Dance has been near or at the core of my life for as long as I can remember. As a career path, dance has been like a diamond into which I keep cutting new facets.
Writer is only the most recent cut in the gem. For over 25 years, I have 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 and writing with my role as a mom to two children who inspire my creativity and enrich my purpose. I continue to carve and shape myself as a writer, teacher, performer, woman and mother, discovering more about the world around me and inside of me. I am a work in progress.
Favorite Quotes
“It is rarely a waste of time to pursue something you’re drawn to even if you end up quitting. You might apply that knowledge in a different field entirely in a way you couldn’t have anticipated.”
Emilie Wapnick
I would like to be remembered as someone who did the best she could with the talent she had.
J. K. Rowling
“In life as in dance, grace glides on blistered feet.”
Alice Abrams
Nichelle Suzanne 