last week. Martello and the rest of show’s cast have already begun filming season seven.