KJDC October Dancer of the Month - Aria Baker

Today we’re sitting down with the first ever “KJDC Dancer of the month” 11 year old, dedicated dancer Aria. She takes us through her story about her journey with KJDC. Three years ago she remembers walking through the doors after hearing some of her friends talk about life at Kim Jay Dance Company. She wanted to experience this herself, as she was looking for growth. Listening to Aria, lovingly called “Ari” by her friends, you’ll find that she really understands the value of practice, putting her mind to goals and accomplishing those goals. When she faced the question of how she came to understand this, she humbly replied that she doesn’t know, but she’s always had an optimistic outlook on things. She pointed out she just happened to have a growth mindset. Personally this little fact about Ari inspired me. I remember reading Carol Dweck’s book about this idea. It was very clear that the Dancer of the Month, was more than just a dancer. She loved to tell stories, something about the movements were meaningful to her. Aria enjoys modeling, acting, painting, or drawing when she’s not dancing or at school, of course because those are the priorities of an 11 year old. She reveled in this accomplishment, and when asked what she’d say to her predecessors, she emphasized PRACTICE. Ms Kim looked on with tears in her eyes, tears of joy. “Spend your time getting ready for the moment, how I do that is practice and come ready and confident.” Ari is really grateful to be dancing but don’t take it from me, watch the full interview video and check out how Ari represents Kim Jay Dance Company.