“I was pretty much always interested in arts.

My elementary school offered them as extracurriculars, so I’ve been doing [art] for as long as I can remember. 

I started seriously performing in 2018 when I did my first ever musical outside of school. It was ‘Camp Rock’ at the Jewish Community Center. It was definitely life changing. The whole feeling of being on stage and being able to talk and sing was super cool. I performed with a group of other people that also chose to be there instead of [being required by] class. It was just a rush. Everybody got to bond on stage together. It was a really nice feeling of community.

[Theatre is] definitely a way to step out of [reality], because when you’re in theater, you get to play a completely different character. I was Sonny in ‘Grease’ last year and I was also Doody in ‘Grease’ a few years back. They’re completely different characters, [and] it’s just really cool to be able to embody something else. 

Since I transferred my sophomore year, I didn’t have an opportunity to try out for anything. I finally decided to go for [choir] this year. Choir is such a family based thing, and it’s the first time I’ve been with a group of people where I can focus on something and enjoy it [with] others around me – choir also keeps you busy without overstepping [or being all-consuming]. I’m in varsity choir and magical choir, which is [an] advanced [class] with only a very select few people. So we’re doing everything, we’re all over the place and it’s so much fun.

Choir especially is something really, really cool because the [artistic elements] are so different. I’ve sung in German, I’ve sung in Latin, I’ve sung in Arabic. It’s just such a different experience from anything else I’ve ever done. 

I think the moment I realized [that choir was my thing was] ‘Tshela Moya,’ a song that really clicked with [me] us. I was on that stage and I was in the front row, dead center. I was doing the choreography for it, and I started doing it and I was smiling without even trying to. My mom and my dad were like, ‘We’ve never seen you be that excited for anything before,’ and that was probably the moment where I was like ‘Why didn’t I join choir earlier’?

[In school], I’m mostly focused on choir. I also break dance with eMotion, but choir is my big thing. Outside of school, my focus is definitely theater. That’s what I’m majoring in, at UNM.

I went to Theater Under the Stars outside of school for a while, [and] I did ‘Into the Woods’ there. [Theatre] was the first thing I looked at [for college]. If a school didn’t have theater, or at least something musically related that I could use for theater, I pretty much took them off my list. UNM also has a choir, so [that] makes [the school] even better.

[I stay passionate] because there’s just so much art around me and new art always comes out. There’s a show [I watch] called ‘South Park,’ and the creators of ‘South Park’ made ‘Book of Mormon,’ which is one of my favorite musicals ever. Then you’ll find another connection there, like the main actor in ‘Book of Mormon,’ Andrew Reynolds, is in ‘Falsettos,’ which is probably my favorite musical of all time. There’s just so many connections in art – for dance, choir, theater, no matter what, you’ll always find something new.

If I had no performing arts, I don’t know what I’d be. Because art is my thing.”