We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Anna Wassman-Cox a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Anna, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?
As I was facing breast cancer for the second time before the age of 30, I kept asking myself, what is my purpose? I stumbled upon the word “Ikigai” which is Japanese for your reason for being, your purpose for living. Ikigai is at the center of your purpose where what your good at, what you are passionate about, what you can make a living off of, and what the world needs all comes together. So I thought to myself what is at the center of these four pillars?
In my first career, I was a professional ballet dancer, yet once this career ended, I went to university and studied business, but I still always knew I would find my way back into the ballet world. When I was facing cancer again, I turned back to the ballet barre and it was that perfect mix of routine and creative expression that helped me get out of my head and back into my body. It was so helpful for me and that’s when it clicked. It was this a-ha moment where I knew exactly how I could find myself and bring some level of meaning to everything I was going through. My Purpose, my Ikigai was that I wanted to share ballet with everyone going through cancer’s minefield in the hopes that it could help them get through treatment or recover post treatment like it helped me.
So I started creating a ballet class tailored to the cancer community and founded the Onco-Ballet Foundation with the mission of giving back directly to the cancer community by providing these ballet classes free of cost to anyone facing cancer.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself and more about the non-profit organization you founded.
My name is Anna Wassman-Cox. I am the Founder and Executive Director of the Onco-Ballet Foundation. I am a 2x young breast cancer survivor and a former professional ballet dancer. I found my passion of sharing ballet with the cancer community after I saw how helpful it was in my own healing journey. When I first shared the ballet class, now known as “Onco-Ballet”, it was incredible to see and feel the joy that it brought every single person in the room. With that, I knew that this was something that I wanted to share forever. So, I founded the Onco-Ballet Foundation non-profit with the mission of providing ballet free of cost to anyone facing cancer. Our vision is to support the cancer community through ballet movement to foster healing and self expression, and our purpose is to spark joy through ballet.
This year is the Onco-Ballet Foundation’s first year as an official 501(c)3 non-profit organization. We are just getting started and I am so excited for what’s to come. Currently we offer three different 6-week Onco-Ballet™ programs at Hoag Hospital for Hoag’s cancer patients. We will also be hosting monthly Onco-Ballet classes at local dance studios, and we will be traveling across the US to host Onco-Ballet™ workshops in New York City, Seattle, Chicago, Los Angeles, and more! We are also working on establishing local Onco-Ballet™ chapters and teacher training programs so we can offer Onco-Ballet™ classes across the US on a regular basis in the near future. This fall we will also be hosting our annual fundraiser at Boathouse on the Bay in Long Beach, CA, so save the date for Sunday, November 10th to join us then! To stay in the loop with all of our events and classes, please visit www.oncoballet.org/events and sign up for our monthly newsletter!
As a new non-profit organization, we rely on we donor support to help us achieve our mission of providing subsidized Onco-Ballet™ programming for everyone in the cancer community. Please consider making a donation today to support our programming. It is incredibly special to see people of all ages, backgrounds, abilities, and cancer diagnosis experience ballet and have their “Ballerina moments”. Sharing ballet in a way that is centered around joy and creative expression, while facilitating healing, is so meaningful and helps me feel like I am truly giving back to the community.
To learn more visit our website at www.oncoballet.org or follow us on social media @oncoballet.
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?
Staying authentic to yourself. For years I always tried hard to fit in and be like everyone else, but once I finally leaned into who I was authentically and embrace the unique skills and talents I brought to the world, this is when things really took off for me.
Keep going even when you feel like giving up. It is ok to rest and take breaks, but don’t give up on that dream, Keep going and give it time to unfold and see what happens, you never know where your perseverance can take you.
Take it one step at a time. When you’re getting started it can seem like there is so much to do and ahead of you that it can be overwhelming. But be kind to yourself and know it takes time. Step by step, you will get there.
We’ve all got limited resources, time, energy, focus etc – so if you had to choose between going all in on your strengths or working on areas where you aren’t as strong, what would you choose?
I believe in going all in on your strengths because naturally you are more inclined to also like and enjoy the things you are strong in and ultimately the likelihood of success long term is greater. For example, I went into a job that I was not particularly strong, but thought that it would help me improve these skills. However while I did improve, I was unhappy most of the time when I was working and it made me ultimately leave that role. So you can try really hard to get better at something you’re not good at, but ultimately if you’re stuck in a situation where you are not happy, then it won’t help you in the long run. While it’s ok to spend some time learning, I believe that focusing on your strengths will take you farther because you are focused and enjoying the strengths that you bring to the table and you can always refine those more. From a leadership perspective too, you can always lean on your strengths to get you going and then build a talented team of well rounded individuals and experts who can help make up for some of the areas you aren’t as strong in.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.oncoballet.org
- Instagram: @oncoballet / @annamazingjourney
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/oncoballet
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/onco-ballet-foundation
Image Credits
Most photos by Bianca Muniz LLC Others just from Anna Wassman
