About

 

Kimberly Davagian comes from Massachusetts where she studied at the Boston Ballet before pursuing dance studies and training at the collegiate level. After one year enrolled as a dance major at Florida State University, Kim transferred to the Ailey/Fordham BFA program where she completed her bachelor’s degree in dance performance with honors. While there she worked with Nathan Trice, Earl Mosley, Sean Curran, Christopher Huggins, Jacqulyn Buglisi and Neta Pulvermacher, as well as renowned Horton technique professors, Ana Marie Forsythe and Milton Myers. Upon graduating, she danced for Heidi Latsky Dance before relocating to Los Angeles to pursue yoga, fitness and a variety of wellness training opportunities.

Kim began performing around the LA area while pursuing what would become her true calling in life, teaching. Since 2005, Kim has greatly enjoyed teaching Vaganova ballet technique, pointe, the Horton technique and tap, as well as power and restorative yoga. She has graduated students, seeing them onto dance programs such as NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Pace University, University of Arizona and Lines Ballet/BFA at Dominican University. Beside teaching technique, she has more recently gone on to facilitate composition workshops as well as train Olympic level figure skaters in movement forms which they apply to their long and short programs worldwide. Kim continues setting choreography on students and professionals alike specifically in institutions and companies in Los Angeles, Colorado and Florida. These have consisted of ballet, contemporary ballet and Horton-based modern works for stage, lecture demonstrations and in-studio performances. She also has taught at the collegiate level, taking adjunct professor positions at University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, as well as Pikes Peak Community College, teaching both Dance Fundamentals and ballet technique.

From 2006- present, she has greatly enjoyed performing with Ormao Dance Company in Colorado as both a guest artist and choreographer, dancing repertory by artists such as Katie Elliot, Jacob Mora, Shawn Womack, Patrizia Herminjard, ChungFu Chang, and artistic director, Jan Johnson. She also sat on Ormao’s Board of Directors for two years.  One of her main areas of interest as she pursues her Master’s degree at Jacksonville University in choreography has been the study and relationship of mindfulness and improvisation, combining her skill sets of technical dance training and extensive holistic studies including yoga practice and instruction, meditation and breath work.

This foundation became particularly integral when in 2011, after performing a solo for Ormao Dance Company, Kim was ejected from a vehicle while driving on a highway in Colorado. Suffering a broken back, which was mere inches from snapping her spinal cord, a shattered heel bone and broken scapula, Kim was told her right foot may need to be amputated. Her recovery began after one back surgery, one surgery on her left foot, and six surgeries on her right heel and ankle, her surgeon completely rebuilding it with cadaver bone, plates and screws. After half a year in bed rendered essentially immobile, she worked her way through the stages of wheel chair, to walker, to crutches to cane, beginning to teach again in a walking boot a year after her accident and performing again with Ormao after less than two years. Kim is passionate about living her story of recovery and comeback through her teaching style which is energetic, inspirational and motivational, asking students to dig deep and go beyond what they think they are capable of. She greatly enjoys volunteering, working one on one with women recovering and mentoring their continued growth and the rebuilding of their lives after incidents involving trauma. Her great hope as both teacher and choreographer is to ignite in young and professional dancers alike the bounds of their inner potential, strength and resilience, regardless of seemingly insurmountable outside circumstances.