Picture this: a young girl in her room, auspiciously closing her bedroom door, putting on a good tune and proceeding to let loose to the music. If you had an easy time relating to this, then you, like Rebecca Camilleri Pace, share more than just a fondness for dance.
Rebecca’s love for it only multiplied over the years: “I started following choreographers on YouTube and when I found out that most videos originated from Los Angeles and the best dancers were trained in local studios, I made a pact with myself that I would one day be where they are.” Fast forward seven years, and boy has she succeeded!
The colourful 23-year old is currently training at LA’s hottest dance school Millenium Dance Complex – also the distributor of some of the world’s most viral dance videos. While the experience has been “nothing short of incredible,” she is the first to admit that turning dreams into reality is far from a linear journey.
Rebecca concedes that one of the biggest challenges has been uprooting her life halfway across the world to unknown territory. Despite being aware of the time difference, she confesses that “being so far from family and friends impacted me a lot more than I expected.” The young dancer is grateful for FaceTime and admits that having a friend following a similar life path in LA has massively eased the stress. Another challenge involved maintaining high health and fitness levels while battling issues with food intolerances – a heightened stress, especially when one is vegan.
Although she has been in LA for over six weeks, stepping into the infamous red studio with the black metal lettering on the wall spelling ‘unity in diversity’ still knocks the breath out of her lungs, both out of excitement and exertion. “It is hard, both physically and mentally,” she reveals, adding that “teaching methods in LA are vastly different to those in Malta and the level is definitely amped up.”
The dancer admits that initially, her confidence took a hit, but her determination to fulfil her own childhood promise saw her power through: she enrolled in multiple classes, tried out new dance genres and sweated herself out of her skin every day. Now, her hard work has paid off and she has achieved her dream of featuring in one of Millenium's dance videos - not once, not twice, but three times!
Not one to shy away from a challenge, Rebecca believes that working through her insecurities has allowed her to push beyond her limits: “I have changed as a dancer,” she acknowledges, explaining that being exposed to such a high level of dance and dedication on the daily has fine tuned crucial dance skills, like being able to pick up choreographies quicker and listening to music differently, resulting in an overall confidence boost.
Although her current stint in LA is coming to an end, Rebecca reveals that after Christmas she will be returning to continue her training. "I'm not done yet," she says as she cracks a smile: "I've learnt a lot already but there is just so much more to learn!"
Rock on girlfriend!