Athlete Voices

Elizabeth Balikian is a 16 year-old USA rhythmic gymnastics national team member. Her first international competition was Miss Valentine in Estonia, and she received a silver medal in ribbon. She made the Elite National Qualifiers for 4 years and was the 2019 Junior State all-around champion. Elizabeth shares her rhythmic gymnastics journey and recounts some memorable competition moments throughou...

Kennedy Eaton is a ballroom dancer from San Jose, California. She moved to New Jersey in September of 2020 to further pursue her dance career with her partner, Dave Firestein. Recently, she won the Under 21 U.S. Nationals, and is also the current Under 21 Blackpool Champion. Connect with Kennedy: @kennedyeaton --- Stay connected with Athlete Voices! Instagram:  ⁠⁠@athletevoices⁠⁠ Website:  ⁠⁠https...

Naomi Skotnikov is a senior national team rhythmic gymnast.  She is a three time rhythmic USA national team member and has been an elite level 10 gymnast since she was 11 years old. She is currently balancing rhythmic gymnastics and attending Baylor University as a Honors health science pre-physical therapy major. Naomi won 4th place all-around at the USA National Championships and has represented...

Cecilia Qu'in is an American Afro-Latin multidisciplinary artist specializing in events management, digital media management, and sex-positive performance art. She goes by her stage name, Qu'in de la Noche, and loves to entertain the masses through Burlesque, the art of seduction. Connect with Cecilia:  @quindelanoche --- Stay connected with Athlete Voices! Instagram:  ⁠@athletevoices⁠ Web...

Welcome to the Athlete Voices podcast, where we delve deep into all things aesthetic sports. I am very excited to be starting Season 3 of this podcast. We have a great lineup of some incredible guests, including a 2-time world champion ballroom dancer, an Olympic artistic swimmer, national team level rhythmic gymnast, and more.  We have weekly episodes every Tuesday. Follow us on our instagram, @A...

Jasmine Kerber, who often goes by “Jazzy,” competed as a member of the United States rhythmic gymnastics National Team from 2009-2015, during which time she represented the U.S. at the 2013, 2014, and 2015 World Championships. Jazzy graduated from Stanford University in June 2020 with a B.A. in international relations and a minor in Russian language. She received her M.A. in journalism, also from...

Elena Sanders is a multidisciplinary circus artist specializing in contortion, hula hoops and straps. She began her circus journey when she was in her twenties, and has been touring with circus companies since 2013. In 2017, she was featured on Season 12 of America's Got Talent, where they developed a one-of-a-kind, dangerous perch act. Connect with Elena: @elenaxsanders --- Stay connected wit...

Amanda Besyedin is a Professional Latin-American Dancer. She is a Blackpool Dance Festival Vice- Champion and a finalist of numerous prestigious competitions in the USA. Amanda is the face of ‘375 Dance Studio’ which is one of the biggest YouTube Channels for Ballroom Dance tutorials and workouts. Through social media she is trying to educate all dancers any age or level about the physical and men...

Lukas and Simona Ališauskas are professional ballroom dancers in the Open Professional Latin dance category. They were born and raised in Kaunas, Lithuania, and moved to the US in 2015. Lukas began competitive dancing at age 4 and set his sights from early on to pursue a professional dance career. Simona had done a little bit of ballroom in childhood, and eventually quit dancing, only to later fin...

Anna Glenn is a former UCLA gymnast and graduated in 2020 with a degree in psychology. She is passionate about mental health, and during her time at UCLA, she worked on addressing mental health challenges in the student-athlete population through various organizations. Anna is excited to begin a three-year occupational therapy doctorate program at USC this fall.  Connect with Anna: @anna.f.glenn -...

Lauren McArdle is a professional ballerina and Soloist with The Sarasota Ballet in Florida. Prior to joining the Sarasota Ballet in 2018, Lauren danced professionally with The National Ballet of Canada, and spent time training in Seattle, Vancouver, San Francisco, Pennsylvania, and Amsterdam.  Lauren holds a double major from California Baptist University. She graduated Summa Cum Laude with a BS i...

Katherine “Katie” Alexander is a second year Ph. D student at Utah State University studying Human Development & Family Studies. Her research primarily centers on athlete abuse and maltreatment, with a focus on emotional abuse in the coach-athlete relationship in intercollegiate sport settings. Relying on her own experiences of abuse and maltreatment as a former competitive soccer player, she...

Masha Cherezova is a 23 year-old professional ballerina, choreographer, and cancer survivor. In 2019, she left the United States at the age of 19 to pursue her professional career as ballet dancer in Russia. From 2019 to 2022, Masha performed in the corps de ballet with the Novosibirsk Theatre, as well as the Astrakhan Theatre. In August of 2022, Masha was unexpectedly diagnosed with Acute Myeloid...

Polina Volchek, also known as Pink Puma, has inhabited the brutal environment of sport and show business industries for over 25 years. She was a competitive rhythmic gymnast for 10 years and made the Russian national team. She switched to circus arts at age 17 and specialized in hula hoops and aerial. At 25, she began competing in Pole Sport and became the 4-time World Pole Sport and Artistic Pole...

Dr. Carly Anderson, Ph. D, is a licensed psychologist, certified mental performance consultant, and former UCLA gymnast. Her first-hand experience as a competitive athlete, coupled with years of professional training and expertise in sport psychology, provides her with unique, valuable insight into the mental side of training, coaching, competing, and performing. In this interview, Carly shares he...

Hey guys, it's Belicia! On this week's episode I thought I'd introduce myself formally and tell you guys about my background in aesthetic sports and why I started this podcast.  Connect with me on Instagram: @belicia.tang  --- Stay connected with Athlete Voices! Instagram:  @athletevoices Website:  https://athletevoices.net/ Support the podcast directly HERE! -  https://an...

Natalie McGiffert is a former USA national team rhythmic gymnast. A Southern California native, she made history as a member of the 2016 rhythmic group gymnastics team that gave Team USA its first ever earned Olympic spot for RG group. She was also a member of the 2015 Pan American Games team that won two silvers and one gold medal. Natalie was a competitive gymnast for nearly 13 years and now wor...

Andrew Escolme is a professional ballroom dancer. He began his career dancing in the Latin category, and later pivoted to American Rhythm. He recently debuted a new dance partnership with Asta Sigvaldadottir and hopes to continue bringing authenticity to his dancing while competing at the highest level. Andrew's competitive accolades include: - World Rhythm Finalist  - World Salsa Champion &n...

Julie Zetlin is a retired American rhythmic gymnast. She is the 2010 U.S. Senior National Champion in Rhythmic Gymnastics and represented the United States at the 2012 Olympic Games. In 2015, she was inducted into the USA Gymnastics Hall of Fame. In this interview Julie and I talk about her experience competing with a broken foot at the Olympics, the importance of mental performance training as an...

Autumn Steed is from Downers Grove, IL and began her pre-professional ballet training at the Academy of Dance Arts under the direction of Sherry Moray. She is a 2015 National YoungArts Winner and a graduate of Miami City Ballet School’s Pre-Professional Division. At Miami City Ballet, she performed with the company in George Balanchine’s Walpurgisnacht Ballet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In 2017...

Jonas Woolverton is a cirque performer and specialist in the Cyr Wheel. He ran away to the circus at age 25 and performed with Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas for 11 years. He now performs independently as a wheel artist, actor and filmmaker. Jonas has performed on 5 continents, in over 5,000 shows, in front of over 500,000 spectators.  Connect with Jonas: @zupunkcirque --- Stay connected with...

Follow along as I guide you through 3 types of breathing techniques to release performance anxiety. Do not practice these exercises while operating a moving vehicle.  Timestamps: 1:2 Ratio Breathing 1:16 - 2:30 Rhythmic Breathing 2:32 - 3:43 Sighing With Exhalation 3:46 - 5:30 References: Williams, J. M., & Krane, V. (2021). Applied Sport Psychology: Personal Growth To Peak Performan...

Pamela Tang is a 26 year-old former competitive rhythmic gymnast. After competing in the sport from age 10 to 21 and making Level 10 Elite, she is now the head coach at Tampa Bay Rhythmics. In this interview, Pamela discusses how her positive experiences in the sport have informed her coaching philosophy. She advocates for safe, nurturing, and positive coaching methods to shape not only high-perfo...

Welcome to season 2 of the podcast!  We have several guests lined up, dancers, gymnasts, Cirque du Soleil artists, and more. This season we will also focus more on sport psychology and feature things like guided meditations, episodes on how to practice imagery, progressive muscle relaxation techniques, and many more strategies to boost your mental performance game. We will interview sport psy...

Tori Kubick, aka, conTORItion, is a professional contortionist, calmness connoisseur, world class performer, TEDx speaker, writer, and world traveler. Growing up as an award winning dancer, she later found her true love, the antiquated art form of Mongolian contortion. She kept pushing the odds, and now she tours the world and performs contortion and acrobatics in various theatres, cruise ships, a...