I started dancing at the age of 10 in an amateur dance theatre “Suite” of my aunt Svetlana. She has become my first teacher and mentor, who basically showed me how any idea or impulse can take shape in the body and through that become reality. I would eventually spend 5 or even 6 evenings a week in the cultural centre where we rehearsed and my heroic mom drove me back and forth to every competition in the region. There were no subsidies, no guest teachers, no light or set designers, so we learned how to do everything by ourselves - to sew the costumes on each other the night before a competition, to repurpose props from 20 years ago, to singe the edges of chiffon fabric to prevent it from fraying, to lead warm ups and classes for younger kids, to choreograph together. We didn’t just learn how to dance, we learned about creativity, responsibility, friendship (and sometimes rivalry, of course), support and leadership. In 2025 “Suite” celebrated its 30th anniversary. I couldn’t be there in person, but I really wanted to create something special as a gift for my aunt, for the place and community that laid the foundation of the artist I am becoming. That’s how this visual movement poem came to life.