Pepper never thought of herself as a dancer. She was always the loudest in the room, never too serious and very awkward–the opposite of her vision of a dancer. And yet, she had always been drawn to dance. From begging for ballet lessons at six, joining a drill team at thirteen, ballroom at seventeen, and then finally pole and aerial at twenty-one. If dance had been the siren song calling to her throughout her life, pole and aerial was the particular melody that finally stuck.

When Pepper joined her first studio, she found community, a reason to stay active, and a way to explore self-expression through movement. She started to believe maybe she could be a ‘real’ dancer. Then life got in the way and she ended up taking a five-year break. During that time she fell back into the belief that she, of all people, could not be called a dancer. She thought it was just for fitness, she wasn’t graceful enough, and she was still the same loud, awkward person she’d always been.

Finally, Pepper found Mora. Her time with Mora has made her realize she is a dancer. Not because she’s perfected her form, become suddenly graceful, or cleaned up her lines…but because a dancer is someone to whom music whispers, ‘move with me’ and their soul answers back ‘let’s dance’.