Getting to Know DWC Ambassador Dominique See
One of the things that Dominique is looking forward to about being an ambassador is that it can allow her to become more of an advocate for mental health in the dance world. Having gone through these experiences herself, she wants to be able to raise awareness for these issues that are very common in the dance world. At All That Dance where Dominique teaches, there is Love Your Body Week that has been picked up by numerous other studios around the country where time is taken out of dance classes during the week to discuss loving your body. Dominique shares that this week is something that has helped her want to lift up the voices of people struggling with these issues and advocate for more awareness.
By Nicole Barrett, DWC Blog Writer
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Advocating for mental health around the dance community is something very important to one of our new DWC ambassadors, Dominique See. Starting at the age of three, Dominique has always been involved in the dance world and has strived to achieve the acceptance everyone deserves. Read on to learn more about Dominique’s dance journey and work at All That Dance and Genki Pilates!
Dominique is from a small town in southern Washington State called White Salmon where she started dancing at the age of three. She signed up for dance classes with her friend and ultimately, she just never stopped dancing. She was involved in the performance companies at her studio where she shared that she learned she wanted to dance forever. She majored in dance at the University of Washington and graduated in 2017. While dancing at UW, she was the President of the Dance Student Association and worked with the Chamber Dance Company. Dominique wanted to be as involved as she could in the dance community at UW and that is what she did.
Post-graduation, Dominique went into the pilates teacher training program to become a pilates instructor and was dancing here and there in different places around the Seattle area. While dancing in Seattle, she was involved in the Tint Dance Festival and danced with Pat Graney for about two and half years during this time. Dominique then began performing with MALACARNE and did a virtual zoom performance in 2021. She then began teaching at All That Dance in Seattle and has been involved in the dance company there.
Growing up, Dominique was always drawn to ballet more than any other style. “I was very much drawn to ballet with the structure and the precision and the thought that ‘this is what you do when you do it,’” Dominique shares. She describes a sense of comfort when dancing in a style like this where she can tell her body exactly what she wants to do and how to do it and she felt that it was a grounding point for her.
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As she got older, she started shifting over to more modern dance instead of ballet. Dominique mentions that the physical aspects of the dance world and the stereotypical body types that were required for ballet dance as an adult were something that made her switch over to modern dance instead. “What I love most about dance is you have all the control in it, but you also have control in how much you let go,” Dominique shares.
When asked about her biggest challenge in the dance world, Dominique shares that it was her inability to say no. She mentions that this realization occurred for her when she became more aware that you don’t have to do the things that hurt. She also mentions this need to please the choreographer and feel appreciated when they show attention to you, which is something very common in the dance world. Because of this, she wants other dancers to know that no matter what “you are your own body, your own dancer, your own artist, and you are your own person.” She wants dancers to be mindful of their own health and safety and know when to say no.
One of the things that Dominique is looking forward to about being an ambassador is that it can allow her to become more of an advocate for mental health in the dance world. Having gone through mental health challenges herself, she wants to be able to raise awareness for similar issues that are very common in the dance world. At All That Dance where Dominique teaches, there is a “Love Your Body Week” that has been picked up by numerous other studios around the country where time is taken out of dance classes during the week to discuss loving your body. Dominique shares that this week is something that has helped her want to lift up the voices of people struggling with these issues and advocate for more awareness.
Dominique just got finished with a five-hour duration show at the Georgetown Steam Plant that she did with Malacarne. “[This performance] was epic, it was amazing and so fulfilling,” Dominique shares about the show. She is looking forward to the end-of-year recital for All That Dance where she gets to watch all the kids that she teaches perform.
Photo by Catlyn Griswell | click below to shop the look!
Outside of teaching at All That Dance, Dominique is a pilates instructor. She was trained by Lori Coleman Brown in downtown Seattle through a very intensive training process that is very deeply integrated with how to look into the body. She mentions that dancers could utilize pilates greatly to help feel safe and secure in their muscles when performing. Because of this, Dominique opened up her own pilates studio Genki Pilates for more artists to have access to these utilities. This summer, Dominique hopes to put in more time to Genki Pilates to help serve the whole dance community.
Moving forward in the dance world, Dominique would like to see more studios pick up the ideas of Love Your Body Week as they have at All That Dance. She wants everyone in the dance community to feel that they are enough and that their body doesn’t limit what they can and can’t do. Seeing that incorporated into the dance world makes Dominique very hopeful for the future of dancers and she hopes to see these changes happen in more places.
We are so excited to have Dominique as one of our new ambassadors!
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DWC Ambassador Coco Liu on Beginning Dance as an Adult
Have you ever wanted to try something new, but felt like you weren’t welcome to or as though your time to begin had passed? If so, you aren’t alone. There’s an unspoken assumption that as adults, we somehow know exactly what we enjoy doing and have all of our passions clearly defined. However, DWC Ambassador Coco Liu is here to tell you that it’s never too late to try something new, specifically with dance.
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Have you ever wanted to try something new, but felt like you weren’t welcome to or as though your time to begin had passed? If so, you aren’t alone. There’s an unspoken assumption that as adults, we somehow know exactly what we enjoy doing and have all of our passions clearly defined. However, DWC Ambassador Coco Liu is here to tell you that it’s never too late to try something new, specifically with dance.
Coco began taking dance classes as an adult, but her admiration for the art form began as a child. Growing up in China, Coco’s mother would take her to see Russian ballet performances. She remembers being thoroughly engaged with the shows and learning to appreciate dance through being an audience member. Coco shares that she was an active kid, but didn’t enroll in dance classes because there weren’t many high-quality studios in her area. At age 15, after moving to the United States, Coco recalls constantly playing the game Just Dance on her host family’s Wii, continuing it into college with friends. “I remember playing for hours on that thing!” she says, as it helped cultivate her love for dance.
After graduating college, Coco was inspired to take her first ballet class after watching her best friend dance. She visited her friend in Utah and watched her perform the “Waltz of the Snowflakes” in The Nutcracker. Coco remembers being amazed by the performance, and immediately thinking she should try to dance herself. She researched studios in the Seattle area and decided to enroll in a class at The Ballet Studio in U District. “Slowly, it just stuck,” Coco says, sharing that she’s been dancing for about three years now. She mainly focuses on ballet training but has also started taking classes in contemporary, modern, and hip hop styles. Dabbling in other styles has made Coco realize how fundamental ballet skills can be for other genres of dance.
Coco says that one of her favorite things about dance is the community. “Some of my very close friends nowadays, I met through dance,” she says. Coco points out that the dance community feels both big and small at the same time, mentioning the connections she can make with all types of people, from different areas of her life, through their shared love of dance.
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On a personal level, Coco enjoys seeing the self-improvement that comes with ballet training. “The amount of effort you put in, you get back,” she says. “You see that improvement within yourself. That really kept me going.” Within the dance world, particularly ballet, it always feels like there is more to learn and improve upon, preventing most dancers from feeling stagnant within their practice.
When Coco first began dancing, she struggled with feeling like she was “good enough.” She remembers going on Instagram and seeing dancers post photos and videos of their high extensions, fast turns, and other impressive feats. As a beginner, exposure to these posts made her feel a bit frustrated at first. However, after some more practice, this feeling went away. She recognized that most of these dancers had started training as young as age three, it was unrealistic for her to expect herself to be at the same level as them.
“To get out of that mindset, it was about having a competition with myself,” Coco shares. Each week, she would shift her focus on a specific technical element she could improve upon, whether it was her turnout or engaging specific muscle groups correctly. From there, she could gradually build her muscle memory and advance at her own rate. By channeling her energy into improving her own skills rather than comparing herself to others, she was able to truly appreciate other dancers and herself fully.
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Coco first learned about Dancewear Center when she bought pointe shoes. She learned about the ambassador program through a mutual friend and thought it would be a good opportunity for her to share her story and show people that it’s never too late to start dancing. That is the message she strives to promote as a DWC ambassador.
In addition to being a DWC ambassador, Coco’s dance group has a performance planned for December for friends and family at Dance Underground in Capitol Hill. Coco also began teaching beginning ballet to adults at Second Act Dance, an adult ballet studio. She shares that teaching has been an exciting and challenging new endeavor for her, as the experience is quite different from being a student.
Ultimately, Coco hopes that more opportunities come about for adult dancers, specifically beginners. While researching for her first class, Coco found that most studios in the area solely cater to adults with prior dance experience. She recalls being placed in intermediate classes at some studios, likely due to her age, and feeling intimidated and unconfident. Thus, she hopes more classes can center on teaching beginner adults. “If you love ballet, if you want to try it, you should try it. It’s never too late to do something that you’ve always had a desire to do,” Coco says.
DWC Ambassador Kristina Koumaeva on Putting the Human Before the Dancer
From competitive commercial dance to ballet academies, there has historically been a laser focus on technique in various dance realms, even at the expense of dancers' mental health. DWC Ambassador Kristina Koumaeva speaks on prioritizing the human over the dancer, cultivating self-confidence and self-care, and what she looks forward to doing as a DWC Ambassador.
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From competitive commercial dance to ballet academies, there has historically been a laser focus on technique in various dance realms, even at the expense of dancers' mental health. DWC Ambassador Kristina Koumaeva speaks on prioritizing the human over the dancer, cultivating self-confidence and self-care, and what she looks forward to doing as a DWC Ambassador.
Kristina began dancing at age four at Turning Pointe Dance Centre in Washington. From then on, dance became a significant part of Kristina’s world, cementing itself into every part of her life. “I don’t think I have memories without dance in them,” she shares. Throughout her childhood, she danced at studios, attended conventions and intensives, and participated in competitions. A program that stands out to her was called “Camp”, in which she flew out to rural Massachusetts and trained with “beautiful movers and artists” like Jason Parsons and Stacey Tookey. “That was really transformative and gave us a chance to choreograph and work on improvisation,” Kristina recalls.
After graduating high school, Kristina danced with the UW Cheer & Dance Squad, which was a completely different world of dance than what she had been a part of previously. However, she enjoyed the versatility she gained training in pom. She has also worked with Veronica Lee-Baik’s modern dance company, The Three Yells.
Following college, Kristina greatly drew inspiration from her brother to move to Los Angeles and pursue a career in commercial dance. Kristina’s older brother is an “incredibly inspiring professional dancer” who moved to LA when he was 16 to achieve his career goals. Similarly, Kristina spent four years in LA, diving into the commercial world of dance and working with luxury brands and a number of musical artists. Upon returning to Seattle, Kristina took up teaching again, and participated in various performances.
When Kristina thinks about what has kept her connected to dance all these years, music is one of the first things that comes to mind. “I have always been obsessed with music,” she says. “I think that’s just one of the greatest gifts that was given to this world. I’m super inspired by music of all kinds.” For Kristina, being able to dance to live music and feel a connection to real instruments is a fully immersive experience.
In addition, Kristina loves how dance enables her to connect her mind and her body. She shares that more conventional modes of expression, like public speaking, make her nervous. Yet, dance is “the complete opposite.” When dancing, Kristina feels like she can express anything she wants to efficiently.
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Throughout her dance career, handling self-confidence and self-care have been the biggest challenges for Kristina. She shares that even after all her years of dancing, she still experiences some nervousness when she performs in front of others. However, she says that building a toolkit of coping strategies and practicing self-care have been the most helpful tips for bolstering her confidence. Kristina emphasizes that self-care wasn’t deeply discussed in the dance realm when she was younger, especially in the competition dance world. Nevertheless, it’s important to understand that dancers need to take care of themselves, as their bodies are their “whole art.” “Having the time to slow down for yourself and prioritize your needs is really important,” Kristina stresses.
Kristina also shares that the pursuit of perfection, particularly in ballet, can serve as another challenge. Recently, Kristina has looked into studying holistic approaches to dance training, drawing inspiration from her beloved ballet teacher Rachel Tudor. Rachel taught Kristina that pursuing perfection often leads to prioritizing the dancer over the human. “I think the person should always come first,” Kristina says. Balancing teaching technical skills with supporting dancers’ needs is a step in the right direction. "Dance wasn't meant to be this intense thing…it's freedom of expression, and I think we lost that at some point when we got really deep into technique," Kristina voices.
This school year, Kristina is teaching at three different studios and choreographing competition pieces for various students. "That's been super exciting!" she shares. Additionally, Kristina has started collaborating with some local dance artists, including Daniel Wilkins from DASSdance. They're aiming to release some work, either in the form of a live performance or virtual experience, sometime in January 2021. The two are seeking inspiration from the various stories of individuals grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, and are interested in "telling different perspectives of what people went through during that time." Kristina shares that during the creation process, she got the opportunity to create a work to live jazz music and "it was just magical."
Kristina has also been connecting and creating contemporary videos and phrases with artist Stephanie Golden, and was featured in an Amazon commercial. Next summer, Kristina will perform in a jazz, burlesque show at the Can Can Culinary Cabaret in Seattle. "I love exploring different realms," she says of performing burlesque.
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Kristina has always been hesitant about partnering with a company, as she is nervous about promoting products and services she isn't actually proud of. However, Dancewear Center is not only a brand Kristina can strongly stand behind, but she also has a special connection to it. "I got my first pair of pointe shoes here!" she shares. "I grew up going [to Dancewear Center]." She really appreciates what the brand stands for and how it has made advances to connect people and create a more intimate dance community. She is looking forward to sharing her perspectives, particularly as an adult dancer, with others.
Looking ahead, Kristina hopes to help "create a safe, welcoming, and nurturing dance space" for everyone. Even if students don't plan to pursue dance professionally, she hopes they can gain assets from their amazing experiences within dance communities. "I just want to make sure that they have space to be themselves," Kristina says.
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