Dancer Spotlight - Stephanie Kurlow

Stephanie Kurlow is a 17-year-old dancer from Australia who is known as being the world’s first Hijabi ballerina. Kurlow grew up in the suburbs of Sydney to a Russian mother and Australian father. It was there that Kurlow discovered dance at the age of two and also where her "loves and thrives through the process of ballet” began. At the age of 9, Kurlow converted to Islam along with the rest of her family. At the same time, however, Kurlow quit dancing as she could not find a studio that matched with her family’s new beliefs. Instead of letting her daughter’s love and talents of dance to go wasted, Kurlow’s mother opened her own dancing academy where her daughter could stay true to her faith and love of dance. As Kurlow has stated, many Australian dance studios did not provide classes for girls who were different, from aboriginals or for girls who chose to wear a hijab. So her mother’s all inclusive performing arts studio is imperative to the awareness and solution of this problem. When Kurlow started to dance again, she remained loyal to her personal beliefs and danced wearing a hijab and conservative clothing despite the backlash she received. Although young and not a professional dancer quite yet, Kurlow has been awarded many scholarships, such as one to the highly acclaimed Royal Danish Ballet summer school in 2018. Stephanie Kurlow has also worked with companies such as Converse and Lenovo in several campaigns once Kurlow herself, and the message of inclusivity she is trying to spread, caught the world’s attention. Kurlow is currently on her way to complete her goal of becoming the world’s first Hijabi ballerina to work for a professional ballet company, an achievement that will mean so much to Kurlow, but so much more to all the girls around the world watching and looking up to her.