I began studying ballet when I was 4 years old. I trained competitively on the professional track for 11 years, studying the Vaganova method under Jorge Esquivel, Amparo Brito, and Yoira Esquivel-Brito from the National Ballet of Cuba, and Alexi Zubiria from the San Francisco Ballet.

At age 15, deep in auditions and competitions, I was told that the intensity of my training was putting my health at risk. I stepped off the professional track.

But my ballet training ingrained in my core an obsession with movement and the human body –– understanding every cell of the body to test its limitations, document beauty, and feel a story.

I still dance.