Q: What has been your professional dance journey, and how did you come to dance with Alonzo King Lines? ‍

I grew up in Southern California. I did the Royal Academy of Dance training at a small studio called the Santa Clarita Ballet Academy. My parents moved our family to Washington state when I was 16 and I auditioned for the Pacific Northwest Ballet. I was accepted into their school and then the professional division program for three years.From there I auditioned for some companies in Europe and I was accepted to the Dresden Semperoper. They had an apprenticeship program that I was a part of. I was there for one year and during that timeI also took contemporary dance classes at the Palucca University of Dance Dresden. That was my first introduction to contemporary and improv movement. I took Gaga technique there for the first time, too. With the apprenticeship program, we were casted in the classical ballets with the company and when they did contemporary work, we went to Palucca and took classes there.

After that year I moved back home to Bellevue, Washington. I actually wanted to stay in Europe, I auditioned everywhere. I sent out 70 applications and almost everyone said I was too tall. I’m, like, five-ten, which is tall for a ballerina. It's hard to get a job at this height.During that time it was all about reconsidering: Do I want to do this? Can I do this? Is this something I want to do? I was now back with my parents. I ended up deciding this was what I wanted so I began taking open class at The Pacific Northwest Ballet along with some  freelance jobs. I worked with Whim W’him, a great company and a great opportunity. I apprenticed with them for a little bit. I also worked with Coriolis, they were great. That was all a more contemporary explorative movement style that I had never been exposed to. It was new and some of it was weird to me but I was open to learning. That year was all about learning. I felt like a sponge; up until that point I was strictly a classical ballet dancer.

My dream was to dance at the Pacific Northwest Ballet. I had a meeting with the director, and at that time it had been a no. I then flew to NYC to audition for Alonzo King Lines Ballet. I had high hopes because they were known for having tall dancers! I put my whole heart and body into this audition, and at the end Alonzo told me he wanted to work with me. I cried because it had been a year of hard work, with much unknown. I said yes on the spot.

As I was in the airport flying back to Seattle, I heard news that PNB was still interested in working with me. I was now faced with an even bigger decision. I was very overwhelmed; being faced with the option of dancing with my dream company in Seattle, or stepping out further into the unknown to work with Alonzo and travel the world. It was a hard decision and in the end I chose Lines. As I look back on my life I sometimes wonder what would be if I had chosen to walk down the other path. I had left a dream to find a new one. There was risk in that. And in the end I felt like I needed to choose the unknown path. I am still to this day so grateful for the way everyone supported my decision and wanted me to thrive.

I’ve now been dancing with Alonzo for the past 6 years. To this day I am still challenged, inspired, and pushed towards growth. I am so thankful for that. There are unlimited amounts of growth and newness to find. As Alonzo says, “there’s always more.”

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‍Q: Do you have any mentors or important people in your life that have shaped the way you dance and or think about dance? ‍

Meredith Webster, definitely. I got to see her dance at Lines Ballet before she retired.  She has now been my ballet master for the last four years. She is someone who I admire and she really continues to push me, to help me explore who I am and why I make the decisions I make. There is also someone at The Pacific Northwest Ballet, Louise Nadeau. She was always someone I looked up to for her quality of movement and joy of life. To me, that reads in a dancer, the way they view life and their generosity. She is so inspiring to me.

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‍Q: Do you believe dance can be a platform for social justice topics? If so, how? and/or Have you used your art form to make a difference

‍Absolutely. There is so much in movement you can relate to. You can reach people that you can’t in any other way. You can speak to people's hearts and minds through dance. Whether it is the content of the piece or something more general, if there is an artist that’s giving, it will open your heart. You will see qualities in a dancer on stage that opens up your ideas of the possibilities in humanity. Dance speaks in a loud way that other platforms can't - right into the core of a human.

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‍Q: What inspires you and drives you forward as an artist and a person?‍

Integrity is something that pushes me to continue trying to reach a very honest place with myself. I try to iron out the places that I need to work on. Dance for me has been very similar to life; trying to find your truth and your honesty in what you do every moment. It’s about figuring out how to be fully present mentally. It’s how I live everyday life.‍

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

‍It is crazy. I’m stuck in my house, not able to perform. My house isn't that big. I share the common spaces with two roommates who work from home. I’m home but not working. I love to keep moving in the spaces we have. I’ve found a lot of different ways to keep moving. We’ve done livestream ballet classes and gyrotonics classes. My roommate and I will do yoga classes together—anything to keep active and stay inspired. My roommates go to bed early and then I have more space to myself. The last few nights I put on music, danced in my room alone and got silly. It was just about having a safe place to move where no one is watching. It’s kind of awesome.

There are some ways the pandemic has inspired people to move more. Maybe it brought them more joy. I can't move how I want to in a small space but I think that it has become a really cool way to connect with people. We still can connect and move with people. There’s something beautiful about that. There’s a lot of beauty coming out of the pandemic even though it is such a distressing time.

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Q: Do you think the pandemic will make us a more socially conscious society? If so, how? ‍

I think so. I think it already has in a way. My concern is that we are learning behaviors that aren't great like having to stay away from people. However, I think that a lot of people didn't even know about Zoom. I think that social aspect has opened up so many other channels that can continue. I hope they will continue. Offering free classes is a beautiful thing. Giving opportunity to more people who wouldn’t have had access before is beautiful.

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‍Q: Using the idea of “worldmaking” how do you imagine the performing arts world after the pandemic? (Worldmaking: How you can 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 would hope that more people become aware of the performing arts world, that more people understand the need for art and performance art. There has been a halt on that and my hope is people will crave it. They will want to go out and see it. I hope the desire for the performing arts will increase, that people will donate more to the performing arts and understand how this has affected artists, especially freelance artists.