Let me go back to the start of 2018

 ...2018 has been an unbelievable year for me. After nearly quitting ballet, my parents encouraged me to take a last “kick at the can”. I moved to Toronto to train with Courtnae Bowman at Cadence School of Ballet. Courtnae became not just my teacher, she was my psychologist, cheerleader, second mom, nutritionist, stretch and strength coach and so much more. It was because of her that I fell in love with ballet all over again and came away with such an incredible year!

In less than 6 weeks, I was competing in a large competition called ADCIBC in Florida. This was a serious competition with four different rounds. The first round was a bunch of classes in front of the judges, the second was learning a brand new variation and performing it. Third and fourth rounds were our classical variation and contemporary solo. This was the first time I had ever participated in this type of a competition and the worst part of it was how sick I was. I was proud to have simply made it through. I finished by placing top 10 in both classical, top 20 in contemporary , many scholarship offers as well as the title of best international dancer.

I attended the semi finals in Toronto of Youth America Grand Prix. I was extremely nervous but, Courtnae seemed to give me exactly what I needed. The end result was more scholarships to some great schools and the top prize...the Grand Prix. This particular prize is reserved for the top senior dancer... male or female competitor in both Classical and Contemporary. Out of 30 semi final locations, they only gave 6 out! I was both shocked and ecstatic...this award somehow showed me that I could actually do this. If I continued to work hard, stay focused, my dream was feasible! 

 The finals of YAGP in NewYork. This is where the best of the best from the semi finals all over the world are invited to show their solos. Just making it to the finals is an accomplishment in itself because every dancer is talented. I took daily classes, performed my classical on stage, then my contemporary. Although it was a stressful week, somehow the judges noticed me and asked me to be one of the 24 senior girls to dance in the final round on Lincoln Center Stage!!! 

I took away some pretty amazing scholarship offers, as well as a special invite to the top international competition in the world...Prix de Lausanne.  It is considered the competition to jump start your ballet career!

One of the scholarships from YAGP semi finals was a summer intensive at Harid Conservatory in Boca Raton. I decided to give their July program a try and really enjoyed it. In August, I chose to try another scholarship from ADCIBC competition and this one was in NewYork at Ellison Ballet. I really enjoyed this summer intensive as well! This made the decision on where to train extremely stressful as Harid, Ellison, and Courtnae all wanted me to train with them for the school year. To help me decide, I made a pros and cons list and discovered that Ellison ballet in New York was my top choice. I am training with Mr Ellison and Ms V. It's challenging, but I'm loving it here.

So if  YAGP is a top level international competition, the prestigious Prix de Lausanne in Switzerland is another step above this.  It is considered the world’s toughest ballet competition, the olympics of dance. Because the selection process is extremely difficult to get through, only the most talented dancers apply and the jury selects between 65 & 85 candidates to join the competition. This year, a total of 80 dancers have been selected from 25 countries; 44 girls and 36 boys will take part in the Prix de Lausanne 2019 and I am the ONLY dancer representing Canada.

After Prix, I have been invited to Finland to train with the Finnish National Ballet Company.