Utah tween dancer
I recently had the had the privilege of photographing Tejia. She is such a talented girl! Here are more photos from our session and excerpts from my interviews with her family.
"Tejia is such a smart girl she knows her surroundings and she knows who to be friends with and she knows when something is bad she should stay away. She is also doing really well in school I'm keeping her grades up along with all the extra curricular activities that she has on the side. When she has a deadline she gets things done which is amazing for all of the things she has going on in her life." — Mom
"Tejia is one of the sweetest girls you would ever meet, she is very helpful to her parents with her two younger siblings. She helps when and where ever she can. She is a very good dancer, I remember her first performance she was very young and she stole the show in my eyes. She has two little Yorkie dogs and is so kind and gentle with them." — Tejia's grandfather
"Tejia, is so very beautiful, cute, fun, pretty, and kind inside and out. Tejia, is such a big help to her mom and dad. Taking care of her little brother and sister, watching out for them. She is a special sweetheart. Always thinking of others before herself! Very tender hearted." — Tejia's grandmother
"One of the happiest memories I have of her is when they lived with us for a year, she was around two years old and she would come into our bedroom at night and crawl into bed with me and my wife and visit for a while or have me read her a book then she would crawl back down and tell us sweet dreams when she left to go to her own bed." — Tejia's grandfather
"She's funny. When I am down she can make me laugh...she is caring about everything and everyone. She is beautiful and her caring for her friends which makes her even more beautiful." — Alexis, friend "For Tejia, I know her smile will never change, but I NEVER want her sweet personality to change. I hope she ALWAYS has her happy attitude, and positive outlook on life. I don't want her to ever try to change herself to fit in with another group of kids because with her charisma, she attracts those kinds of people that are like her, or want to be like her, and we need more of her beautiful personality in this world." — Tejia's mom
"I love seeing her be creative in her own ways now. She loves drawing, she'll make little video clips of her artwork and post them on her Instagram page and I think it's really cool how she does that. She is smart with technology and she can figure things out pretty quickly. She has some amazing talent when I see her dance and that is one of the things I love most is to watch her dance and create her own movements in her dances! I love watching how excited she is when she learns a new dance that she loves and she just can't wait to perform it for me because she loves it so much. I love to see her excitement for that! Tejia has so much talent, she has pushed herself over the last three years to really become a skilled dancer and she is pushing herself even more so, because she used to be afraid of freestyle dancing used to be afraid of being on Elite Dance Team. But she pushed herself and did a tryout dance that was solo two years in a row made a scholarship two summers in a row and then made the Elite Dance Team that she really wanted and she has so much more talent to show and I can see it growing inside of her. Not only with dance but her creativity in her art and her painting is beautifully displayed in her SketchBook and on canvas." — Tejia's mom
"She always comes to class with a smile on her face and a good attitude. Tejia is a hard worker and is very focused. I rarely have to ask her more than once to do something and she is very internally motivated to do her best every time. She is a team player, helping out and looking out for others on her team. A specific example is that this week Tejia's partner was not here this past week for practice. We had to run and clean a section of the dance which has very difficult choreography to accomplish without a partner. Tejia, without complaint, ran her part every time without me having to ask her. And she would try to fix the corrections I was giving her each time, and with each run it would improve." — Tejia's dance teacher
"I still just laugh and smile when I remember her first dance recital. With her running back on stage after her dance routine was finished. Tejia was only four or five years old at the time and she still had some dancing she wanted to do by herself. She put on a funny show for everyone in the audience." — Tejia's grandmother
"One of my happiest memories with her is her first dance performance! She was about four years old and performing for the first time on stage with her dance class, she knew that dance by heart and she stole the stage and did her own thing and showed everybody! The audience was cheering for her when they saw the performance. She didn't care what anybody thought she was just up there on that stage having a blast! And it was the cutest thing that I ever did see!" — Tejia's mom
"Tejia does so many things really well, so it is hard to say just one best thing that she does. But I would have to say it is listening. She listens really well and does what she is supposed to do when asked by her parents or her teachers. She listens when we just want to have a chat with each other. And it's nice because her heart listens as well." — Tejia's mom
"If I could give her any advice for the future in 10 years, she will be 23 years old, I would say to find yourself first and know who you want to be and where you want to be and where you want to go in life or travels before you give your heart and soul to the one you love. And in the words of Lee Ann Womack, "When you get the chance to sit it out or dance, I Hope You Dance." — Tejia's mom
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