the dancer

I grew up listening to and loving music. At the age of seven I began playing the piano, sparked, I think, by my five year older brother starting lessons. (I had to do everything he did). Somewhere around eight or nine, my best friend at that time decided she wanted to take ballet lessons. Off we trouped to watch a studio full of little girls moving around to classical music. I was enthralled. What could be better than moving to music I loved? The bug bit me hard that day. My best friend never did start lessons, looked like too much work to her. But I couldn’t stop. By ten, I was in dance class four times a week. By eleven, six days a week. I mourned the fact that Sunday there was no class to take. So it continued. The passion grew and it was all I wanted to do.

My first professional contract was in Holland. Scapino Ballet was at that time based out of Amsterdam, a wonderful city to live and work in. I was seventeen. I spent four years there, then moved to Alberta Ballet, Canada for two years. Back to Europe to Essen, Germany for six years. Changed to more contemporary styles as I moved to Zürich, Switzerland for seven years, Innsbruck, Austria for a half year guest contract and then free-lancing with projects until the age of forty-one. Dance was for me a profession that I never considered as work. It was my life, and my passion for all of those years. A big thank you to that best friend so many years ago who dragged me to my first ballet studio.