I grew up in Hawaii dancing ballet, and performing in plays and musicals. At twelve I began helping my teacher with the younger students’ classes, which helped refine my own technique, and laid the groundwork for my becoming a teacher. 

In college at the University of Colorado in Boulder, I majored in Environmental Conservation. But I took all the dance and acting classes, performed in all the musicals and plays, and everyone thought I was either a dance major or a theater major. After college I moved to Honolulu and danced professionally with three ballet companies, performed in numerous musicals and plays at Diamond Head Theater and Manoa Valley Theater and was often asked to be dance captain. I began teaching dance in Honolulu, at two different studios. The kids were terrific, but teaching an open level adult class was my favorite.

I moved to New York in 2003 and took ballet and all kinds of dance and yoga classes all over the city with numerous teachers. Yoga had been instrumental in helping me heal from a dance injury and I completed my 200-hour yoga teaching certification in Sept. 2011. That October I began teaching at Liberated Movement. The philosophy was teaching from a place of joy, not judgment, encouraging and praising our students for exploring movement, and celebrating their efforts. I watched dancers walking out of class with shining faces, meeting friends, and flourishing on ballet as a form of exercise and self-expression. This is the way I was taught as a child, and how I love to teach. Seeing my dancers progress and bloom in front of my eyes–that is a wonderful thing to witness.