Dancing professionally brought out the best, the worst and the most creative part of ME, and I will forever be grateful for the gift of movement and music. 
Most of you may know, or you may not know, that before I got into the nutrition world, I was immersed in the dance world since the age of 3. Lucky for me, my mom put my in ballet class at the ripe age of 3 and I never looked back. It was like it was meant to be in more ways that one! Throughout those years of intense ballet training, bruised toenails, blistered feet and sometimes a damaged heart, one of the many things that dancing gave me was a way to freely express myself. Some days I would just go into the studio by myself, pull out the barre, turn on the music (it was never ballet music of course, I am a big music junkie too) and just start to move in the way I wanted to. It was a feeling that many people will never know, and may never understand, why the ballet barre for me, IS home. It’s my safe place, a place for me to be me, without judgement. The ballet world taught me so much about myself, about others and ultimately, the way I wanted to live my life. Free of judgement, freely expressing myself and being completely happy. You may be thinking, what the *$#% the ballet world is a tough place…indeed it is, but only if you make it that way… I have to admit, there were years that I wanted to quit, it was really tough on my body, my emotions and my relationships.
During those tough years, I learned the most about what life is all about and taking care of myself. Putting myself first was a MUST, listening to my body was the only way I really knew how to take care of myself.
The dance world taught me some great things and some not so great things, I had great experiences and some not so great experiences. I lost friends along the way and made many, many new ones that I am still very close with today.
I can freely speak about this now, but I created a pretty rad eating disorder for myself that lasted a number of years. Looking back now, it was a problem of internal turmoil, self judgement, lack of self confidence outside of the studio and lack of education on how to treat and fuel my body. Over the years after a few injuries and breakdowns, I decided that I needed a break from the dance world. During those 2 years of my “break” I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease, which puts everything that I was going through at the time, into perspective of how you can create a pretty sh*tty life for yourself if you don’t listen to what your body is trying to tell you: foggy mind in rehearsals, injuries that used to never happen, negative talk in rehearsal, not wanting to be there at all, feeling like complete crap and just wanting to go far, far away from dance itself, celiac disease was the sum of all of those lovely feelings of crappiness. The of lack of nutrition education and learning to listen to what my body was trying to tell me was about to rock my world in the next 4 years.
If you are a dancer, you probably are all too familiar with the feeling of knowing an injury or burn out is coming, but you just try and barrel through because you don’t want to look weak, not get the part or lose your contract. Well, I was totally OK with any of those happening at the point before my diagnosis, which really surprised me because dancing was my #1, it was my oxygen, I had to dance everyday to feel complete, so it was a pretty big deal when I decided to take a break. It was almost like an identity crisis, well yea now that I think about it, it was, dance WAS me, that’s who I was. Taking a break and learning about how my body ticked, learning who I REALLY was, was the BEST thing that I ever did for myself and my relationships to everything in life.
Which brings me to the pointe (ha) of this blog, education, proper, sound, nutrition education…. not what you find in trash magazines or all over the internet from non reputable sources giving you fad diet tricks to get the weight off fast, that will only come to bite you in the a** later on, I am talking sound scientific facts, processes, metabolism, the real deal. It’s the opposite of everything you’ve read in those lovely magazines… trust me.
When I started my business in 2012, On Pointe Nutrition, one of the many things I wanted to create was a way to educate dancers, artists, and performers in the entertainment industry on how to properly fuel their bodies so they don’t make the same mistakes that I made, continue to enjoy their careers, make them last as long as their body will let them, and of course be happy from the inside out. Radiate passion in every part of their life.
Another thing that dancing professionally taught me was, happiness starts on the inside with you, NO ONE else can make you happy but yourself. This took me so long to figure out, but finally just a short time ago, I realized that true happiness is something that you create from the inside out. It often happens after something shifts in your world and forces you to take a look at yourself, strip it down and start over. It’s scary as sh*t and it will rock your world, but what is on the other side is simply liberating and amazing! Once you figure out how you tick what makes you light up, everything else falls into place. I learned this not only through dance but through my constant daily practice of yoga. I’ve said in the past that yoga slapped me in the face, very unexpectedly. Yoga was something that just fell into my life after I decided to hang up my pointe shoes ( who am I kidding, I can’t really hang them up forever, but I can hang them up professionally) dancing will always be in my blood, like I said it’s like oxygen… but yoga seems to just slip right into that spot and fill that same love of movement, freely expressing myself, being content and happy with who I am and who I am becoming.
So, my soul sister and I, whom I met in college and danced with at NCDT have decided to do something to get this movement going. Remember when I said sometimes it was really tough on my relationships? Well, thank God for this girl pictured below, she was there through my eating disorder, injuries and even though we didn’t live in the same city any longer, she was there through my diagnosis of CD, I am forever grateful for our friendship, no matter what craziness is going on in our lives, we always find time to come back to our friendship and have a damn good time. The dance world, also brought out the best friendships and family like relationships a girl could ask for. So, as I said earlier, we have decided to team up and create wellness workshops for all those lovers of pilates, yoga, dance and simply moving their bodies who want to learn how to really fuel their lives and workouts properly without going on crazy fad diets that never last anyway! Getting out of your head and into your body is one of the best things you can do for yourself. Create space for what is, what will be and enjoy the heck out of what you have NOW. NOW, IS ALL WE HAVE.
Performing at the OK, OK Variety Show in Vegas , NV
I am super super excited about this opportunity of giving a 3 day workshop in Astoria, NY at Astoria Fine Arts in the middle of August. This is the first time Andrea and I are teaming up to give an amazing 3 day workshop full of goodies, insights and great company to create a community of lovers of what is in their life and how to create exactly what they want health wise. I will have some great opportunities available for those who want to work with my one on one after the workshop, so tell all of your NYC friends, if they are looking for something fun. exciting and of course learning something new, send them on down to Astoria Fine Arts for this Ultimate Summer Workshop .
Join this event on facebook and keep up with both Andrea and Myself!
So tell your friends, family, anyone you want to join us for these 3 days of some amazing movement and nutrition information that you can use for the rest of your life!
I am super excited about this and I know it is going to be amazing, just one more thing, space is limited, and it is filling up, so sign up here online and reserve your spot. If you do not live in NYC, that’s okay! I am sure you will see us pop up in your city soon!!
Cheers to life, love and healthy living!
XO
