Rosalia knew early on that her drive to dance could not be stopped. She credits movement as an integral part of her survival, something which has sustained her throughout her life. At 18, she trained at the National Moravian-Silesian Theatre Ballet in Europe and then spent two years dancing in New York City. She received her B.A. in Dance and Performance Studies at UC Berkeley and presented choreography in San Francisco, such as at The Feedback and The LEVYdance Salon. She founded and was artistic director of Unfinished People, a movement based performance group based in Oakland, CA.

As a researcher academically and in her artistic work, Rosalia is interested in performance of chronic pain in contemporary dance culture and the techniques, cultures, styles, and companies that make space for non-hegemonic bodies to move. She is exploring how chronic pain held in the body and the nuances of how it is performed in everyday life. With her research, she actively works to decentralize ballet from the hegemonic structure of dance culture; seeing value in movement by all people.