My Story

I grew up here in Raleigh, NC and started dancing at age 3. While my sister was the graceful one and quickly took to ballet, I was the obnoxiously over-energetic one who struggled to stay graceful during ballet but loved tap and jazz!! As I grew up and continued dancing, my weekly dance schedule became more ballet-heavy, and I found myself in multiple ballet classes each week and fewer tap and jazz classes. It took years, but I slowly fell in love with ballet, and that love deepened when I began to dance on pointe, too! Later when I went off to college, I was lucky enough to find a wonderful dance group to join. However, it didn’t really allow me to practice my ballet technique, and I felt myself missing ballet so much! After I graduated, grad school and my first years of teaching kept me too busy to dance, and finding adult dance classes was hard! I am so thankful that my friend and co-worker brought me to TDW, where I have found a home in dance once again.

What TDW Means to Me

I’m a high school teacher, and I am so glad I found TDW because it has kept me mentally sane and physically healthy throughout my first few years of teaching. I grew up dancing, and continued dancing in college but I couldn’t find a solid, stable adult ballet class, and I missed ballet! Finding TDW has helped me rediscover my inner ballerina and the pure joy that dance brings, and I am so excited to represent TDW as a MAVEN!