For as long as April Giangeruso can remember, she’s been drawn to fashion. Whether it’s everyday, streetwear, or fun, printed dancewear, she’s never associated with one particular aesthetic over another, but describes her wardrobe as a “mix and match of all kinds of clothes.”
Read MoreIf you had a chance to read my “get to know me” blog, you know I have been dancing since I was 5 and now at almost 30 dance is still a huge passion I continue to pursue. Growing up I participated in competitions, I auditioned for and attended a ballet intensive as a sophomore in high school , went the route of adding on dance team in high school and college, sprinkled in some musical theatre experience
Read MoreI was diagnosed with anxiety in 4th grade but, honestly, I know I experienced it before then. All my life I have tried to control situations and be very prepared so last-minute situations wouldn’t rattle me. It was hard for me to be spontaneous, and I worried about not living up to other people's expectations.
Read MoreEarlier this month, I had the amazing opportunity to sit down and chat with Lisa Fairman, founder of Girl Power Sport. They are a local gymnastics, dance, and activewear brand based in Vancouver, Washington with most of their materials sourced from Portland, Oregon. When asked about how her brand started, it was clear Lisa has been surrounded by the arts and sports community for a very long time.
Read MoreMental health in dance is a phrase I never heard growing up. I grew up in a time where there was a huge stigma on mental health. If you needed counseling or help, there was “something wrong with you”. So, every time I was struggling, I pushed it down. I could build a mountain with all the struggle stones I’ve shoved deep down inside.
Read MoreIt’s that time of the year when many studios are starting or well into their preparations for competition and performance season. Especially with the major setbacks the pandemic has put us in when it comes to being on stage, it makes it all the more exciting to be back on stage and dancing again. However, with the pandemic comes another crisis many dancers have overlooked.
Read MoreMelissa Koh Krienke is a dancer, teacher, and artist here in the Pacific Northwest. She started dancing ballet at the age of 3 and her passion grew from there. Melissa trained through high school with Ballet Chelsea and got her BFA in dance from Cornish College of the Arts. She has performed with
Read MoreEmma’s favorite thing about dance is that it provides a healthy emotional outlet. She has found that her personal struggles with mental health cause her anxiety to physically manifest in her body. Dance for Emma helps to release the tension and allow it to flow through and out of her. “[Dance is] a bit more emotional with your entire body; not just your voice or your hands or your brain. I think it lets go of a lot of bodily tension and not just mental tension.”
Read MoreFirst finding her home at Harbor Conservatory, and then trained under the direction of Jennifer Picart-Branner, a former dancer with the Frankfurt Ballet Company and guest artist with the Royal Ballet in London. Maddie beams as she remembers, “she is an amazing woman. She’s Filipina, tiny, and brown - which I identified with - and she was a professional dancer in Frankfurt, Germany, and the fact that she broke those barriers especially in the time that she did was huge, and I felt so inspired by that.”
Read MoreWhile dance has always been an important part of who she is, Brittni’s relationship with dance has been anything but easy. “I stopped dancing around 16 years old for a good year because I was having such a tough time with mental health.” Where dance had previously been an emotional outlet for Brittni, she began to find that it didn’t feel good anymore. “It wasn’t the same,” she recounts, “and it even [physically] hurt sometimes to dance.”
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