Sandy Arena Interview

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What a blessing to have Sandy Arena in the studio!  Sandy is an artistic soul working from her Arts Illuminate Studio located in the Auditorium Center in Rochester, New York and from home. She is a movement, family and lifestyle photographer, writer, film-maker, and songwriter.

Sandy is the founder and director of a nonprofit, Christian ballet studio and ballet company called Yahweh Ballet which she closed in 2010 to be able to spend more time with her family. The studio was re-opened as a private business by her oldest daughter Alexis Gaetano – now called Mossa School of Dance - with whom Sandy now collaborates for many projects.

Sandy is a home school educator to her own children, as well as others as a photography teacher at Home School Academy. She teaches children's movement and pom pom cheer classes, and hosts God's Girl Princess Classes and more recently a God's Girl Princess Pageant.

Sandy is an avid runner having completed a full and half marathon in her lifetime. She was a former fitness instructor, as well as a newspaper journalist and editor, and a food and restaurant publicist in the greater New York and Philadelphia areas.

In all her endeavors, Sandy is passionate about sharing the joys of motherhood and family, as well as proclaiming Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior. With God's help, vision and direction, she will fight for the rights of children and children's healthcare to the end with her traveling ballet production called The Life Ballet which has performed around the country in New York, Pennsylvania, Washington DC, Tennessee, Indiana, Texas, Colorado, California and in Canada since 2008.

Sandy wrote The Life Ballet to memorialize her two unborn children's lives and share a story of regret and healing after abortion. The production signed with Verb Records in 2014 to adapt the live production to a feature length film with an original score—including songs written by Sandy—called "Arise Sweet Sarah" which will be released in September 2015.

Sandy completed a leadership training program in July 2012 in post abortive recovery through Abortion Recovery International's Share Symposium (ARIN) and now serves as a New York State ambassador for ARIN. She has been a guest speaker at pro-life events and on radio and television including The Miracle Channel in Lethbridge, Canada, TCT.TV, Scribal Advance Radio, Day Gardner's Radio, Monday Minute, and Kim Ketola Cradle My Heart Radio.

In 2009, Sandy was named as one of the 175 Empowered Women in Rochester in honor of the city's 175th Anniversary by the Rochester Genesee Valley Club.