MELISSA SANDVIG: Dance means everything to me. NINA KRIPAS: It makes me very emotional.
I feel that's what I'm supposed to do in life. MELISSA SANDVIG: You're inspired and you move by
how you feel. It's the best feeling in the world. My name is Melissa Sandvig. I grew
up in Orange County and started dancing when I was about five years old. NINA KRIPAS: My
name is Nina Kripas. I started with ballet, I was in a national ballet school in Austria.
MELISSA SANDVIG: Dancing kind of ran in my family. It was in my blood. Basically I was
dancing out of my mother's womb (LAUGHS). NINA KRIPAS: I was just a very hyper active
child and my grandmother was a dancer. I kind of knew very early I don't wanna be that ballerina
stuck in the opera house and just you know always have to be very disciplined and very
strict. MELISSA SANDVIG: There are limitations that were restricting for me. I was insecure,
you know I was too muscular, I was too strong, I was too animated. NINA KRIPAS: A moment where
I thought I would quit dancing was when I was about fifteen and there was one of this
ballet teachers and I didn't quite like him. I thought he liked everybody else more in
school and stuff and I was like, I'm done with this. It's it's over. I'm gonna go be
an architect or something. MELISSA SANDVIG: For me I could've stopped way back when I
was twelve when somebody said you won't be able to do this, you have the wrong body.
But then I didn't let it stop me. NINA KRIPAS: I was really about to quit, but then I didn't
give up because I thought my grandmother was a dancer, so I thought if she was able
to go through it, I m not gonna give up. I've always wanted to explore and be free.
So contemporary dance was my first possibility to express myself and just be emotional with
the dance too and not be restricted in any way. MELISSA SANDVIG: I was able to have a
little bit more freedom with my movement and embrace my strength and use my muscles, or
not feeling bad that I have them because I don't look like a skinny ballerina. NINA KRIPAS:
I realized my versatility is what helps me to really work as a dancer and to survive
as a dancer and be happy in what I do. MELISSA SANDVIG: Now I like to be known as a strong,
technical ballet dancer that can do other things. NINA KRIPAS: So I always question myself
and I'm thinking what is my purpose in life, what am I supposed to do, why am I here? And
then it always comes back that dance is just my ticket to freedom.
