For as long as I can remember, the one thing I wanted to do was fly. Climbing and jumping off anything I could find was all that mattered. At the playground, I was the kid climbing up the slide the wrong way, swinging as high as I could, and flipping off anything possible. I would swing on the monkey bars one way, then climb to the top and jump off on the way back. But when a 3 year old starts climbing and flipping off everything in the house - breaking furniture - the only thing left to do was put this kid in gymnastics.

​

It was love at first sight! A huge playground where I could flip and fly - where no one could stop my crazy need to defy gravity - what could be better than that? At 6 I made the USA Gymnastics Competition Team. The funny thing about being a kid in gymnastics is, all you want to do are tricks, so when the ballet teacher would come in, no one wanted to learn. I hated ballet and just wanted to be flying.

​

But at 16, while I was coaching the beginners gymnastics team, one of my students was playing on beam and did a double pirouette. Back then in gymnastics, we only did inside turns so when I saw this bizarre 'spin' I was fascinated. It was at that moment, I fell in love with dance. A few of the kids I coached said they needed tumblers for their Acro class and I ended up enrolling in everything from ballet to tap to jazz and more. As my gymnastics career came to an end, I transitioned into dance.

​

But let's be honest here. Who, at age 16, starts to dance? Because I was 16, I was put into all the teen classes where everyone already knew everything. All I could do was tumble. I went home in tears every day, but I wrote down everything I learned and in my room I would practice everything for hours. Because of my gymnastics training, I was not only in competition with everyone else, I was also in competition with myself. I was devastated when my gymnastics career was over so I threw myself into dance and it changed my life. But again, who falls in love with dance at 16, and decides they are going to move to NYC and be a dancer.

 

Everyone told me I was crazy, but I was determined. I found a room for rent on craigslist, mailed my rent check, hopped on a plane to JFK, with a suitcase and $500, handed the taxi driver my new address and I was off. 

​

​

​