Gillian Doty is an eighteen-year-old dancer from Anchorage, Alaska. She dances at Alaska Dance Studio.
“I want to use dance as a platform to help young boys and girls that are diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease, Ulcerative Colitis, or Both.”
How does dance have a positive impact on your life?
Dance helps alleviate stress in my life. This is important for me because I was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis, and stress will cause flare-ups of those diseases. The consistency of dance helps me manage my stress levels.
I am also a pretty shy person. Dance has helped me overcome a lot of my shyness in both the dance and everyday life such as job interviews or teaching.
How do you want to use dance to have a positive influence on your community?
I want to use dance as a platform to help young boys and girls that are diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease, Ulcerative Colitis, or both. When I was diagnosed, I had so much treatments and medication thrown at me. I thought it was the end of my dance career. But really it was the one thing that empowered me to keep going.