I’ve been dancing since I was 3 yrs old – Mind you, at that age, I mostly sat in a corner sucking my thumb, creating a lovely buck tooth effect to my teeth. Thank god they didn’t stay that way! But that is beside the point.  As soon as I really understood what dance was, I was in love…for life it seems.

Finding these photographs of ballerinas in 1936 from Life Magazine reminded me a bit of my history with ballet school. At 12 yrs old, I spent a very short time at the National Ballet School, here in Toronto actually. I was offered a full scholarship, and at that time, that seemed like the most amazing thing. And I guess it was. Being a ballerina is like every little girls dream (well not every). It got me thinking that that was to be my future. At 12 yrs old I was making pretty grown up decisions about how my life would be. Ballet is serious, you guys!

I ended up choosing (back then) jazz and (my niche now) contemporary/hip hop dance over the NBS (but still continued on with ballet), and I do not regret that decision. I will always love ballet, and appreciate all the great things it has done for me. Without it, I wouldn’t carry myself as a dancer the way I do. I truly believe it is the foundation for all. But looking at pictures of ballerinas, and watching ballet films always get me thinking how different things would be, had I chose ballet. I always thought it was a strange thing, that there was a clear moment I had in my life, where I had two paths I could take, and knowing now, how different things could have been had ballet been the one.