My relationship with dance

Dance has been near or at the core of my life for as long as I can remember. As a career path, dance was like a diamond into which I kept cutting new facets.

Writer is only the most recent cut in the gem. For over 25 years, I dedicated myself as a teacher of dance in private studios, community programs and colleges. I have also been a professional performer in contemporary dance companies in Pennsylvania, and Houston, Texas.

Texas has been my home since 2002 but I grew up in Central Pennsylvania. My fascination with movement, choreography, and teaching was nourished in my hometown dance studio, where I received a most precious gift from my teacher — a love of moving. Not just following steps, I was encouraged to explore a dance vocabulary with endless possibilities.

Throughout my youth, I studied creative dance side-by-side with traditional concert dance forms. Because of these early experiences, I knew dance as a world of discovery, expression and problem-solving, and I learned to value this creative process as deeply as the mastery of skills and technique.

My desire to make dance forever a part of my life, led me to further develop and refine my skills in a college dance program, first at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA and later at Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania, from which I earned a bachelors degree in dance with honors.

Immersing myself in investigation, I explored techniques with an increased understanding of how the body functions and a deeper knowledge of dance history. I absorbed all I could from my teachers, choreographers and peers. I was encouraged and given the tools to become a dance artist and to guide others in their own discovery of dance.

It is with these tools that I continue to learn and grow in every experience. All that flows from me, draws upon all I have poured in.

I balance my multifaceted love affair with dance with my role in marketing and communications, and as a mom to two children who inspire my creativity and enrich my purpose. I continue to carve and shape myself as a person with commitment to discovering more about the world around me and inside of me.

Favorite Quotes