Q: How were you introduced to dance?

I first started dancing when I was five. Both my brother and sister are violinists who are older than me, and when I was a kid I didn’t want to do that too, so my mom put me in dance. I was 14 when I had that moment where I had to decide if I would be serious and pursue dance or not. I made the decision to pursue dance as a career. I graduated a year early from high school, went to audition, and at my first audition, I got the job. I thought to myself, “I could do this!” and took the job, and it just grew from there.


Q: What has dance taught you that you have applied to your everyday life and how you engage with the world?
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I think that dance is a discipline that requires a lot of sacrifice. I think of the passion and the reward that comes from dance. It has taught me a lot about so many things. With what has been happening with the quarantine, I am so impressed with the habits we have trained ourselves to take on. I see dancers still taking class and barre on a daily basis, but I’m sure not everyone wants to or feels like they want to. That happens when you have a job and you don’t feel motivated to be doing barre. Regardless, there is a lot to be said about the discipline and habit. You feel better afterwards, even if you didn’t want to do it in the first place. That is one of the things that has translated to other parts of my life, having that plan and discipline. The other thing is the human electricity of connecting with people and learning more about yourself through your interactions with others in the workplace. In the studio, you work at such a close level. Everything is magnified. You learn so much about yourself and those around you—to take a lot of the good with the bad—on the human level. I think there is a closeness that comes with the tolerance of one another. I don’t know if that sounds mean, but I think there are a lot of things you learn to love about one another. I think that translates to how you relate to others outside of that bubble.


Q: Has dance helped you overcome any hardships in your life?
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I think that dance has relieved me through catharsis. There are a lot of things that go on at the personal level, or even in the lives of those close to you and you want to be there for them. Dance is an outlet to get through those things. Within a dance process, you can understand things deeper and you can find releases that you couldn’t experience in any other way.


Q: What other interests and passions do you have outside of dance that influence and inspire your artistry?
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I love doing crafts and I love watching films. I think the visual arts and other performing artists help me see things with different colors, lights, and shadows. For me, when I’m telling a story and performing, I think that now as an educator and rehearsal director I am able to help open up pathways. I work with such amazingly talented dancers that it’s not showing them HOW to do something but helping them unblock certain channels they may have blocked. I think the imagination can be opened up by other artists as well through one’s interpretation of different music. I often spend my time watching other dancers, seeing how others work, talking to my siblings who are musicians, and making Spotify playlists.


Q: What have been some challenges in your pre-professional and professional career?
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I think there is opportunity for dance to tell many stories and I think there is opportunity for those stories to be told if they are given a chance. It is important for people to seek those opportunities out. I don’t think you can expect a full production from people who may not have the resources to present something. I think grant funding for more voices that want to share stories is important. It’s not like people don’t want to tell stories–– It just comes down to who has the opportunity to do so. Given who is directing and choreographing, I think it is obvious that dance can be a way to tell stories from the perspective of different people.


Q: How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected you as an artist?

My baby is a month old today. It splits all of my attention right now. I am a new mom, I am sure all new parents feel that. You want to protect this innocent being from heartache, all of the upside-down that is happening out there right now. It feels extra hard because I can’t give my attention fully to this incredible little one. The company I work for has made tough decisions based on the financial struggle. You read about dancers being laid off and seasons being finished early. With all these things that are cancelled … it’s just finished, and done, and it’s so hard to find closure. We work hard as dancers. And then to have a performance cancelled, to maybe never perform them, is difficult. It can be hard for dancers to be in a confined space and feel able to contribute and be fulfilled by what they are doing. It can be very trying. There are good things to come out of this too; this project, for example, and people finding greater accessibility to companies and dancers. I have been watching Hubbard classes. It has been amazing to see all of these people teaching and the scope of the community, how we can reach more people in any given moment, even though part of what we do is being in the room with each other, feeling each other’s energies. Everyone has Zoom on mute now and you can’t ask the class how everyone is feeling. Is this working? Not having the buzz you feel in the studio has been really challenging. On a personal level, you just feel so much hardship and sadness for a lot of the difficulties for arts organizations and others. When it hits so close to home it is really hard. I also want to protect my baby and be there for him and not try to feel this heavy sorrow all the time right now. 


Q: What is your daily routine?

My daily routine is a three-hour cycle of feeding, diapering and calming the baby—then repeating and repeating. That’s been my three-hour cycle for the past month. I think that what is cool is witnessing friends who are not dancers try new things they wouldn’t necessarily have tried before. I think there is less inhibition for people to try new things. It’s so interesting. You are more magnified in this pod or in this class. You can see your friends and check other people out. I have seen my friends trying new workouts or learning a new dance combo. People are somehow able to broaden their routine to be more varied and interesting. For Hubbard, I know the dancers take class at 11:00 AM everyday. I see other people add extra fitness workouts and things. I also try to walk everyday if I can.

Hubbard class:Sometimes I log into the online class and check in on Instagram Live. I comment heart emojis watching Glenn do barre. I had to check in for the first Zoom class. I was watching on Instagram. The Zoom class was full but I was the only one watching on Instagram Live. It was so fun to see Glenn. I learned through talking with him that it can be hard for him to have the barrier of not feeling people’s responses, but seeing Glenn still have so much energy, just being himself, is great. He does this one combination where he does a rhythm like the macarena. It is so fun to check in with him and see how he is. He is a wonderful, wonderful person. I try to predict what his combination will be while he is doing it. I also mimic with my arms sometimes.


Q: Using the idea of “world-making”, how do you imagine the performing arts world after the pandemic? (World-making: How can you re-imagine the world in your own terms, the way you want it to be? Using this tool one can construct new worlds and write themselves into narratives that have excluded them and systems that have disabled them.)

I have these pictures in my head of the 1920s. Everyone would go out and dress to the nines and have these big events. The theaters were the thing to go and do, music or dance. I have these visions that when this is over everyone rejoices and goes back to the theater en masse. It’s a ruckus, a good time where everyone is excited to see live theater. Everything is a big event and everyone is there. Everyone is happy to experience live theater together and to feel that energy. I just see this huge wonderful thing that everyone can go see. The appreciation for live theater will be magnified because people have been deprived of this in-person exchange. Through that, the support and awareness for the performing arts will be that much greater. That would be my dream. And yes, of course, more funding for the arts, both corporate and government. Just in general, support from everyone in their given genre would be my dream.