Meet Sasha Dekam

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sasha Dekam. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sasha below.

Sasha, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?

I did not start out this way. I was a very self conscience child, teen, and young adult. I spent way more time than I care to admit worried about what people thought and how they perceived me. With that I didn’t adapt when I got knocked down I’d turn and go another way. I was terrified to look to anyone like I had failed at anything. I’ve always worked with kids and I absolutely adore and love watching their little personalities come out but if you have ever been in a room with 2-5 year olds and tell them to dance around the room however they want they all just go for it! When they fall they either get back up and keep going or they roll around on the ground and make it work. Once I became a mom and watched my own kids who while learning rolled with the punches and continue to push on, it made it so clear that it didn’t matter. Everyone messes up everyone hits speed bumps or falls down but it’s what you make of it. By no means does it make it easy, in fact it most of the time is not. But I guess being resilient is seeing the difficult and pursuing anyway, facing the difficult and finding your way through weather you roll on the ground until you find your way back up or leap back up and try again. Today though I don’t know if I’d call myself resilient, stubborn maybe might fit better but those two also could go hand in hand.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I definitely have my hands in a lot of pots. The first one is, I get the privilege of running our munchkin program at The Space Dance Co. Munchkins are our 3-5year old dancers who are part of our company and dance competitively. Our studio is entirely drop in based outside of company so we have open doors to everyone who wants to come and try a class or 7 classes! We are in mid competition season right now and I’m having the best time watching them all shine on stage at competitions! They each do between 1-5 dances and it’s so fun to watch them all have personality and grow their stage presence! They all have a little super power I like to think and they each bring their power to a dance and make it that much more special!

When my daughter, Maddox, started dancing I decided the cost of dance costumes, for competitive costumes, were ridiculous and decided to figure out how to make them myself. I started by sewing practice outfits since Maddox is very tiny and has always wanted clothes for her age not her size. She was ready to look like the big girl dancers with sports bras and little shorts but all we could find in her size was pink leotards with little skirts attached. I became obsessed with sewing her all the practice outfits and she loved it! When she was 5 and doing her first solo her teacher said to me she assumed I was making the costume, I hadn’t thought of this but took it as a challenge and jumped right in! I’m still so proud of her first costume! Flash forward and I have made everyone of her solo costumes and the majority of her duo/trio costumes and now I make some of our group dance costumes too!! I have so much fun creating a costume that fits a piece just perfectly! This year I made around 30 costumes!

The pot that is newest to me though and I’m very excited about is Tempo with my sister Shannon Tomasik. Since we were in highschool we always did photography together, she was always the more art brain and I had the business brain and when I was 19 and she was 17 I decided we needed to start a business. We did everything back then from newborn babies, highschool seniors, weddings your name it. We did narrow down and got very busy with weddings and as much as we loved every wedding we were lucky enough to be a part of they got exhausting and with time I wanted to focus more on my kids who were a bunch of babies and toddlers and Shannon wanted to get more into art photography so it got pushed aside. However she always did shoots of my kids and when Maddox started dancing she started making amazing photos capturing her and her close dance besties in the coolest ways that incorporated the art of movement, environment and photography all in one! After years of trying to convince her I finally got her on board and we now have a dance specific photography brand and we do group shoots at least once a month! We are super excited to have an ambassador program this coming year and will be announcing more details on that very soon!

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?

Determination, a giving heart, and family first. My dad has preached as long as I can remember that you can do anything as long as you are determined and the more passionate you are the more success you will likely have. He also has always said you are only as good as the people around you and things don’t matter so give what you have and bring up everyone around you. That combined with my moms Hispanic culture of family first and support your family no matter what has truly given me my core values of who I work with and how I work. Honestly I enjoy everything I do and really don’t see any of it as work. I don’t think I’ve hit an area to claim success yet but I definitely have goals and plan to continue to work towards making them happen.

Alright so to wrap up, who deserves credit for helping you overcome challenges or build some of the essential skills you’ve needed?

My parents 100%. I have had a very rough past two years personally. Everyday it feels like has had struggles. I joke with my close friends who are also in the single parenting bus that it’s like running up a sand dune my parents have carried me through everything! My mom has helped with basically being my co parent and let me tell you 4 kids is no easy task! My dad has helped pick up everything I was dropping. That coupled with my best friends who have talked me through all challenges 500 times and my amazing sister who lets me convince her to do all my crazy ideas and she’s always willing to jump in next to me! My village is seriously the most amazing humans and I would not be able to do anything if it wasn’t for them. In what I’m doing having amazing people cheering you on is the biggest help.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thespacedanceco.com/
• Instagram: @tempo.byshannontomasik

Image Credits

Tempo by Shannon Tomasik