We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Lorita Travaglia a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Lorita, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?
Both of my parents were great examples of hard working individuals, likely because they had both had difficult situations as children. They taught me and my brothers to always do our best as that was more important than the outcome.
Another factor was my training as a ballet dancer. At age four I demanded to learn how to dance. I had a natural musicality and rhythm and had a lot to express but physically ballet did not come so easily. I hated to practice but the only way my parents would pay for my lessons is if I put in the work at home and I believed that if I worked twice as hard as everyone else I could be as good as them. I still feel that way.
At age 13 I knew that I wanted to pursue a professional career in ballet but in my hometown in New Zealand there were no teachers who could bring me to the next level so my mother agreed to drive me once a week to a bigger city 80 miles away, so that I could get the training I needed. Typically serious ballet students train every day but that was impossible for me so instead I put together 5 days of classes that i did alone at 5:30am in the gardening shed on a concrete floor before school. Ballet in itself demands discipline over the body and mind and dancers’ lives are full of sacrifices so a good work ethic is necessary and becomes instilled in dancers at a young age. For me I was also driven by my dream to be a professional dancer.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
Currently, I am one of the Ballet Masters at Colorado Ballet where I have worked since 1999. I actually moved to Colorado to study Traditional Chinese Medicine as a new career path having retired from a 22 year career as a professional ballet dancer in England, Europe, the USA and New Zealand, but as the opportunities in the dance world kept coming, I have run my own clinic, Qi Harmony Acupuncture, since 2004 in addition to my work at Colorado Ballet. I love my work in both the performing arts and the healing arts.
Having spent much of my life on the stage, I love working with the professional dancers at Colorado Ballet, training them, teaching them choreography, and putting the productions on stage. I understand their drive and love being able to share my experience and knowledge with these people dedicated to dance. It is exciting to watch dancers grow and develop as artists.
In 2005, I discovered Argentine Tango and that quickly became my third passion. Dancing socially is the way I decompress, remove myself from stress and express myself. I find it healing on many levels. In 2012 two friends and I formed a non profit Argentine Tango dance company, Parasol Arts. Parasol Arts is an Argentine Tango company and for ten years has brought the joy and passion of Argentine Tango to audiences through multi media dance theatre productions. This has given me an opportunity to explore my creative ideas in tango shows that tell stories, evoke emotions, explore life scenarios and inspire people who are unfamiliar with Argentine Tango. I love bringing dancers from different genres together and working with musicians, visual artists, actors and vocalists. The next production “El Tango” will be presented in Denver and Boulder in September 2023.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
I am not sure if I had skills or knowledge so much as a need to express myself through dance. My feelings of not being good enough gave me the drive to work hard and my passion for music and danced fueled the fire to become part of that world. My determination to do my best kept me going when things were tough. I always tell young dancers to ask themselves if they can live without dance. If the answer is yes or maybe, then I tell them to pursue something that is not so hard on the body and pays more, but if the answer is no, then they must follow their passion and pursue it with all their heart. Maybe they will not succeed as imagined but they will find their true path regardless, in the process.
How can folks who want to work with you connect?
I can be reached through the websites below. My non profit company Parasol Arts is always in need of Board members or even volunteers who can help raise money through grant writing, individual donors, fundraising events as well as someone to help with marketing and social media
Contact Info:
- Website: www.coloradoballet.org, www.parasolarts.org, www.qiharmonyacupuncture.com
- Instagram: @balletango
- Facebook: Parasol Arts
- Youtube: parasolarts
Image Credits
David Andrews Marie Dominique Verdier Francisco Estevez
