| | Posted by Carla
Firts of all I am sorry I disappeared for a while!!! Of course I have great excuses, but before I give them bear with my little reflection on a dancer’s life.

Part of being a dancer is having the ability to make serious decisions when we are very young. One of the most difficult decisions most of us have to make is to decide to leave our families to pursue our careers as dancers. In my case I left Brazil when I just turned 15 to come to NY and study at SAB. It’s been 10 years since I left and since then I get to see my parents maybe once a year. I just wanted to take this moment to thank them so much for being so strong and letting me go and fufill my dreams.

So I’ve been busy ever since my parents came to visit me on Sep 16. They also flew my sister and her boyfriend to Seattle since I had not seen her in more than two years. And they did all this to share with me a very important date: my promotion to Principal Dancer at PNB. It happened at PNB’s Gala and I am so glad I could spend this day with the people I love, them and my partner John and friends.

This picture is of one of my last rehearsals for Swan Lake, which I performed the White Swan pas de deux with Casey Herd, who also got promoted to principal that night. Here Peter Boal is coaching us at our stage rehersal. The picture was taken by Angela Sterling. She is our official photographer and she also works all around the globe. You can check out her work at www.angelasterlingphoto.com. She is an extremelly talented photographer and we are lucky to have her.

Saying all that, now that my family is gone life is back to normal: lot’s of work, just the way we like it!