Hi, my name is Kirra Whitehead! And for my community connection project, I had a tough time deciding who I was going to choose to interview. I was torn between two incredible people, and eventually just decided I would do both, because either way I get to know a bit about both of them! So, I chose to interview my riding coach, Sandra Walter, and my dance teacher, Crimson Haslehurst! They both inspire me in a thousand different ways and I aspire to be like both of them one day.
Sandra Walter
A little bit about sandra…
Sandra Walter is a professionally trained mountain biker that in fact, does live right in our Tri-cities area. I have completed a few “Women’s mountain biking camps” with her in previous years but have never been able to really personally talk to her about her job as a professional. She has competed in thousands of races around the globe, and earlier this year, participated in the Women’s Short Course and Long Course in the World Cup. Recently Sandra has been really involved in the mountain biking community, especially in the women’s department. She created a “women’s mountain biking camp” for obviously women, to help develop their skills, confidence, and priorly to find other women that mountain bike so you can organize rides together and meet new people.
I sent Sandra a message Friday around 5:00 pm and she was very fast to respond. Sandra responded with a comment “Hi Kirra! Sure, I’m happy to help you with your project. Let me know what you need. (Smiling Emoji)”. And that’s when our interview together began. I posed all the questions required, then two separate questions specifically asked towards Sandra that could maybe help me with my mountain biking career in the future.
Can you explain your roles and responsibilities in your job?
“My job as a competitive mountain biker is challenging, because I am essentially my own boss. My coach writes me a training program, but there isn’t anyone supervising me and making sure I complete my training every day and do it correctly. I’m really responsible to myself. I know that if I don’t train properly, I won’t be able to do my job as well as I could, which is to race my bike as fast as I can at key events. I would still be able to race, even if I didn’t do all of my training, but I wouldn’t be as good as I could be… so really it comes down to: you get out what you put in. This is true with other more “conventional” jobs, but to be a successful athlete, you need to be really self-motivated, disciplined and be good at knowing what you need to do and be prepared to do everything by yourself.”
What obstacles have you faced to get to where you are today?
“As a sponsored athlete, I’m responsible for representing my sponsors in a professional and positive way. Not everyone can win the bike race — most spectators can’t remember how each individual rider did anyway, but they do remember how you looked in your race and how you carried yourself. They can tell if you are giving it your all or if you’ve given up. They notice if you treat the fans with generosity and respect and if you show good sportsmanship. And they definitely remember if you do the opposite. This makes it extremely important for me to make sure I present my best self in public, because there’s always someone watching. Once I get home, I can vent if I need to, but at the event, it’s important to be a positive representative of myself, the sport and my sponsors and supporters.”
Why are you passionate about your job and role?
“I am passionate because I have been riding ever since I was very young and started racing later on. Im always excited to hop on my bike and go for a ride wether its small or large. I also love the supportive community around mountain biking, there are so many kind people that you will meet especially when travelling around the world. I am super passionate about getting other people on bikes especially girls in the women’s community. Mountain Biking can sometimes be perceived as a women’s sport and recently it has been my goal to change this. And as doing that, I created a riding group to bring young women together to meet each other and hopefully organize rides and evolve the sport together.”
What advice would you pass on to someone who is interested in doing what you’re doing?
“I honestly think it sound cheesy, but I would pass on the advice of never giving up. It is a phrase that is said a lot in our world but when you get knocked down, get back. (You can also take this advice into a race as if you fall get back up and keep on pushing until the end). And the second advice I would pass on is that its not always going to be your expected result, sometimes it could be worse then you thought it would be, but don’t drag others moods down because of that, its always seen as a better person if you celebrate their hard work, and celebrate yours because after all you still worked hard for that spot.”
How have you stayed INTERESTED in mountain biking industry for so long?
“Like a said before its something that I have been practicing all of my life and honestly I don’t think I could go without it. Passing a few days off my bike always gets me excited to get back on. Sometimes its even hard to push your self out the door but its so worth to smell the fresh air and have the feeling of riding down the hill.”
WHats your favorite part about mountain biking?
“I wouldn’t say I could pinpoint a part dow that is my favorite part of mountain biking because overall it is such a we’ll rounded sport and it is really up to the rider for where they want to take it. Its completely free, you could choose to race professionally or you could choose to just take it up as a family and friend sport to pass the free time. Its also up to you for how you want to improve, if you want to become a super crazy jumper, then you can practice and become a super crazy jumper, but you have to be determine to become the “super crazy jumper”. Its a sport that anyone can try no matter the age because there are so many trails out there. If you wanted to just go out and ride on the road, that’s great!! So I think mountain biking is such a good sport and I would recommend it to everybody in the world if I could”
end of conversation
I thanked Sandra for her time to answer these questions and for all that she had taught me in a short period of time. She replied with “I am more than happy to always help with whatever you need, and especially for school projects. I hope everything goes well and can’t wait to see you next fall for our women’s mountain bike camp!”
What I learned interviewing sandra walter/connecting to passions and interests
Now the same as I said before, I’ve talked to Sandra multiple times in the present, but have never been able to connect with her on my own. Sandra inspires me and will always continue too. She gave me incredible details in our interview and even took it one step further to help me complete my dream of becoming a professional mountain biker. I learnt that its not always simple work and will sometimes take extra effort to receive what you want. There may be times when I don’t get the exact result I’m looking for, but its best to take it just as another excuse to try again until you can push yourself to get that result that I want. And the feeling of getting result topples over all the times you didn’t get the result that you wanted. Now Sandra taught me a lot about being a great mountain biker, but also taught me a lot so much about being a good human and how far that can get you in life. If you were a selfish person that pushed people away then you’re going no where. But if you’re looking out for others the same as you do yourself, then then simple act of just kindness can give you a slight lift off to your goal. Completing this interview with Sandra inspired me on so many levels and pushed me even more towards my goal. I thank Sandra for her time and advice she has taught me.
Crimson Haslehurst
a little bit about crimson…
Crimson Haslehurst is in fact the dance teacher at my studio Vela Academy Of Movement. I one day hope to be a dance teacher, or if not a dance teacher, a teacher in a school. Crimson moved over to British Columbia from Alberta shortly after she graduated high school. She did lots of dancing growing up as a kid and also competed in her fathers martial arts program. She has taken many different courses since she has moved to British Columbia, including dance classes, physio programs, and physical therapy lessons. Today Crimson is taking a new learning course do officially become a physio therapist.
I sent Crimson a message a couple days later compared to Sandra, I sent it Wednesday around 11:00am. She was able to respond later after her courses with “Hi Kirra! Thats such a neat project, I’d love to hear about what the course is about. And yes, I’d love to answer some questions of course”. I then started to ask the required set of questions to Crimson along with two questions specifically connected to her job and passion.
Can you explain your roles and responsibilities in your job?
“My role as a dance teacher is to facilitate learning for people who enjoy movement.
To incorporating diverse learning styles and life skills that can be learnt and applied through dance.
Some responsibility’s as a dance teacher is to ensure the safety of my students by taking attendance (knowing where they are), having a safe environment (being aware of hazards, teaching tools, and how classmates are communicating with each other). Is what they are doing safe for them, do they understand how and what they are doing or do they need more stepping stones to get to the next skill which is different for every students. Report
Having a balance of teaching new dance skills and reviewing or revisiting old ones to have an appropriate level of challenge. To help dancers work though road blocks, whether that be skill ability, lack of confidence or self confidence. Another part is when deadlines come up (competitions, shows and performances) that students are prepared and are aware of what event is happening and are feeling ready/ have had adequate preparation. Making learning and new challenges fun!”
What obstacles have you faced to get to where you are today?
“I had always wanted to be a dancers so when I started teaching I had some learning to do in how to communicate ideas beyond just showing what I wanted them to do. Working with being able to progress and regress skills. I had an injury when I was fourteen that I was not allowed to do any move my that was not approved by my physio and ended up getting surgery which took another year to rehab back to ruffly where I was skill wise. This is where my teaching improved the most during this time as I could not show them I really started getting creative with it. Over coming a processing delay and dyslexia sometimes how I learnt or was taught really only make sense to me. So when I teach I sometimes have to try multiple explanations that make senses to students.”
“Sometimes expectations or events are not communicated clearly, then sometimes there is some last minute scrambling to get everything together. Learning about contracts and what it means to be an independent contractor and having different systems, protocols and yearly over views for each place I teach. Sometimes balancing being available for everything takes some serious coordination.”
Why are you passionate about your job and role?
“I am passionate about getting to share my love of dance and teach life skills though movement. Getting to provide a space and class that students get to learn about themselves and regular free expression.”
What advice would you pass on to someone who is interested in doing what you’re doing?
“You really need to do it for you, why you do it will change and that’s okay! Sometimes it’s more about training and learning, sometimes it about getting more educated, sometimes it’s more about creative process and it all has a place and a time to take priority. ”
“You are never to old to try something new. The most powerful advice I was given it takes real bravery to be an advanced dancer and go take a class where you are a beginner and working your way up.
With auditioning there are a lot of factors that go into final decisions. You will get a lot of no’s and you will get a yes and it really becomes about the experience and what you can learn.”
WHAT HAS KEPT YOU INTERESTED IN THE DANCE COMMUNITY FOR SO LONG?
“I love how it is ever evolving and growing. It is really interesting to see how training mentality has shifted and how far and in multiple directions peoples dance skills have taken them.
There are dancers who dance and do; acting, personal training, company work, background work, mindset coaching, and coaching practices. “
“There are so many beautiful souls that dance and teach so it’s absolutely inspiring to take class with and from them. As well as my own personal journey and interests with like minded people. So many of the people I get to dance with are always growing and learning themselves it’s so inspiring to be around people who love to learn as much as I do and are so filled with excitement.”
“There are so many different avenues and different professions you can connect to dance and that’s so fun. There really if a place for everyone and it’s great to make you own place as well. You can try so many different avenues”
whats the best part about your job?
“What is the best thing about my job? Getting to connect and teach so many students. It’s a really special experience when I have a student have a light bulb moment or when they come up to talk to me before or after class and share with me. I feel really privileged to have their trust and be a part of their journey. Seeing the growth that happens out side of class and in class. I love how I get to teach and dance/ preform myself. Dancing makes be a better teacher and teaching helps me break down my process while I’m dancing! It all fills my cup! Getting to connect with people who are always discovering and leaning is always special and inspiring”
end of conversation
I thanks Crimson for her incredible effort in answering the questions in such detail and truly putting her heart into what she wrote for me. She replied with “Awe of course! Thank you for asking them. Im so excited to see where you go and what you create for yourself”
What I learned interviewing crimson haslehurst/connecting to passions and interests
During a short period of time, I was able to learn about my dance teacher more than I have before. Being in her class twice a week with no time to talk isn’t exactly enough to get to know her on personal levels. But today I was able to do that at the same time as learning about her job and passion. I learnt a lot about the behind the scenes of being a dance teacher and how its a lot more effort then it looks like on the outside. Not saying that more effort pushed me away from wanting to become a dance teacher, but surprisingly it brought me closer. She taught me the dance is not just about the moves and how it is an ever growing sport that you can never be good enough at, there is always room to improve. Crimson definitely taught me a lot about being creative when being a dance teacher, and just generally in life. There are many aspects of Social and Personal environment in the dance studio that’s really cool to learn about. I thank Crimson, for giving me her time and providing amazing insight and advice to becoming a dance teacher.
The two taught me amazing things throughout the course of the interview and i thank them both for their time and advice which i hope to INCORPORATE INTO MY FUTURE!
