Stephanie Kurlow is an

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Aus ...

dancer Dance is an The arts, art form, consisting of sequences of body movements with aesthetic and often Symbol, symbolic value, either improvised or purposefully selected. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

and

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

student often credited as being the world's first ''Hijabi Ballerina''. Kurlow was born to an Australian father of Belarusian descent and a

Tatar Tatar may refer to: Peoples * Tatars, an umbrella term for different Turkic ethnic groups bearing the name "Tatar" * Volga Tatars, a people from the Volga-Ural region of western Russia * Crimean Tatars, a people from the Crimea peninsula by the B ...

mother. She grew up in the suburbs of

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

and began dancing at the age of two. Stephanie stopped dancing at the age of nine in 2010 as there were no dance studios that catered to her beliefs. Inspired by Stephanie's dream, her mother, Alsu Kurlow, opened a performing arts academy in 2012 that offers ballet, martial arts, and aboriginal art classes for girls. She began wearing the

hijab Hijab (, ) refers to head coverings worn by Women in Islam, Muslim women. Similar to the mitpaḥat/tichel or Snood (headgear), snood worn by religious married Jewish women, certain Christian head covering, headcoverings worn by some Christian w ...

full-time when she was ten years old. Kurlow launched an online campaign to raise money for full-time classical ballet training, raising over $7000. Kurlow lists African-American ballet dancer

Misty Copeland Misty Danielle Copeland (born September 10, 1982) is an American ballet dancer for American Ballet Theatre (ABT), one of the three leading classical ballet companies in the United States. On June 30, 2015, Copeland became the first African Americ ...

, Chinese-Australian ballet dancer

Li Cunxin Li Cunxin (born 26 January 1961) is a Chinese-Australian former ballet dancer turned stockbroker. He was the artistic director of the Queensland Ballet between 2012 and 2023.Queensland Ballet (2012)Li Cunxin returns to the stage as Queensl ...

, and Emirati figure skater Zahra Lari as her inspirations. She planned to open her own dance school in the future geared towards diverse youths of various backgrounds. Kurlow is an ambassador for Remove Hate From The Debate, a campaign that assists youth in identifying

online hate speech Online hate speech is a type of speech that takes place online with the purpose of attacking a person or a group based on their race, religion, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, disability, and/or gender. Online hate speech is not easily defin ...

and tackling it. She is a recipient of the Aim for the Stars scholarship and the Game Changer Scholarship by

Björn Borg Björn Rune Borg (; born 6 June 1956) is a Swedish former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 109 weeks. Borg won 66 singles titles during his caree ...

. Kurlow was invited as a guest speaker to Indonesia for the Resonation Women's Empowerment Conference in 2017. She also received a scholarship to The Royal Danish Ballet summer school in 2018. Kurlow was featured in a

Lenovo Lenovo Group Limited, trading as Lenovo ( , zh, c=联想, p=Liánxiǎng), is a Chinese multinational technology company specializing in designing, manufacturing, and marketing consumer electronics, personal computers, software, servers, conv ...

campaign with designer Tarese Klemens for

International Women's Day International Women's Day (IWD) is celebrated on 8 March, commemorating women's fight for equality and liberation along with the women's rights movement. International Women's Day gives focus to issues such as gender equality, reproductive righ ...

in 2018. She was also featured in a global campaign with Converse named Love The Progress in 2019, which invited women to redefine what "girl" means. In March of 2022, Kurlow announced on her Instagram account that she had made the decision to stop wearing the hijab. She shared the struggles of being the only one in her dance community to wear a hijab, and further stated: “at this point in my life it isn’t such a strong part of my visible identity.”

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kurlow, Stephanie Date of birth missing (living people) Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 21st-century Australian ballet dancers Australian female dancers Australian people of Russian descent Australian Muslims Converts to Islam People from Sydney Australian ballerinas Australian people of Belarusian descent