About the blog

I have been dancing since I was very young. In the back of my mind I always knew dancing was something I wanted to pursue seriously even though my parents would say I had to stop when I began pointe work. Later, at 10 years old, and to my surprise, I ended up being fitted for my first pair of pointe shoes! After another few years I was surprised again when my parents suggested I major in dance at college. Then another surprise when I actually got accepted as a dance major. Finally I began to accept that this was really going to be my life even though it has been an uphill battle since the beginning. The cards had been stacked against me because of my height and body type, but I’ve learned that hard work and perseverance can be incredibly powerful. I began dancing professionally with a small ballet company while I was still in college. I later went to perform with another company after graduation.

I had originally made a dance fitness blog back a few years when I had to take a year off from dancing professionally. I was still teaching and taking classes when I could, but I did not have regular company class or rehearsals to keep up my momentum. It was tough, but I found a lot of inspiration from fitness blogs and they helped me get through that time. I began to neglect that blog in the first months of dancing with a new company. I quickly became busy with adjusting to my new city and forgot about blogging for a while.

More recently, I had to take another year off. At the end of the performance season with a former company I had developed some bad tendonitis in both my ankles, and some severe burn out due to how the company was run conflicting with how I knew I needed to care for injuries and my mental health. I was quite sick by the time my contract finally ended and the only thing to do was to take the time out to heal my body properly. There were several months where I didn't dance at all as it hurt to walk and the thought of returning to a studio gave me anxiety.

After those months off I started to miss ballet and began to attend weekly adult ballet classes at small local studios. I also began teaching again. I slowly began to regain strength and remembered why I loved ballet. My next step was to go out and audition all over even though I didn't feel "ready." It was a scary time and very difficult to push myself so hard after all that time off. My first audition of the season was my first day back in my pointe shoes (it didn't go so well...). But after several more auditions where some said "yes" and some said "no," I made a decision on which company I felt would suit me best and I am now back to dancing professionally!

Even though I am back to performing professionally, I still struggle with tendonitis at times, as well as self-doubt and the frustration of constantly striving for "perfection." However, this is a career that still brings me so much joy and fulfillment.
I hope that by blogging about my journey I can keep myself motivated and maybe help to motivate others in the process.