It was during my first year of college that I began to choreograph and teach dance professionally. I was hired to choreograph The Wiz and I also began the dance training program S.T.R. Dance®.
S.T.R. Dance® was created to provide those with an interest in taking dance a private/semi-private learning experience where they could truly focus on their individual goals. There was no limit on age of dancer, but my main clients became high school and college-aged performers looking for a career in performance, either theatre or dance. Today, many of them are in performance programs in college or have gone on to the professional entertainment industry. I am always so proud!!
Both of those experiences I owe to the brilliant suggestion of my mother and encouragement from my father. I am extremely blessed to have parents who wanted me to dream.
The Wiz was such a wonderful, intimidating experience. To choreograph a full-length musical was an absolute dream. On top of choreographing, because of my background, I was able to assist with auditions, vocals, and technical aspects of the performances. I learned many lessons from that first musical.
Since then, I have had the pleasure of choreographing numerous musicals including: Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, Scrooge, Anything Goes, Sweet Charity, Footloose, Little Shop of Horrors, and Once Upon a Mattress. There are so many wonderful stories to tell…for another time.
While at UCI, I was fortunate enough to meet my husband, Christopher. Although, on paper, we are opposite sides of the brain, him an engineer and I an artist, we fit together like the perfect puzzle. He added to my life in a way I never dreamed and I am truly grateful. Christopher and I married a month after we both graduated from UCI. It was a busy senior year!
I truly enjoyed teaching at S.T.R. Dance® and it seemed that teaching was where I was headed. So, after I graduated with a bachelor degree in drama with an emphasis in dance and a minor in psychology, I enrolled in UCI’s teaching credential, graduate program and attained my credentials in English, drama, psychology, and dance. Yes, English, which as you read in "Part 1", was not on my list of favorite subjects in school.
Teaching English was such a wonderful, eye-opening experience and deserves its own blog entry...later.
I love teaching. I truly do. To be able to cultivate someone and help him or her to reach his/her goals is a feeling unlike any other. Although I enjoyed teaching high school English and dance at S.T.R. Dance® I did not feel that I was quite in the right place.
I knew that dance, theatre, and teaching were my true passions and I decided to explore the more professional realm of dance to see what was out there. It was during this time that I was able to study at wonderful institutions such as Edge Performing Arts Center, Millenium Dance Complex, The Ailey School, Broadway Dance Center, Joffrey Ballet School, Steps on Broadway, numerous dance conventions, among others. I auditioned for on and off Broadway, but still did not feel that I was in the right place. The teaching element for me was not there and it was here I was able to see how professional performers are often over-worked, under-paid, and under-appreciated.
What to do?!
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