“Dance is the song of the body” – Martha Graham

Kim is an insanely talented dancer! After taking a quick peek at the first shot of the day with her I knew things were going to be AWESOME! She totally exceeded my expectations. Being completely out of my element I decided to do a little “research” on dance poses/moves/positions before the shoot. I had my little drawing page with stick people posing all ready to go just hoping that she’d be able to do some of the poses. Kim did them all and more!!

She started dance for fun when she was about 10 years old. After 2 years taking a musical theater/jazz class on Saturdays, she then started at Centre 58 Dance Arts in Calgary where she considers her “real” dancing to have begun. Since grade 7 is considered pretty late to start dancing, her instructors pushed her hard to catch up with the other dancers. She started ballet and pointe, then went on to musical theatre, jazz, tap and competed with her first solo (to Colors of the Wind from Pocahontas).

Her freshman year of university she danced with the BYU Cougarettes, whom she danced with for 3 years. She’s performed at Disney World and danced in the Electric Light Parade, worked with NappyTabs a few times (two of my all time favorite choreographers from the show So You Think You Can Dance), taught tap at BYU and has performed with a number of groups and teams.

Kim is now heading off to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. She will be serving for 18 months in the Utah Salt Lake Temple Square mission. When she has finished serving for the church she plans to return to school. She’s working on her dance education major and has 3 semesters left. Hopefully she’ll come back and teach here – after seeing the pictures my girls were trying to reenact her moves and both said they wanted to start dance. I’d love for her to teach my girls 🙂

Thank you Kim for sharing your beautiful talent. I had a great time with you that day and wish you all the best on your mission and as you continue on in school and dance.