Allison Holker opens up about major traumatic experience

Allison Holker, an American dancer, sat down for an interview on the The Jamie Kern Lima Show where she opened up about a negative past experience.

On the verge of the release of her memoir titled This Far: My Story of Love, Loss, and Embracing the Light, host Jamie Kern Lima questioned, “I wanted to ask you, in your book, you talk about at the age of 17, you experienced something you say was so traumatizing, that it touched every part of your life.”

“I had experienced my first time really feeling like I'd been taken advantage of,” the dancer began.

She hinted that the abuse came from the “dance community” due to her “joy of life” and “energy of wanting to constantly learn” putting her in a dangerous position.

“I had some, some, you know, older men really take advantage of the vulnerability that women go through, especially in the dance community. Where we look up to our teachers and we just trust them, and dance can be very physical. It can be very sexual, even at a young age,” the dancer explained.

She added, “It tore me apart for a lot of years. I felt like it was my fault because how could it have gotten to that place? I must have done something wrong and I felt so much shame in who I was.”

Sharing her regrets, Holker admitted, “And I was so embarrassed. And to this day, it's one of those things — Man, if I would have just spoken out for myself, maybe I could have built myself back up and helped other young girls, too, to not let that happen.”

Even though it took her many years to heal her trauma, she concluded, “I'm proud of myself now.”