"Another Path Taken"
Not every road in the performing arts leads to acting in television and film or towards modeling. Transgender women are active in dance as well. And not just in contemporary dance but in more traditional forms, such as ballet. Ayna is just one example. But she is a highly successful one. Today, she owns a dance studio in Sydney, Australia. Originally, however, she is from Sweden. Ayna became a serious student of ballet in Germany. There, she worked under John Neumeier, the American born dancer, choreographer, and director of the Hamburg Ballet.
Becoming a dancer fulfilled Ayna’s dreams. But she felt that something was amiss in her life. And she knew that she still had one more dream to pursue. For Ayna, that meant finding “the beauty on the outside and inside of me.” Undergoing gender confirmation surgery allowed that dream to come true as well. Few things in life require such a balance between the physical exterior and the emotional interior, as does dance. To achieve anything authentic in a performance, the soul must inspire the body. Ayna’s gender confirmation surgery allowed for this harmony between her outer form and inner content. It brought confidence and completeness to her in every way imaginable.
Her everyday life now finds Ayna both a performer and a teacher. Her studio is notable, because it also has room for adult students. Ayna has taken a different path in life. It applies to her own future most of all. But it also applies to the people she now teaches. Many of
them are taking stock of their desires in life. Together, both teacher and students know that “to be moving forward, you need confidence.” This applies to the dance floor as well as life's journey.