She attended the North Carolina School of the Arts. At age 18, she moved to New York when she was accepted at Juilliard. She decided to forgo the iconic arts school to join Alwin Nikolais's dance company.
She was a member of the Paul Taylor Dance Company for 12 years.
Her mother Jerry trained at Juilliard, danced in New York in the 1950s, and taught dance in Dallas, Texas.
She earned a master's degree in choreography and performance at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2005.