Thank you so so much for being on this journey with me! It’s always both exciting and scary to take the leap and begin a new project or act on an idea, so I’m extremely grateful that you are here to support me!
If you don’t know me, my name is Olivia. I was born and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a city that I can look at and truly call “home”. My parents both have degrees in theater (my dad a minor, my mom an MFA). Therefore, I spent a great deal of time around performers growing up and gained an understanding and appreciation for the arts at an early age. Encouraged by my parents, I enjoyed acting, dancing and singing in various classes, community theater shows, and school/church functions.
When I was 8 years old, my mom enrolled me in ballet classes at a local studio that had been recommended to her by a friend for their serious, professional training and performing opportunities. She told me that she wanted to provide me with “another facet” for my “expression”. Given that I had asked to be signed up for soccer, I was skeptical at first. But as soon as I got into that dance class, something just clicked. Maybe it was my inherent 8-year-old dream to look and feel like a princess. Maybe it was my already existing love for music and performing that drew me to ballet. My desire to please “Miss Julia”, or my competitive will to outlast my classmates and go “all the way” with dance could also have contributed to my enthusiasm for the art form. Whatever the reason, dance stuck, and it soon became my passion and my main channel for my creativity.
Summer vocal lessons, camps, and community theater shows began to be replaced with summer ballet intensives. I gave up band when excessive after-school classes and rehearsals began impeding on my ability to practice my instrument. I chose to forgo a conventional high school experience for the chance to attend a performing arts school in St. Paul, where I danced every day on top of my ballet training at my studio. I am choosing to take an unconventional college path in order to pursue a BFA degree in ballet (I’m starting at the University of Utah as a freshman this fall!). Dance was and is an all-consuming passion, but I don’t regret my decision to devote my time and efforts to it. It is challenging, yet so incredibly rewarding and fulfilling. I’ve made so many blissfully happy, unforgettable, amazing memories doing ballet. Hopefully I can write another blog post soon on all the reasons why I love dancing so much.
However, my path as a dancer has not been particularly easy. I’ve encountered a lot of obstacles along the way, especially in regards to my mental and physical health. For one, like many ballet dancers, I’m an extreme perfectionist, and I went through a time in my life where my perfectionism was almost debilitating. For another, I’m both competitive by nature and extremely self-conscious about what other people think of me. These qualities were and still are amplified to an unhealthy extent by the approval-seeking culture of ballet. Another issue that I continue to deal with in my life is food and body image. I went through an extreme period of disordered eating in my early teen years, exacerbated by that fact that my body didn’t conform into what is considered the conventional “ballet aesthetic”. Although I’ve improved leaps and bounds (no pun intended) from where I was then, I still deal with health issues and disordered thoughts as a result of this period in my life. Some things are necessary sacrifices in order to pursue dance at a high level, but your mental and physical health should NOT be one of them, and I’ve learned that now.
In my journey to recovery from that particularly difficult time, I found podcasts, blogs, and social media accounts centered around health and mindset to be extremely beneficial. I also went vegan as a result of social media (another blog post with more detail about why I am vegan soon!) I don’t know where I would be if I hadn’t been exposed to all those amazing resources. They still serve as constant inspiration to me, and they are the reason why I want to begin to put my own perspectives out into the world. You never know who you can reach, and who you can relate to in your shared struggles. Dancers especially occupy a niche where we share many of the same difficulties, yet rarely talk about them openly, especially in our places of practice (studios, schools, etc). I really want to open up more of those conversations, even if conversations are all they amount to.
Additionally, I want there to be more social media platforms dedicated specifically to health and wellness for dancers. We can listen to the advice of the many “health gurus” out there, yet it is hard to understand how to apply their advice as a dancer unless they are a dancer themselves. The rules in the dance world are inherently a bit harsher than the rules in the “real world”, no matter how much we want them to change, and it is important to strive towards achieving a personal balance. There are already dance-focused accounts and platforms out there that I absolutely love, but I want there to be MORE! I’m not saying this blog will be an authority on dance and health, nor am I saying that it will even bring anything new or insightful to the table. My only goal is to foster my love of writing (another passion of mine that is often overlooked as a result of my ballet commitments) and keep track of my thoughts in a way that could be both beneficial to me and to my readers.
There are many new beginnings facing me as I approach the next few weeks of my life. A new school. A new city. A new dance community. New friends. New responsibilities. And now a new blog! New beginnings are full of uncertainty, yet they bring with them an excitement unparalleled by anything else. I thought this would be the perfect time to start recording my ideas and experiences, and I’m happy that you’re along for the ride!
Make sure you are a part of the conversation! Feel free to comment, email me, or use the contact page on the website to reach out to me at any time! You can also connect with me through social media on my health-centered instagram @plantbased_inpointeshoes or my main account @oliviajean00 . If you have any ideas for what I should write about next, please feel free to let me know! I would also like to hear if you have any input, suggestions, or ways that I can improve – I’m brand new to this would love some feedback! I appreciate that you’re here and am unspeakably excited for the weeks ahead! Until next time, thanks for reading!
— Olivia ❤
Plantbased in Pointe Shoes 