Anika Ruby Baker

Anika Ruby Baker was born in Walnut Creek, California, and has been raised in Utah. Anika is eleven years old, the second of seven children, and in the sixth grade at Mapleton Elementary School. She began her dance training at age three, getting a broad foundation in ballet, tap, jazz, and hip hop. Anika won numerous scholarships and awards for her performances at competitions and conventions. At the age of 9 she discovered ballroom dance at Center Stage for the Performing Arts, in Orem, Utah. Over the past two years, she and her partner, Carter Williams, have won multiple local, regional, and national Latin ballroom competitions. They were selected to compete on the US Junior National team at the 2013 Blackpool Junior Dance Festival, and they finished 5th at the 2013 World Dance Championships in Paris in the Preteen Latin division. She has learned so much from her coach Sasha Altukhov, and has benefitted from regularly working with other exceptionally talented dancers and teachers such as Shirley Ballas. Anika is also a classically trained pianist, and performed Haydn’s Piano Concerto in D Major with the Timpanogos Symphony Orchestra in May, 2013.

Anika has the talent and drive to become an incredible dancer. She has seen how dance can bring people together from all over the world, and loves to share the joy she finds in expression through movement.