The fact that I was African American was never addressed, and that allowed me to just be a student, like anyone else. I was not aware of how rare it was to be an African American, how rare it was to have four years of training under my belt, and how, even though I could imitate people and fake it, unprepared I was to become a professional.

You can do anything you want, even if you are being told negative things.stay strong and find motivation.

For me, I was in school and I pushed myself to be a good student, just because that's the type of person I was, but I never had a connection to any of it. I don't think my brain functioned in a way that was at its height, when I was in school. I needed something like art to really value the way my mind works. I wasn't reaching my full potential by sitting in a classroom and reading from a book. My mind didn't work that way.

I ended up training only for four years before I was accepted into American Ballet Theater in New York City.

Once I became a professional, maybe 19 or 20, I really started to try to figure out who I was, as a woman and as an individual.

In a ballet company, you're trying to create unison and uniform when you're in a cour de ballet.

Ballet found me. I was discovered by a teacher in middle school. I always danced, my whole life. I never had any training, never was exposed to seeing dance, but I always had something inside of me.