‘As I grew, my passion for dance remained. It is really the most pure form of expression and sanity for me.’

Bellmore

“My mom and I always joke that it was from the womb. She danced until she was eight months pregnant with me. From what they’ve told me, I always had an inclination towards rhythm and music. When I was 3, my mom put me on stage for the first time. I fell in love with the dance part of it. I don’t see an audience. It’s a strange thing, but I’m grateful for it because it allows me to immerse myself completely, and I don’t know who’s out there. Between muscle memory and being so absorbed in the art and expressing myself in it, it’s like a blur.

“As I grew, my passion for dance remained. It is really the most pure form of expression and sanity for me. It’s the way I realize any kind of emotion I’m feeling. It keeps me grounded in a sort of reality and is this thing I know is always stable in my life, no matter what else is going on. It’s always there. It reminds me of who I am. It’s my way of seeing what’s happening with me, who I am at my core. This is the thing I don’t have to work at. It’s a natural extension of me.

That unspoken connection through dance, it translates to everyday life. I don’t have to say a word, whether with dance or anything else, and she knows. And vice versa.

“My mom started this school; her specialty is folk dance. As I grew and learned different types of dance, we started evolving because more people my age are bringing their kids. We found a happy medium, where we’ll still do semi-classical, we’ll do folk dances, and I’ll add the things I’ve learned — some contemporary, some jazz, some ballet turns. A lot of our pieces have this amalgamation of genres.

“I’m grateful it allows me to learn from my mom and to teach my mom certain things, and we both get to do something we love so deeply. My mom and I were always close, our relationship is strong at its base but this really strengthens that bond. We’ve gotten to a point where we just need to look at each other to know what the next choreography is going to be. I love that. That unspoken connection through dance, it translates to everyday life. I don’t have to say a word, whether with dance or anything else, and she knows. And vice versa.”