We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Amanda a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Amanda, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
Ballet dancers are often seen as some of the most resilient people, and I couldn’t agree more. But I learned resilience long before ballet. My childhood was shaped by loss and instability: my mother passed away when I was very young, and my father—though devoted to my brother and me—had to work full-time in another city. That left us facing much of life on our own. His later passing added another layer of grief and forced me to grow up quickly. At school I was bullied and isolated for being different, and at ballet school I was often ignored, pushed aside, or treated harshly by teachers. What should have been a safe haven became another place of struggle. These challenges, together with serious mental health battles in my teenage years, could easily have broken me down—but instead they pushed me to find resilience from within.
My resilience comes from standing alone when support was absent, from ballet’s discipline, and from turning struggles into meaning. What began as raw notes in my teenage diary became a lifeline, helping me process pain and discover strength. Over time, those pages taught me to turn hardship into purpose—fueling both my art and my drive to share my story with others.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I’m Amanda Arnaud, a Swiss-born ballet dancer who turned a childhood dream into a journey from small-town Switzerland to the stages of New York and beyond. Growing up near Bern, I spent my early dance years as a competitive jazz dancer before discovering classical ballet at 14, which became my lifeline through difficult teenage years, giving me discipline, strength, and identity.
I once believed I lacked the talent to dance professionally—my teachers hardly noticed me. I kept my dream to myself, afraid of being judged, certain others had more potential. Everything changed when I began training in Zurich, where I found teachers who believed in me. With their support, I dared to audition abroad, determined to leave struggles behind and begin a new chapter, chasing the life I once only dreamed of, far from home.
In 2016, I attended a summer intensive at the Joffrey Ballet School in New York and soon after earned a place at the Gelsey Kirkland Academy of Classical Ballet. Moving overseas alone at such a young age was daunting, but I was thrilled to finally be part of a professional ballet school. I became known as one of the hardest-working students.
Upon graduation, I began dancing professionally in the United States with several ballet companies in New York, North Carolina, and Florida, and am now in my third season as a company artist with the Continental Ballet Company in Minnesota. Over the years, I have had the opportunity to perform many wonderful ballets and roles I could only have dreamed of back then.
I came to the United States as a shy girl who didn’t know anyone, with very little English, only basic ballet technique, and no idea what the future would hold—only big dreams. About a decade later, those dreams have carried me onto stages nationwide. My journey has been anything but traditional, and that is what makes it special—for it taught me resilience, independence, and the courage to create my own place in ballet. And with each step forward, I know this is only the beginning of what lies ahead.
This winter season, I am especially excited to perform with my company in ‘The Nutcracker’ (December 6–14, 2025) and ‘Giselle’ (March 14–22, 2026) at the Schneider Theater in Bloomington, Minnesota. I warmly invite everyone to join us in the theater to experience the magic and emotion of these timeless works.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
1. Discipline
Talent and motivation can help, but discipline is what carries you through when motivation fades. It’s the drive that gets you up at 5am a.m. to workout or study, even when you don’t feel like it. The best way to build discipline is by creating a routine and sticking to it. Throughout my training and professional years, discipline meant early mornings at the gym and countless extra hours in the studio—often late at night or on Sundays when others were resting. That commitment is what brought me this far.
2. Perseverance
Ballet is never a straight path. There will always be setbacks, injuries, and moments when life makes you question whether to keep going. For me, perseverance means holding on through those times of uncertainty — it’s what helped me recover from injuries, endure the silence of Covid when stages were closed, and rise again after every setback
3. Humility
Humility means staying a student for life—you never stop learning. It’s about meeting each opportunity with gratitude, appreciating the small things, not expecting anything in return, and setting your ego aside to stay open to learn while trusting the process of becoming.
What’s been one of your main areas of growth this year?
A ballet career is full of uncertainty — you never know when it might come to an end. That is why I chose to also build a second path in psychology alongside my work in the performing arts. I had already been studying psychology for some time, but about a year ago I decided to go full-time so I could progress faster.
Balancing both worlds has been one of my hardest challenges. Many days began at 5 a.m. with studying before ballet class and rehearsals, continued late into the evening, and often stretched into the middle of the night with online classes and exams in another time zone. At times it felt nearly impossible, but it taught me resilience, discipline, and time management on a completely new level — lessons that made me not only stronger as a student, but also a better dancer and person.
Most of all, this journey gave me something I didn’t expect: a true passion for psychology. It has become a source of joy and meaning beyond the stage, and a reminder that I am more than just a dancer. Knowing there is so much more to work for and be proud of has made me stronger and more grateful for the path I am on.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amandichka_/?igsh=MWJ0eW9uMjByMG9jZg%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Mandy.georgi?mibextid=wwXIfr&rdid=whFeW3icS6PLluCQ&share_url=https%253A%252F%252Fwww.facebook.com%252Fshare%252F17GZTdBQZz%252F%253Fmibextid%253DwwXIfr
Image Credits
Rachel Neville
Jenny Spooner
Laura Coley
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