UO Short Stories: Eva

We meet up with four inspiring creatives in New York City to discuss career journeys, when they feel the most fulfilled and the evolution of their styles. Meet Eva, Imani, Simone and Lauren: these are their Short Stories.

"I started dancing when I was six or seven and my mom put me in ballet class. I knew when I was 11 that it would be what I wanted to do for my profession. I think the most rewarding thing about dance is the feeling that you have because, most of the time, 90% of it is the dancing and the work and only a little percentage of it is the performance. So, you really have to love the work and the feeling that it gives you."

"I love teaching because I have learned so many things from my teachers that stick with me and I get to share them with others and also create a space for people to enjoy and explore ballet in a non-intimidating, fun way. I started teaching in my class, Ballet One, because I felt like I wanted to create a space for people to do ballet in an all-levels format and wanted it to be more of an emphasis on choreography versus technique, because we're not trying to be professionals here. We just want to have fun and enjoy dancing."

"My friend says that doing yoga or practicing any kind of technique is like doing your scales. You have to do the basics, but we're here to have fun. So, I try and remember that, whereas I think a lot of ballet classes place most of the emphasis on the technique. I think dance is a bit of a rarefied world. Two of my best friends, Marissa and Lauren, started a class called Moves and it's an all-levels jazz type class. And I loved the spirit of it and wanted to have a ballet class that also welcomed everyone. Because I think that a lot of people grew up doing ballet, but maybe were told, oh, there's no place for you. Or they maybe wanted to do soccer too. And they're like, no, you can't. But I think that disregards the love for it. And it shouldn't matter what your body is, or if you want to play soccer. There should be a space for you to dance forever."

"This is maybe not my theory, but I don't think you can be a great dancer if you are self-conscious. I think that's also a Carl Jung kind of philosophy. He says that self-consciousness is injurious. What's great about technique is that if you practice it, you get better and that's the case with any type of technique, so I think practicing helps you get better, which should make you feel better. I think also just dancing in general, not just ballet, but if you go to a club or something, sometimes your favorite dancer is doing something really weird. And I think if you're dancing in a weird way, but you're feeling yourself, that is awesome. I think feeling yourself is the number one most important part to be great at dance. I've noticed in ballet dancers, a common trait sometimes is shyness."

"I think the studio is a sacred space and that means no technology. And I think that's something really important for me to connect is to be sort of divorced from that. I mean, New York just has the best dance studios and the most dance studios. I think what's nice about dance is that it's a universal language. So, if I'm in Paris, if I'm in London, if I'm in LA, you just go find the dance studio and you can be with a new teacher and different dancers. And everyone's talking in the same language. I decided to leave dancing in a professional company when I was quite young and I just felt hungry for different experiences. And so I took about three years off or so, and then I think I was always very just ballet, ballet, ballet."

"I think dancers have great style, because they know their bodies well. I'm really comfortable and familiar with my proportions and I think it informs my choices that I wear. I wear a lot of ballet flats, too. I started taking acting classes when I was taking that break and I sort of continue to do that, because I think it adds a lot to my dancing and also it's a really nice way to work on your imagination, which I don't think is something that adults do a lot. Mistakes are the worst thing you can do and acting is basically based on making mistakes and being okay to make a fool out of yourself. And I just made a little film with a dancer, who's now an actress, about this. Because it's really an interesting switch from being afraid to make a mistake, to being encouraged to make one."