How did you become involved in ballet? What age? Where did you train?

My Mom put me in ballet classes following the advice of my pediatrician because I had a congenital hip condition, and the doctor thought that ballet would be beneficial for it.  I started taking lessons at a very small school a couple of blocks from my house when I was five, but that didn’t last long.  When I was ten years old, we tried another school, Palos Verdes Ballet, and that’s where I received my early training.

What was the key moment that you knew you wanted to be a professional ballet dancer?

The moment I knew I wanted to be a professional ballet dancer was during a variations class when I was eleven years old.  I loved the fact that we got to learn actual choreography that professional dancers performed.  The music moved me and something just clicked; I realized that all the exercises to perfect technique in class are for a bigger purpose, to be able to perform and lose yourself in a role.

You trained at the Kirov Ballet Academy and then PNB. Was it difficult to acclimate to the Balanchine style after being accustomed to the Russian style? What are some examples that may have been challenging for you?

The biggest challenges for me was acclimating to the speed of the Balanchine style, and also to the amount of pointe work!  Prior to coming to the PNB school, I had separate pointe classes-instead of taking normal technique class in pointe shoes-that lasted maybe a half hour or so.