8 March 2023 09:01

International Women's Day 2023

Today we celebrate International Women’s Day by sharing stories from our communities.

The theme for IWD 2023 is 'Embrace Equity' and is about going beyond offering equal opportunities, to offering the right individual support to women to enable them to succeed. Equity means recognising that we do not all start from the same place and must acknowledge and make adjustments to imbalances.

Here are three women from our global community who are taking steps towards a more equitable dance world.

Angela Renata Bonasera

I am an RAD Registered Teacher from Italy and the founder of Dancing Smiles, a charity that organises dance projects for children and young people living in disadvantaged areas, facing poverty and deprivation, in Italy and in Kenya. The charity’s aim is to improve the quality of their life through dance workshops, to provide a safe and healthy environment, to increase self-esteem, self-discipline, and cooperation, and to give positive life goals.

At the end of the workshop, we organize a performance in order to show the achieved results and to provide the students with a sense of self-realization.

Dance offers an escape from the extreme violence and poverty that exists in slums.

If given the right support, youth can use their talents and passions to escape poverty. A goal for the future should be to increase scholarships and funding for training and educating impoverished youth. In this way, a greater number of people can escape poverty from a young age.

Engy El Shazly

I started ballet at the age of 27 and was also veiled. It was not easy to start late, as well as wearing a hijab. But since it was a childhood dream, I didn’t care about people’s criticism and I did it.

I always wanted to inspire others to start working on their dreams at any age, as age is just a number.

I want to spread the idea of equity; our covered and uncovered hair has nothing to do with our dreams.

Kalina Miller

Kalina is a labour and delivery nurse who brings equality to all women in the clinic where she works in Louisville Colorado, USA.

Striving to give care to all women, Kalina continues to dance and takes ballet classes. In the show Magical Holiday Memories Kalina chose to do a Ukrainian dance to not only support Ukraine during the current war in their country but to also honour her grandmother, Ekaterina who came from the Donetsk region and survived Bergen Belsen.

It is her goal to make the world a better place by empowering all women!