Keegan Marsh at the 2024 Mid-Ohio Valley Ballet Company recital at Marietta High School. (Photo Provided)

BELPRE — While he is excelling in dance, Keegan Marsh is hoping to use his interest in robotics to help others.

Marsh said his post-high school career interest is in the world of cyber technology.

“I want to become a robotic prostheticist,” he said. “They make robotic prosthetics for people who have lost limbs.

“I’d like to make them good enough so that if a dancer were to lose a limb they could still continue to dance.”

Marsh, the son of Crystal and John Marsh, is a senior at Belpre High School. He has been taking dance lessons since he was 7 at the Mid-Ohio Valley Ballet Company. He is also taking a college credit plus (CCP) dance class at Marietta College for jazz dancing.

Keegan Marsh, a senior at Belpre High School, has danced the role of The Nutcracker for the Mid-Ohio Valley Ballet Company production of the Nutcracker for the past two years. (Photo Provided)

“I started in second grade,” he said. “When I started I had seen a performance of the Nutcracker and I thought ‘I want to be a sword boy.'”

After being one of the sword boys, he has been performing as The Nutcracker in the show presented by the Mid-Ohio Valley Ballet Company, directed by Suzie Gunter.

Marsh also helps with the younger students.

“I help with props during the show and I’m a class helper,” he said. “I help the other students understand how to do their moves.”

Marsh said he is one of a few boys at the Mid-Ohio Valley Ballet Company.

Keegan Marsh at the 2025 Mid-Ohio Valley Ballet Company summer ballet recital. (Photo Provided)

“There are others who are younger than me,” he said. “There is only one other boy in my class group.”

Marsh goes to the class at Marietta College two days a week. At MC it is strictly a jazz class. At the MOVB they cover tap, jazz, modern, and ballet. As a company member he goes to more sessions per week than the others.

Marsh said when he started dance he found ballet to be the most challenging, but now it is his favorite. He enjoys performing in The Nutcracker.

“I love all parts of it in general, but what Miss Suzie does in creating the scenes I love how it is set up,” he said. “I am planning on continuing this while in college and for a time after.”

He attends classes at Belpre High School four days a week and one day a week he attends the InCERT academy at Washington State College of Ohio, a program where the students have the opportunity to earn industry credentials and hand-on experience in fields such as cyber security, criminal justice, robotics and welding. He said those classes and the classes at Marietta College count as college credit and will transfer to any school he attends.

Keegan Marsh with his completion certificate for Intercept Cyber Security. (Photo Provided)

“I am taking cyber security and IT,” he said. “I also have a OSHA 10 certificate that covers workplace safety and Tooling You, a certificate for safety in robotics.”

At Belpre High School, Marsh takes the usual high school class load. He said he does have a favorite subject area.

“I really like the math in them,” he said. “I also like all the computer science things I’m doing. I have also taken a 3D printing class and robotics class at Belpre over the past two years.”

Marsh said he plans to go to Ohio University in the future.

“I am planning to do one year at Washington State College to get the basics done,” he said. “So whenever I go to Ohio University I can go straight into engineering.”

Keegan Marsh at home. (Photo Provided)

With classes he has taken he will probably be a second semester freshman when he starts college.

“I have taken a history CCP class already and I’m taking an English CCP class.”

Jeffrey Saulton can be reached at jsaulton@newsandsentinel.com

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Keegan Marsh in the 2024 production of the Nutcracker at Marietta High School. (Photo Provided)

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Keegan Marsh in the 2024 production of the Nutcracker at Marietta High School. (Photo Provided)

Keegan Marsh after a performance. (Photo Provided)

In costume as the Nutcracker for 2024 is Keegan Marsh. (Photo Provided)

Staging the Mouse King Fight scene from the Nutcracker at the Grand Central Mall was Keegan Marsh and members of the Mid-Ohio Valley Ballet Company. (Photo Provided)