QDD Dance Diary: Ampai Thammachack

This month’s Queen's Dance District Dance Diary features the amazing Ampai Thammachack, a second year kinesiology student from Nova Scotia. In her first two years at Queen’s University, Ampai has become fully integrated into various dance communities on campus. She is a dedicated dancer with Queen’s Dance Club and this year, she is honoured to have received the Captain position for ACSA, the Afro Caribbean Student Association. When conducting my interview with Ampai, her immense passion for dance was radiating throughout the room. She opened by saying, “dance is my whole life and I can’t live without it”. Ampai decided to get involved with the Queen’s dance community because the warm and welcoming atmosphere as well as the diversity within the clubs compelled her and she could not stay away. Ampai has taken such classes as Diva Boot Camp, Seductive Dance, and various workshops with ACSA. Her favourite part about being a member of the Queen’s dance community is how it made her feel immediately at home in a brand new city, saying “it made life easier and more enjoyable after such a big move”. She has also formed many friendships and created some new creative connections, as well as having the chance to perform on stage, which she absolutely loves.

As this year's captain of ACSA, Ampai hopes to ensure that everyone’s strengths are being used and that everyone is feeling comfortable showing off their potential and performance abilities. Ampai wants to build an exciting team that everyone on campus will look forward to watching perform. This year, ACSA can be seen performing at the Queen’s Dance District charity performance in November, Dancerama, the Culture show, and Queen’s Dance Battle. In addition to her work with ACSA and QDC, Ampai spearheaded and founded a charity, “Step Above Stigma”, in the summer after she graduated high school. This incredible charity was formed on Ampai’s belief that, “way too many people are lost waiting for the resources that they need because they’re not as readily available as they should be”. Ampai fought though her own personal experiences with mental illness to learn firsthand about the detrimental power of stigma. Her mission is to start conversations and mobilize action and improvement. One way in which Ampai personally maintains a strong and positive mentality is through her relationship with dance. Dancing makes Ampai feel limitless, radiant, confident and inspired. She is extremely grateful that Queen’s provides so many opportunities for her to experiment and grow with her love of dance. What a talented and lovely young lady…the Queen’s Dance community is lucky to have her.