I believe that there are little bits and pieces inside all of us that belong to the knowledge of another. We all carry something to offer, just as we each have something to receive. In that way, learning is never one-directional. It’s an exchange of knowledge.

I don’t see learning as hierarchical, especially in dance, where the work is inherently intimate. We are engaging with bodies, nervous systems, and energy. In those spaces, we meet each other in a place where listening matters more than knowing.

I’m drawn to that kind of connection, where communication happens beyond words. Where the body understands before the mind, where the mind slowly follows.

I believe that we are much more ignorant than we like to acknowledge. I think a large part of what drives me is how vast the world is. How many languages I do not know. How many cultures I have not yet seen. How many people I have not yet held, danced, or laughed with. There are thousands of miles we have yet to explore, hundreds of people to meet and move with, and many ways of thinking to rearrange our own. Why would we keep doing things as we were taught? There is an entire world out there, full of knowledge seeping out, waiting to be slurped up by hungry and eager minds.

I know it is all out there, waiting for the right timing to unfold. I crave to connect, but yet am scared to unfurl into the embrace of others. Maybe somewhere along my journey, in a different part of the world, I will unfurl. I will unfurl into another way of living, of moving, of breathing, and in itself, another way of dancing.

For the first time in my life, I am getting to ask myself questions to keep me curious. Well, it's not the first time in my life I have been able to do this, but it is the first time I feel desperate enough to ask. Why do I need to dance? Who am I without it? Why do I crave this intimacy? This tenderness? This strength? The feeling of bodies folding and colliding into mine? The sweat-soaked clothes and the bruises on my knees?

I have found that I don’t have clear answers. Maybe that’s the point? Maybe this is the start of my lifelong journey of discovery. I have realized that I do not want my career in dance to be dependent on booking a job or signing a contract. I want it to be filled with creation. It's about staying curious, staying eager enough to keep asking questions I might not have the answers to. For me, it is about discovery. Following my bliss, as a wise teacher once told me. It is not about arriving at a final destination, but having a journey filled with creation, and love, and heartbreak, and grief, and elation, and confusion and anger, and happiness. All of the things that come with. All of the things we have the gift of feeling.