Saloni Shankar
The movie sparked her love for ballet, and soon after, she attended a summer program at Universal Ballet in Korea.
Juhea Kim’s Dance Journey: From Dreams to Rediscovery
“I knew I wanted to become a dancer when I saw Center Stage,” says Juhea Kim. She recalls, “By the middle of the first class, I knew I was the worst dancer in the program.” Despite this, Kim persisted. “Ballet became my way of coping with everything, the pain of a broken family and financial struggles.”
Ballet never seemed to “love me back,” Kim admits, yet she continued to dance. “Even though ballet told me I would never be enough, my love for it never faltered.” Kim faced physical challenges, dancing on ill-fitting pointe shoes that caused painful blisters.
But she was determined. “I didn’t want to bother my parents about getting new shoes. I paid for the program myself, so I pushed through.”
“I didn’t care about the pain,” she adds. “Every day, I kept dancing, because it was the only thing that truly made sense to me.”
From Frustration to Freedom: Dance as Creative Expression
It was at Princeton that Kim found a new way to express herself. “In Modern Dance and Choreography, we weren’t judged. We didn’t have to be perfect. I was allowed to explore movement freely.” This freedom was a turning point.
For her final project, Kim choreographed a solo set to Elliot Goldenthal’s Alcoba Azul. “I poured my heartbreak into that performance,” she explains.
“At one point, during an intense movement, I heard the entire audience gasp.” This moment marked a shift for Kim. “Instead of trying to be perfect, I started to see dance as a way to tell my story.”
“Dance isn’t about control or perfection,” she says now. “It’s about expression, freedom, and telling a story that’s uniquely yours.”
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