The struggles of being a black ballet dancer stem more from just my muscle tone and having a skin tone that doesn’t match the “ballet pink” tights. For years until more dancers with ethnic backgrounds were celebrated as they are now, Alicia Graf Mack has been an artist who has assured me that young black dancers can make their mark in the dance community. I believe that God knew, from the moment I was born feet first, that my feet were meant for the stage. My mom likes to say that I began dancing before I was born. The nurses had to physically twirl me around in my mom’s womb which taught me my first pirouette. After what probably felt like an eternity to my mother of painful maneuvers by her awaiting child who refused to move her precious instruments, my mom had a c-section. Those feet that I was born with were at first unsure of if they would be able to touch the stage. My Filipino mother had every intention of making sure that I would live out my dreams in a tutu. But, in my young mind, the dark skin that I inherited from my dad had every intention of tugging my dancing feet from under me. I saw Alicia for the first time on a billboard outside of the Auditorium Theatre, stunting a breathtaking pose with beautiful lines. Being the only black dancer in the studio set the tone that I wouldn’t be seeing much of myself in my peers and be able to grow off of that. However, I was able to look above to Alicia and see myself. Could I one day maybe be this black dancer being recognized at the center of one of the biggest theaters in Chicago? Seeing what I previously thought my background would not let me be able to do in big letters and bright lights made me hungry to challenge my mind. I was driven by the perfecting nature of dance and found fulfillment in never arriving at a true goal because I could see more improvement. This aligns with the incentives that my dad, who I consider a true architect of showing that my blackness is not a hindrance but a tool, would utter about “keeping it moving” and how there was never anything that my family did that couldn’t be further improved. I’ve applied each intricate thing I was taught, which has shaped my dancing today. Some examples of this are my open fingers that I acquired during my summer at The School of American Ballet and the focus of the face in the Giordano jazz technique that has stayed with me. Although it was during the time when I thought my future wasn’t secure as a ballet dancer, my favorite experience was being a part of the creative process for The Joffrey Ballet’s New Nutcracker which was choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon. During this process, he made the ballet directly on the dancers. Being only 10 years old and one of the only dancers of color, I had to utilize or even grow the traits to be able to help make something that would be recognized globally in the dance community. Art is everywhere, from the buildings around us to the graffiti that sheathes them. People sing or dance to emote what they’re feeling. It makes up everything special. I hope to help make every young dancer know that they can make this art form even more special and to assure black dancers that there is a space for them in the center of the stage.