Hi, my name is Kyra, and ballet has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. This year, from all the applicants around the world, I received the honor of being accepted to Idyllwild Arts Academy, the number one high school for the arts in the United States. When I found out, it felt like one of those moments where your heart knows something is about to change forever.

My mom likes to say I was “born to dance" as she went to a concert when she was six months pregnant, and I danced in her belly the entire time. Maybe that is why dance has always felt natural to me, like a language I understood before I was even able to breathe.

When I was four, I watched a professional ballerina spin across the stage and in that moment my thought was "This is who you are meant to be". Right after it, my journey began.

I started ballet lessons as an after school activity and soon my teacher invited me to train at her Royal Academy of Dance school. She saw a committed and hard-working ballerina with a lot of potential. At seven, I took my first RAD exam (a worldwide ballet exam that measures technique, performance, and musicality through set exercises and dances judged by an examiner from London), which made me realize what hard work and discipline really meant.

During the pandemic, even when everything felt uncertain, I kept dancing. I was the only student in my grade who stayed in online classes and I even had to take my exam in another academy with a girl I had never met before. I was nervous, but ballet has always been the place where I feel brave. Life returned to normal, I kept training, presenting exams every year, and after always getting merit in my evaluations, I finally earned high merit in my most recent exam. Intermediate Foundation is known for being extremely challenging and I did it!

Nowadays my dancing keeps rewarding me and I have been given my very first solo to perfom in the Peter Pan showcase! Standing alone on that stage feels like stepping into my future.

All these moments have shaped me into the dancer I am today and it is because of my dedication that I was awarded an 80 percent scholarship to Idyllwild Arts Academy! It is the opportunity I have been dreaming about since I was four years old and I watched that ballerina.

My mom has raised me on her own, and everything I have accomplished has come from our teamwork, love, and determination. Now, my mom and I are turning to the community to help us raise the money I need to get there, considering I'm traveling from Querétaro to California, covering the exchange rate between pesos and dollars, and paying for boarding as I have no family there to host me.

It has been my long time dream and now I'm finally accepted out of all the dancers applying all over the world! I dream of learning with dancers from around the world, growing in a place where art fills every corner, and taking the next step toward becoming a professional dancer. Idyllwild is the path to that future.

Thank you for believing in young artists like me.

Would you help me get there?

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Hola, soy Kyra, una bailarina que desde los 4 años ha estado enamorada de la danza y que 10 años después la sigue amando cada día más. Con tan sólo 14 años he sido 1 de las 35 bailarinas, alrededor de todo el mundo aceptada a Idyllwild Arts Academy. Este logo representa el esfuerzo y la dedicación constantes que he mantenido hacia mi danza y mis estudios y muestra el gran ejemplo de vida que he tenido por parte de mi mamá. Ella ha sido madre soltera desde el embarazo y juntas hemos formado un equipo tenaz e invencible, por lo que ella ha sido el pilar que impulsa mis sueños a diario, mientras se empeña en que yo reciba una educación que me permita llegar muy lejos.

Es precisamente así como he logrado llegar hasta aquí y es así como en conjunto, recurrimos a conocidos y extraños, a la comunidad tangible e intangible que nos acompaña en la travesía de vida que compartimos, pues lo único que tiene en pausa a este sueño es dinero. Convertir pesos a esta cantidad de dólares está fuera de nuestro rango, por lo que confiamos en la calidez y solidaridad humana, pues nuestra determinación nos ha llevado hasta aquí y estamos seguras que con su ayuda lograremos seguir avanzando en este sueño que está casi a nuestro alcance.

Les pido que apoyen a una artista mexicana que ya superó innumerables pruebas y que día a día demuestra que tiene el talento para volar tan alto como la lleven sus sueños.

¿Me ayudan a llevar mi danza al siguiente nivel?