Simply Natalia

March 7th 2022

It is 3:30 AM on a Monday. Welcome to my life.

The first thing you will learn about me is that I am by NO means a morning person. My internal clock runs from 10 AM (at the earliest) and goes until about 4 AM. Healthy? Absolutely not. Productive? 110% yes.

It is still Pisces season, which actually means busy season for me over at Fenton Ballet Theatre. I am currently choreographing and teaching for their pre-professional dance company and school. We leave on Wednesday with FBT's apprentice company girls to compete at Youth America Grand Prix in Indianapolis. As their teacher, it's nerve wracking because I want them to do well, but as their choreographer, it's nothing but exciting. Some of the most telling moments in a young dancer's career are a result of a healthy amount of pressure. In most circumstances, if you raise the stakes in rehearsals, they are exceeded on the stage. I teach my students by that philosophy.

On top of that, I am in the process of applying to colleges in the state of Michigan so that I can finish my Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance. Covid hit the spring of my junior year at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. I had just premiered my junior piece,"The Calm Before The Storm," and gotten accepted into summer programs/training programs at Hubbard Street and North West Dance Project when I was sent home to finish my junior year through a computer screen. I know everyone had it hard during the pandemic, but believe me, nobody had it as hard as the performing arts world.

I think I can speak for almost everyone involved in the arts community when I say that 2020-2021 was the death of performing arts. Cruise lines stopped, dance companies shut down, Broadway closed, concerts were cancelled, training programs were remote, colleges sent students home, summer programs were refunded, and I was more lost than I had ever been in my twenty one years of life.

However, life goes on. BTS taught me that (along with the fact that I love all things related to K-Pop). They were right though, it did. March of 2022 has begun and life is trekking full speed down a one-way street. I am excited to share my journey of finishing my degree, owning my own freelance choreography business, and accomplishing the goals that I set for myself one day at a time. Truth be told, I have never blogged before. The idea of being so open and vulnerable terrified me for the longest time, but life itself is unpredictable. Every day I am learning to never take a moment for granted because you never know what tomorrow may bring. I hope The Butterfly Effect will continue to help people understand that everyone's journey in life is individual and how to embrace those differences and take charge of your future.

"Even the knowledge of my own fallibility cannot keep me from making mistakes. Only when I fall do I get up again." - Vincent Van Gogh