Alexandra “Ola” Tarnowski grew up in Old Bridge, New Jersey where she began her dance training at three years old. At age fourteen, she started her classical ballet training at the conservatory at Princeton Dance and Theatre Studio, where she performed soloist and principal roles. After high school, she attended Butler University where she received a B.S. in Dance Arts Administration. She started her professional dance career with Ballet Theatre of Indiana, where she performed principal roles such as ‘Mina Harker’ in Dracula and ‘Daisy Buchanan’ in The Great Gatsby. She then co-founded Ballet INitiative, a project-based dance collective serving the greater-Indianapolis area, in August of 2020. With Ballet INitiative, she’s a performing artist and choreographer, and was the Marketing and Public Relations Director from its inception to Spring of 2022. Ola performed principal roles such as ‘the Nutcracker’ in Nutcracker with a Twist, ‘Titania’ in A Mischievous Midsummer, and ‘the Queen of Hearts’ in Whimsical Wonderland with Ballet INitiative. She also taught, choreographed, and worked administratively for multiple dance schools in the greater-Indianapolis area, choreographed for the Carmel Apprentice Theatre’s The Descendants (2020) and The Little Mermaid (2021), and has her Mat Pilates certification from the National Exercise Trainers Association