About Me

For most of my life I have introduced myself as follows…”Hi, I’m Heather and I am a dancer.” This is not shocking as I began taking dance classes at the age of 2 and own more dance apparel than I do real life clothes. The majority of my life has been spent in the dance studio gazing at my reflection for copious amounts of time. One could say that I’ve become accustomed to criticizing every inch of the girl, now woman, and new mother, staring back at me in the mirror. Needless to say, dance became my life many years ago and it is still the one thing I turn to when I get the urge to truly express my emotions. Though it brings me great joy and I have been lucky enough to make it my career as a performer, educator, choreographer and competition judge, there have been things I have had to overcome because of it too.

At the age of 14 my body started changing and I could not stand it. I was never overweight but since I was always petite, I thought of the curves and changes in my body negatively. Since I took 20+ hours a week of dance classes it was inevitable that I would critique my body and obsess over dance attire and competition costumes. My school allowed me to be an independent study student giving me more time in the day to focus on dance. I spent mornings at school in Philadelphia then went straight to NYC to train during the weeknights. My hard work and training gave me the amazing opportunity to tour the country as an assistant with a dance convention on the weekends.

While I was furthering my dance training, I also had a lot of freedom to skip meals or on some instances just eat one large meal for the whole day. Though I absolutely struggled with disordered eating since that age, it was not until I was 19 that I became Bulimic and Anorexic. I was living on my own in NYC, getting tons of rejections from auditions and had recently been told by my parents that they were getting divorced. I had lost complete control of my life and moved back home to attend an outpatient day treatment program which led to an inpatient treatment program in Arizona and eventually another outpatient night treatment program back in New York.

Honestly, I never came home fully recovered. It took me years to become aware of my triggers and fully commit to my recovery. I am still, and will always be, in recovery. I was also back and forth with my dance career at this time. Unfortunately I found myself allowing my life to just pass me by. Even when I went on incredible vacations around the world, I was never really myself and never felt fulfilled. During this time I experienced what felt like the lowest of lows mainly due to the self-induced body shaming and an overall lack of love for my body. Having a negative relationship with myself caused me to have a negative relationship with food. I used food to punish myself when I felt undeserving. Without a doubt I still struggle with the idea of “feeling fat” and it has taken years to learn this is just a feeling, a mindset that only I can control and a decision that only I can choose to let take over me, or not.

With that all being said, allow me to properly introduce myself to you as I am so much more than just a dancer. My name is Heather and I am a vivacious, passionate, ambitious 33 year old woman, wife & new mommy residing in Miami. I was born in Philadelphia, the place I consider home because my family is still there. At 18 years old I decided to move to New York City where I spent most of my adult life. Though life in the Big Apple was exciting and full of wonderful experiences and memories consisting of dance gigs, teaching jobs, way too many girls nights out and even a 9 year love that ended for many reasons, it was in my mid to late twenties that I realized ultimately I was not happy. I lacked in making decisions to support and take care of myself physically and emotionally, therefore it took a lot to take back control of my own life. I gave up on things and I hurt people that I loved along the way. Forgiving myself and pushing forward has been the hardest part but I knew that in order to make myself happy and change my life I had a lot of work to do, so I started.

I spent my last year in NYC commuting to Long Island to teach 28 hours of dance classes between Mondays and Thursdays all while taking 17 online credits to complete my AA in Liberal Arts and flying out to a different city every Friday through Monday to judge dance competitions. When I completed that year, I knew that I could do anything. I have worked really hard to create the life I am now living.

My journey has taught me to love my life and for the first time ever I am proud of myself. I have the most supportive husband who loves and supports me in all of the ways I need. He even enjoys grocery shopping and cooking with me. I have surrounded myself with a bunch of my favorite things in life: palm trees, the beach, the ocean, country music, kayaking in Key Largo, working out, journaling and an occasional warm bubble bath accompanied by a good book, an Anthropologie candle and a splash of red wine. I also gave birth to my beautiful little boy back in December 2019, my Leo James.

I still travel, judge, teach & choreograph and I recently completed my NASM Certification in Nutrition Coaching. What I am truly passionate about is speaking on the topic of dancer health & nutrition, spreading self-love, promoting positive body image and committing to a healthy lifestyle for my family so that I can be an inspiration to my students and anyone else who wants to come on this journey with me.

Welcome to my world. Welcome to Appetite for Dance!