How has your approach to the career changed over time?

I am able to find much more enjoyment in opportunities than I did when I was younger. Early in my career, I would become easily bogged down with performance anxiety and it played a huge role in how I approached rehearsals and performing. Once I started to make the mental shift to interpret nerves and performances positively, the whole experience became so much more enjoyable. And as a bonus, I danced better. Being in the second half of my career has also allowed me to savor the incredible time left that I have to dance.

What is the best advice that you’ve ever received?

If you are ever in doubt about doing something generous—giving a compliment, writing a card, reaching out to someone—do it.

What are three things you love about Seattle?

First is Seattle’s incredible natural beauty. The water, the mountains, Mt. Rainier, and sunsets over the Olympics just never get old. Second, is its proximity to so many awesome places to explore nearby. My husband and I have a list of places that we want to visit and somehow, it never seems to get any shorter. Finally, Seattle will forever be the place where I had the opportunity to live out my dream as a professional dancer, where I earned my degree, and where I met and married my husband.

What significance does being part of PNB during the 50th Anniversary have to you?

I feel so privileged to be a Principal Dancer in this remarkable company for its 50th Anniversary. My earliest memories of PNB are pouring over Pointe Magazine features on PNB as a young dancer. A decade later, it was a total dream come true when I was offered a Corps de Ballet contract to join this incredible company in this beautiful city. I understood then, as I do now, that coming to PNB not only meant joining a roster of wonderful artists, but that I was also fortunate enough to join the impressive legacy of PNB dancers who had come before me. Since then, my time at PNB has generously offered more opportunity, growth, and challenge than that young dancer could have imagined.

Photos by Angela Sterling & Lindsay Thomas