awestruck of the day

i still remember my first time seeing the beautiful tamara rojo live; it wasn't until she had finished the coda that i realized i literally had small tears streaming down my face in shock and awe.  she is without a doubt one of my biggest inspirations.  check out the beautiful ms. rojo, along with her fantastic partner carlos acosta, in the black swan pas de deux:

ashley bouder

i've recently been following the career of new york city ballet's ashley bouder closely, and the more i learn about her, the more i'm inspired.  if you're not familiar with ms. bouder, i urge you get to know her; she's a seasoned vet, whose experience and talent is fantastically obvious, she's absolutely beautiful!

“The great thing about Ashley,” says principal dancer Joaquin De Luz, who has partnered her in a number of ballets, “is that she really shares her energy, and it makes you want to jump higher and dance better.” 

“From the beginning she stood out onstage,” says Merrill Ashley. “Besides her technical strength, she really feels and expresses the movement and clearly she loves to dance.”

(Dance Magazine, April 2011)

i don't know what it is about her, but she just seems like one of those really genuine dancers, who works hard for everything and approaches each class/rehearsal/show with intense thought and care.  she seems like the type of dancer who never stops pushing herself to make new goals, meet them, and then surpass them, which is such a fantastic and evident quality in a dancer, not the type to rely solely on natural talents. 

i also love this video, in which ashley is joined by fellow nycb dancers tiler peck and kathryn morgan discuss dancing the role of aurora, from three different perspectives.

and if you're a twitter fiend like myself, be sure to follow her twitter.  so fun to get to a little sneak peek into the daily life of a widely successful principle dancer!