#masacote

BURJU: What do you love most about dancing? ANA: Dance helps me soar to my highest emotions and work through my deepest insecurities. It calms my worries. It expands my mind. It is the artful expression of my inner voice, and thus, dance is my heart and soul.

BURJU: What does it mean to you to #btruebyou? ANA: The mind can be our best friend and our biggest enemy. As J. Krishna Murti put it, “Fear does not come from the unknown; fear comes from letting go of the known.” As children, our imaginations know no boundaries, but through the years, we let life harden us and shelter that inner child from the world. We get stuck in a paradigm of thinking that leads us to make safe choices, practical plans, and without realizing it, we build our own walls, fortify them, and lock ourselves into a prison of our own doing, or, perhaps better said, not doing. The older we get, the more pragmatic our decisions become, and we often hold ourselves back from following our dreams, taking leaps of faith, or just straying from the norm. Being true to yourself means loving and accepting yourself first for who you are without expectations or comparisons to others. Our differences are what make us beautiful. Loving ourselves leads to believing in ourselves, which gives us the drive to break free from our cocoons and set free the beauty within.

BURJU: How would you describe your style of fashion? ANA: Amorphously Classic: I love to constantly change it up but add a classic twist to different styles, whether they be gowns, jeans, goth styles, lace, or funky looks. I believe that you don't have to show skin to look beautiful, and that I'd prefer to be remembered for how I danced than what little clothes I wore.