Meet Danika Pramik-Holdaway [Canvas Rebel Profile]
Meet Danika Pramik-Holdaway
Featured on Canvas Rebel
August 9, 2022
We were lucky to catch up with Danika Pramik-Holdaway recently and have shared our conversation below.
Danika, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?
I certainly didn’t come from an artistic family. My father worked for a news station, and my mother is a medical writer. However, they taught me from an early age that if I found something I truly loved, I should pursue it. They helped me understand and believe that a career in the performing arts was possible. Now that I have danced professionally and taught for numerous years, I am sad to say that I have met plenty of people who don’t consider ballet as a viable career. They don’t even consider it. I wish and hope that for any young student who falls in love with ballet as I did, there is someone in their life telling them that a career can be focused around what you are truly passionate about, as my parents did for me.
After growing up in San Francisco, and attending college in New York City, I ended up in a slightly smaller city (to remain unnamed :)). I was dancing with a small ballet company. I constantly met people in this city who would ask what I did for a living, and when I told them I was a professional ballet dancer, they would look at me strangely and say “that’s a job?” This helped me realize the value of being surrounded by people who support you pursuing your dreams, no matter how difficult they are to achieve.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
My career as a dancer started back on the East Coast, but I quickly migrated out to San Diego, where I danced with the San Diego Ballet for several years. As I was dancing, I also found myself teaching more and more, and within a year of living in this wonderful city, I found my home at the San Diego Civic Youth Ballet, where I am currently the Artistic Director. We provide classical ballet classes for students ages 4 and up, as well as offer performance opportunities throughout the year. I am very proud to have furthered the mission of this wonderful program, by making ballet accessible to any student who is interested in learning this amazing art form. We have worked at the San Diego Civic Youth Ballet to create a welcoming environment, where dancers not only gain strong ballet training, but learn life skills and feel supported by their instructors and their peers. We also offer Outreach ballet classes to elementary school students across San Diego who might not otherwise have the chance to take ballet classes. Having danced and taught at ballet schools and companies all over the country, I can say that our program is truly unique, and a wonderful place to be as a young dancer.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
I would like to answer this question as a teacher vs. as a performer. There is nothing more rewarding to me than working with children, and seeing them accomplish their goals. I remember how hard it can be to be a kid sometimes, and having a safe place to go is extremely important. Even though ballet is VERY difficult, and sometimes you just can’t get something right, the process of working through steps and dancing to music is often just what kids need to escape from the stress of every day life. To be there with students of all different ages and see them learn really brings me joy. If I am having a difficult day, the second I step into the studio and start teaching, I instantly feel better, and to have a job that can transform your mood and help remind you what is important in life is invaluable!
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
I would love to see more widespread acknowledgement of how important the arts are in our lives. Funding for the arts is often lacking, and arts programs are often cut first from school. There is so much data showing the benefit of arts for school children, and the more the word is spread about this, the better. As a society, we all need to support the arts – attend a performance, take a class, make a donation, volunteer to help and arts organization – so many arts organizations get by on very limited budgets, yet they give back so much to society. If you can help in any of these small ways, please do it!
