About this author: Valrie Nozipho Sanders was born and raised in Detroit, MI. She received her dance training as a scholarship student at the Center for Creative Studies, The Dance Theatre of Harlem and The San Francisco Dance Center. Valrie has performed with the Dance Theatre of Harlem, Michigan Opera Theater and the Capetown City Ballet . In the San Francisco Bay Area, she has danced with the Robert Henry Johnson Dance Company, Robert Moses, Kendra Kimbrough Dance Ensemble, the Oakland Ballet, Dimensions Dance Theater, and the wonderful collaborators of the Quilt Project. Valrie is currently teaching future dancers ballet in the Dimensions Rites of Passage program and working at the Women of Color Resource Center, both in Oakland. She recently received her degree in Performing Arts from the LEAP program at St. Mary's College.

Done

by Valrie Nozipho Sanders
January 2005

Dance is in my blood. I knew from the age of three that I wanted to dance. I always imagined myself dancing on the stages of the world and in my down time, practicing law or medicine. It was clear to me early on that dance was going to be my primary career, anything else would be considered a hobby. My mother, a former competitive ballroom dancer, was constantly trying to figure out where I got the idea, that I could have a career dancing as if her own passion did not play a role. Growing up in the city of Detroit during the fall of the auto industry, urban blight and impending poverty were daily realities. It is in this environment that my dream was cultivated.