What’s your favorite dance movie of all time—and why does it inspire you?
The Turning Point will always be such a classic; both the dancing and filmmaking are superb!

Who is your biggest dance inspiration (past or present)?
Paris Opera Ballet’s Aurélie Dupont.

Can you share the moment you realized you wanted to be a dancer?
I can’t recall a specific moment, but I do remember reading the Angelina Ballerina books with my mom at a very young age and knowing that I was interested in dancing. Apparently I told her I wanted to go to ballet class like Angelina, so my parents enrolled me soon after! 

What’s your personal practice philosophy—how do you approach growth in the studio?
When I was a trainee with Boston Ballet, Margaret Tracey told us that even she, as our teacher, approached dance as an eternal student. I try to go into each day with a curious intention and think about how I can strive for artistic growth and not perfection. 

Biggest struggle you’ve faced in your dance journey, and how you overcame it?
I really struggled with auditions when I was making the transition from student to professional. I spent one year exclusively attending open call auditions, but I realized that I was better suited to private auditions in company class. I think that knowing how to thrive in auditions can make such a difference in a young dancer’s success; it did for me! 

What’s one thing you wish you had known as a young dancer?
I wish I had known that you shouldn’t expect every performance to feel the same. If a show in a particular role went really well, sometimes I still feel an urge to try to replicate that experience exactly. That’s such an unrealistic expectation, and it’s ok to embrace the fleeting nuances of each performance. 

If you had to describe what dance means to you in just one word, what would it be? 
Rapturous.