Me...

To answer the question of who I am, I suppose I first have to break down the many roles I play in my life. To label a few, I am a daughter with a very close relationship to my parents, I am a big sister to my two younger brothers,  I’m a goddaughter to my awesome wonderful God-mom Mary, I’m a girlfriend to Josh, I’m a friend to many, I’m a dancer, I’m a student, I’m a cat lover, I’m a waitress, I’m a vegetarian, I’m an arts supporter, and I live by the quote “be the change you want to see in the world.” I was blessed with a very artistic family who constantly encouraged and supported artistic expression and practice. I am just one artist from a large artistic family, my grandma was a dancer who raised my dad and aunts and uncles around dance and music, my dad being a musician and my mom being an artist, me and my brothers were brought up with an acceptance and huge encouragement to find and pursue our artistic voices, I learned from an early age how important art, particularly dance is to me. In 6th grade we moved from California to Milwaukee  where I went to Roosevelt Middle school of the Arts and started to become a lot more serious about dance, and then High School of the Arts where I took my forever dream of becoming a dancer and decided on pursuing to make it a reality. Which is where I’m still at currently, just with a different approach and education of what dance is and how it relates to me. What I’ve gained from this program was a total self alternation, in the way I approach my life and my dancing.  Dance and my dance education is a huge part of my life and is a constant influence and the biggest influence. Its in everything I do, the way I am/ move at work, everything and everyone I look at I can almost always find the essence of dance or inspiration, who I surround my self with, what I see as far as entertainment is usually dance related. So, dance is definitely a huge influence on my life and I hope it is for a long time. I hope to graduate in a year and a half with a dance degree and a minor in either Somatics or Italian, I hope to have a career in a company anywhere. I definitely want to live in and experience another city. At some point in my life, my goal is to some how get involved with helping keep art in schools and education, I really believe as developing youth it is very important to incorporate the arts into their education. A big goal is to travel and see as many countries, experience lots of cultures, and hopefully dance somewhere abroad.  So another goal is to save up as much money as I can. I want to be dancing for as long as I’m able.  Dance has given me an area to find, explore, and develop myself and the person I am, it is the backbone to my life. Its also valuable to me because of the benefits of keeping my body healthy and consciously aware. I feel so lucky to have something that I can be educated in and be so passionate about. Dance is a little world with it’s own history, its a lifestyle, and even a mindset that I can say I'm honestly obsessed with.