I think fate brought me to dance. My mom had dreamed of becoming a dancer, but was discouraged by my grandfather. At 10 years old I ended up being one of a couple thousand kids to be selected to audition at Shanghai Dance School. I had all the criteria they wanted. But my parents disagreed […]

I was born chosen to be a ritual Mayan dancer. In Western civilization, technology is used to control our world; in Mayan culture, magic is used to achieve the same purposes, and our body is the key to open the doors. Both of my parents are ritual dancers, and during my childhood in the jungle […]

The last thing you’d expect to hear about a 22-season “Dancing with the Stars” veteran is that she’s actually a serious introvert—but that’s who I am! When I was young, I was really quiet and found it hard to express myself with words. But sharing emotions through movement finally brought me out of my shell. […]

Every summer I like to visit my sister and nieces. While I was there last year, my niece was making some challenging decisions. She had been dancing at a school with a small competition team and couldn’t figure out if she wanted to continue. Over the last year, she felt she had lost her joy […]

I always ask myself: If my parents hadn’t been flamenco dancers, would I have danced? I certainly don’t have a calling for dancing. As a child I was no Billy Elliot—that kind of boy that would do anything to dance. In fact, I was the Anti-Billy Elliot. My parents were always forcing me to dance, […]

When I was born, the delivery doctor exclaimed to my parents, “You have a dancer on your hands!” I had been a footling breech baby and entertained myself by jumping in utero, until I jumped so hard that I broke my mom’s water and was delivered as a C-section. Cut to present day: I wake […]

I come from a lineage of survivors: African Americans who endured the brutality of slavery, Native Americans who survived forced genocidal migration, and my Jewish grandmother who escaped the Holocaust. My ancestors’ enduring spirits live inside of me, giving me an indelible foundation of strength and compassion. On the bookshelves my mom filled in our […]

Lying in the bathtub one night after back-to-back matinee and evening performances, I remember asking myself if I was cut out for this. It was one of my first programs with Miami City Ballet, performing Balanchine’s Concerto Barocco, Scotch Symphony and Who Cares? I was completely overwhelmed. Muscles I didn’t realize existed were in pain. […]