I got my first taste of dance at gymnastics camp when I was 12 years old. It was a foolish contest and i was immediately eliminated. My next dose would be 7 years later, when I took my first ballet class at Stanford at age 19. I finished that ballet class and swore I would absolutely never go back. I took a few jazz and modern classes while there. It always felt “like me”, and yet I was ridiculously horrible – like, yeah. Right before I graduated, my very young and very white boyfriend (another interesting story) got me a ticket to see Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in San Francisco. I left in awe, mesmerized by Revelations. When I moved to New York for grad school at NYU, my unnamed boyfriend got me a gift that would change my life, a class-card at The Ailey Extension, their public school for adults. That was it for me. I started taking Horton twice a week at age 22, in 2009. When I felt like I couldn’t progress, I asked my teacher what to do. She said, go. take. ballet. I cried. No, I didn’t cry, but I would have appreciated a better answer. That answer, though, came at a perfect time. I had just moved to NYC and was actually depressed. I felt alone in NYC and my very young, very white boyfriend just broke up with me. I was without hope and decided the only thing that would give me the sense that every day was not doomed, that something new was possibe, was to dream an impossible dream like when i was a kid. So I did. And it was to become a dancer. I started doing work-study at Ailey, taking 8-10 classes per week at The Ailey School & The Ailey Extension and other schools in NYC. I began a journey of self-discovery, power, courage, and connection that will never end. Dance has moved me when I thought I could not be moved. Dance is the practice that allows me to become who I’ve always really been. Dance allows me to be anybody at anytime and now that i’ve felt freedom, my only mission is to feel it powerfully, feel it fully, and allow others to break free.

Grateful for being in the STREB Extreme Action Company, 2014-16. 

So unbelievably honored to perform with Kristin Sudeikis Dance.

Photo Credit: Lauren Volo

an improvised performance at DROP by Kristin Sudeikis

some STREB highlights

full dance reel