I wouldn’t say I have one specific style of dancing. Throughout my life I have trained in Ballet, Jazz, Hip Hop, Heels and some Latin styles that have morphed me into the dancer I am today. If I had to pick one style of dancing, I like doing the most, I would have to say its Jazz.

I would pick Jazz because it borrows cultural elements from so many different diasporas of dance and it’s mixed into one style. Jazz combines elements from ballet, Latin dances, and African American dances. I say it’s one of the most versatile dance styles because it requires very high technical training and you need to have the dynamic, sharpness and grounding required to dance other dance styles besides ballet, in order to execute it well and give it the necessary textures.

I started dancing at age 13. This is considered pretty late in the dance world as many people start at the age of four or five. I had done some theatre in my school back in Colombia when I was pretty young, and when I was about 12 or 13, I got put into dance after telling my parents I wanted to branch out and start going to extracurricular classes outside of my school.

When I got put into dance class, I stared training in more commercial styles at first, such as jazz and hip hop at a dance school back in Colombia. When I was 14, I went to a summer intensive at the Debbie Allen Dance Academy in Los Angeles, and this made me realize if I wanted to become a professional dance artist, I would have to train technically and in many more styles. After this, I started training in Ballet at a local ballet school called Andrea Wolff Ballet back in Medellin, Colombia. A year after this, after much research done, I found an arts boarding school called ‘Idyllwild Arts Academy’ in California. After auditioning to finish my high school at Idyllwild Arts, I packed my bags and moved to California, where I became a dance major while still finishing my academics at this boarding school. This was the first time in my life where I was intensely training in ballet and contemporary every single day. I am glad for this experience, because even though I never wanted to be a ballet dancer, it gave me a tremendous amount of technique and skill I had to catch up on for starting dance at such a late age.

After graduating high school at Idyllwild, I was admitted into The University of Southern California’s Glorya Kaufman School of Dance, under the direction of Jodie Gates and artistic residence of William Forsythe. The four years of training were a huge highlight in my early career because getting to train with people like Jodie Gates, William Forsythe and Desmond Richardson, as well as living in Los Angeles where I could take all different commercial dance style classes, morphed me into the dancer I am today. Getting to perform Balanchine ballets and Forsythe pieces, as well as getting to dance in heels, and do musical theatre, showed me all different corners and possibilities in the artistic world that sparked a huge interest in me.

I believe I am still relatively early in my career, but I would have to say that dancing with Mariah Carey was definitely a big highlight. Never in a million years, when I was living and starting to dance back home in Colombia, would I have thought I would have the honour to be a part of one of her projects. I will always be grateful for this opportunity and for the things I learned by watching her do her thing!

Besides this, I must say that I am very proud of a series of concept videos I did back home in Colombia during quarantine. Even though this was technically not a job, these videos fed me creatively as an artist because I got to direct them, conceptualize them, choreograph them and dance in them. These series of videos made me realize that I can be more than just a dancer and that I find the relationship between movement and a camera very interesting. After exploring this field, I learned that I wanted to dance and work more in the film/TV side of the industry.

Not really!

Currently I am working on a West Side Story production that is going to tour for a couple weeks, so a day in my life for the past four months has consisted into waking up around 7:30am, going to the gym, and then showing up to rehearsal at 10:00am. I rehearse till 6:00pm and then I either go home and relax or go take a masterclass if a choreographer I really enjoy is teaching. If I am not working on a specific project, I usually try to go to the gym every day and take a dance class, as well as having time to go to my acting classes which I take once a week at Lesly Khan studios in Hollywood.

I believe William Forsythe has impacted my journey as a dancer because he changed my perspective on ballet. I had just come from Idyllwild where I was mostly doing classical ballet every day, and then at USC, getting to see how he pushed the boundaries of ballet into neo classical and broke the rules this established dance style had created blew my mind. His curiosity and improvisational technologies that he uses to choreograph his ballets can really be applied to any dance style. It’s a different way of moving and a different way of approaching dance.

Even though dance can be strenuous and painful at times, think of it as just movement. I think when I started to appreciate the way I moved, dance became very personal to me. We are all human beings and we all move in different ways. Learn how your body personally moves and make the most out of it by loving it, training it, and exposing it to different things! There is nothing that I love more than playing with different dance styles, rhythms and aesthetics and putting them in my own body with my own movement and skillset.

I hope that 10 years from now I am still living in Los Angeles as a more established artist. As I mentioned before, I want to start transitioning more into dance on film and TV and hopefully acting too. My dream would be to get to act as a dancer on TV, where I am not just a ‘body’ but I can build a character through movement, and dialogue.

Classical ballet!

The funny thing is that I didn’t choose it. I never thought I’d dance classical ballet or dance any style really. When I started it was something I tried to do well, and then with time it became a conscious choice, something I fell in love with and wanted to get better and better at it.

I started in 2004, I was almost 11. The school I attended here in Brazil, the Bolshoi School, they go around the city’s schools to look for new talent. I found out they were coming to my school but didn’t have much interest in trying out. I mentioned it to my grandma and she told me “Why don’t you try out? Ballet is so beautiful and you have so much talent”. So, the next day I took the test and passed. A few months later, there was I, completely immersed in ballet with lots of Russian teachers around me, learning Vaganova technique and about the arts.

Yes, at the Bolshoi School in Brazil. We had multiple other classes on top of ballet technique. History of ballet, music, partnering, piano lessons, English, contemporary dance, theatre, historic popular dance and character dance. I studied at the Bolshoi for 7 years.

Making it in two different Balanchine companies is something I feel very happy about. I never thought this would happen. And performance-wise I think every show feels like a highlight to me. They are all so unique and special. But, I think there’s two I’d like to mention: Debuting Diamonds with the Miami City Ballet and getting promoted to Principal right after the show ended and also my debut of Prince Siegfried with Ashley Bouder at the New York City Ballet.

In 2018 I received a “Life Achievement Award” from the Brazilian press and it was amazing to receive recognition from my country! I got to be with amazing people and share a little bit about my story as a dancer and the importance of education and investing in the arts.

I honestly don’t think I could mention just one. They all have been so special and have played crucial roles in my life. I always have the most utmost respect for whoever is in front of me in the room, I just absorb everything that they have to give me, and I’m very grateful for all of them.
My biggest idol would be Nureyev, he’s a great source of inspiration.

During season I wake up around 8am, meditate, exercise, breakfast, class, rehearsal, more rehearsal, lunch, more rehearsal, and a performance. To wind down, I like to have a nice big dinner and a glass of wine.
Now during COVID it has been a little crazy, but I try to keep a routine. I go to the gym, take ballet class, swim, sometimes I have a few rehearsals and currently I am also working on my own brand and a podcast of mindfulness for dancers!

Keep working hard, the more you work the more “luck” you will have. And trust yourself, that’s the best gift you can give yourself!

Well stablished in NYC, happy, fulfilled with my career and having the financial ability to help others in any way I can.