QDD Dance Diary: Mariam Anwar

Mariam Anwar is a 4th year student at Queen's University studying Life Sciences and Biology. She is a dancer and teacher for Queen’s Dance Club as well as a teacher, choreographer and co-president for Flow Performance Crew and Flow Dance Club. This year, Mariam is teaching advanced hip-hop for QDC and beginner hip-hop for Flow and these classes are always the highlight of her week.

Mariam was told as a young child that she had two left feet, but what she also had, was a tremendous passion for movement and music. She started out at nine years old partaking in dance classes at her local recreation centre in Toronto. Her love for dancing spurred out of her love for singing and music. She realized she felt just as strongly compelled to move to music as training her vocals. She trained at the Cabbage Town Youth Centre under her mentors Christina De La Cruz and Monique Caine and they encouraged her to keep exploring her new passion in this fun and safe environment. Dance was a creative outlet that helped Mariam overcome moments of low self -esteem and bullying and it allowed her to express herself in an incomparable way. After some years of training, Mariam was advised that she had unique natural ability, which she needed to nurture. This expression of belief and encouragement has always motivated her to keep striving for new heights. Mariam joined a competitive team at age 13 and somewhere along the journey, through various drop-in classes and workshops, she worked to build a strong skill set and dance solidified itself as an integral part of her life. Some of Mariam’s mentors and idols are Christina De La Cruz, Tony Tzar, Sorah Yang, Keone and Mari Madrid, and Kyle Hanagami.

Dance and the Queen’s Dance District communities have provided Mariam with something she could carry on with from Toronto to help her build a home in Kingston. When asked why she loves dancing so much, Mariam expressed “there are so many reasons why … the principal reason is the special community that dance brings together”. Mariam appreciates the type of community that dance fosters where everybody is there to help challenge and inspire one another, saying “if it wasn’t for this grind the dancers around me have, I don’t think I would be the person I am. Dance molds your identity”. Mariam values the possibilities dancing provides to explore different modes of creativity, storytelling, and escapism, as well as to encourage characteristics of hard work, dedication, and acceptance. The one thing Mariam expects from her comrades and students above all else is simply a willingness to try. Mariam points out that it is so easy in life, especially in university, “to get lost, conform, or give up” and she opens up about the fact that the dance community was often the only thing that made her feel a sense of belonging and purpose at Queen’s when things got tough.

Mariam’s favourite genres of music and movement are anything within the hip- hop realm. She loves hard-hitting rap music, dance hall, reggae, and Afro beats. Although hip-hop truly has her heart, Mariam also expresses a huge sense of respect for contemporary dancers and choreographers as she appreciates the musicality and the storytelling aspect of that style. She tries to incorporate the two modes of movement together within her own choreography. Mariam’s mission for her final year with Queen’s Dance Club and Flow is to leave her mark. She wants her students to not necessarily remember the pieces she’s taught but to remember how they felt while dancing them, developing a sense of confidence to continue pushing themselves further and evolve into their greatest potential. Mariam wants to make sure her fellow club members believe in themselves, always love what they do, and endlessly harbour their passions. After she graduates, Mariam is planning on moving back to Toronto to continue her schooling and her dance training on a more permanent basis.

Catch Mariam and her peers perform at the Queen’s Dance Club mid-year recital on December 1st at Duncan McArthur Hall.