My story starts in a sun-drenched community center where a stubborn seven-year-old (me) refused to take off her tiara after the spring recital. That small Florida studio became my launchpad to the School of American Ballet, where Balanchine speed met its match in my obsession with musicality. Summers were spent at Pacific Northwest Ballet and Houston Ballet, absorbing the clarity of Vaganova lines while nursing the inevitable homesickness that shapes a young artist’s grit.
By eighteen I was performing professionally, relishing the adrenaline of nightly curtain calls—and bruising every toe in my pointe shoes along the way. A twist I never predicted? Hollywood. A choreographer friend needed a body-double for an actress in a dance-centric film. One shoot turned into five, and soon I was teaching actors how to fake perfect fifths between takes. Those long hours on set sharpened my eye for detail and taught me how to translate ballet jargon into plain English—skills I lean on daily with my students.
Yet the more I coached others, the louder a calling grew: create a space where individual mentorship trumps cookie-cutter training. AK Ballet opened its doors with one portable barre, a stack of PBT balls, and a promise to treat every dancer—whether eight or forty-eight—as unique.
Since then I’ve guided competitors to Youth America Grand Prix finals, helped late-starter adults conquer double pirouettes, and answered panicked midnight texts about summer audition videos. Watching students unlock their potential eclipses any spotlight I ever stood in.
When I’m not teaching, you’ll find me fine-tuning new PBT sequences or audition-coaching via Zoom, coffee in hand, cat perched on the piano. Ballet gave me discipline, resilience, and lifelong curiosity. AK Ballet exists so I can pass those gifts forward—tiaras welcome, persistence required.
