#Stephanie Kurlow

[mandable-draws]

Click for better quality

The dress is based on Stephanie Kurlow.

[dear-indies]

Hi! Could you help me find a fc that is mid twenties-early thirties, brown or black hair, female or AFAB, that could be a ballerina? Meaning either is one or has the resources to portray one? The character is Irish, but the fc doesn't necessarily have to be! Thanks so much for your time, and for all you do here!

Nelly Karim (1974) Egyptian / Russian - is a ballerina and actress!

Sutton Foster (1975) - is a dancer and actress, role in Bunheads!

Aesha Ash (1977) African-American - is a ballerina!

Svetlana Zakharova (1979) - is a ballerina!

Jenna Dewan (1980) Lebanese, Polish / German, English - is a dancer and actress, ballerina role in Step Up!

Ji-Hyo Song (1981) Korean - a ballerina in Princess Hours!

Summer Glau (1981) - is a ballerina and actress!

Misty Copeland (1982) African-American, German / African-American, Italian - is a ballerina and actress, had a role in A Ballerina’s Tale!

Marianela Núñez (1982) Argentine - is a ballerina!.

Alessandra Mastronardi (1986) - Carla.

Sonoya Mizuno (1986) Japanese / English, Argentinian - is a ballerina and actress, a role in High Strung!

Sofya Skya (1987) - is a ballerina and actress!

Tiler Peck (1989) - is a ballerina!

Autumn S. Klein (1989) - is a ballerina!

Francesca Hayward (1992) Kenyan / English - is a ballerina and actress!

Lyna Khoudri (1992) Algerian - is a ballerina and actress, role in Houria!

Anastasia Shevtsova (1995) - is a ballerina and actress, Polina!

Michaela DePrince (1995) Sierra Leonean - is a ballerina!

Kristine Froseth (1995) - Birds of Paradise.

Zaria Simone (1996) African-American - Pretty Little Liars.

Alicia Mae Holloway (1996) African-American, Cherokee - is a ballerina!

Maimun Puteh (1996) Malaysian - Hijabsta Ballet, her character is hijabi, I know you mention hair colour but I had to mention her!

Diana Silvers (1997) Ashkenazi Jewish / Swiss - Birds of Paradise.

Miko Fogarty (1997) Japanese / English - is a ballerina!

Lizzy Howell (2001) - has pseudotumor cerebri and is a ballerina!

Stephanie Kurlow (2001) - is a ballerina and also again also hijabi, I know you mention hair colour but I had to mention her!

Colleen Werner (?) - is a ballerina!

Natalie Burn (?) - is a ballerina and actress!

Sarah Murphy-Dyson (?) is a ballerina and actress!

and then for those looking for trans suggestions!

Jin Xing (1967) Chinese - is a ballerina!

Here you go!

[gahdamnpunk]

Look at her opening doors to thousands of girls (if not more) around the world! 😍

[swanlake1998]

stephanie kurlow photographed by taylor-ferne morris (1 2 3 4)

[shellwithastory]

This is Stephanie Kurlow.

She's the world's first Hijabi Ballerina!

She's a Russian-Australian and is currently 18.

She's truly an iconic and her performances are breathtakingly glorious!

[deathsmallcaps]

August’s Story

Swan Lake was the story for this month! It’s the sixteenth Win A Commission. If you’d like to read it and see the drawings again, please

ACT I

Prince Siegfried arrives at his 21st birthday celebration on the palace courtyards. Here, he finds all of the royal families and townspeople dancing and celebrating, while the young girls are anxiously seeking his attention.

During the exquisite celebration, his mother gives him a crossbow. She informs him that because he is now of age, his marriage will be quickly arranged.

Hit with the sudden realization of his future responsibilities, he takes his crossbow and runs to the woods with his hunting group.

ACT 2

Getting ahead of the group, Prince Siegfried finds himself alone in a peaceful spot by an enchanted lake where swans gently float across its surface. While Siegfried watches, he spots the most beautiful swan with a crown on its head.

His buddies soon catch up, but he orders them to leave so he can be by himself. As dusk falls, the swan with the crown turns into the most beautiful young woman he has ever seen. Her name is Odette, the Swan Queen.

Odette informs the young prince about an evil sorcerer, Von Rothbart, who happens to be disguised as Prince Siegfried’s mentor. It was Rothbart who turned her and the other girls into animals. The lake was formed by the tears of their parents' weeping. She tells him that the only way the spell can be broken is if a man, pure in heart, pledges his love to her.

The prince, about to confess his love for her, is quickly interrupted by the evil sorcerer. He takes Odette from Prince Siegfried’s embrace and commands all of the animal maidens to dance upon the lake and its shore so that the prince cannot chase them. Prince Siegfried is left all alone on the shore of Swan Lake.

ACT 3

The next day at the formal celebration in the Royal Hall, Prince Siegfried is presented with many prospective princesses. Although the ladies are worthy of his attention, he cannot stop thinking about Odette.

His mother commands him to choose a bride, but he cannot. For the time being, he satisfies his mother's request by dancing with them.

While the prince dances, trumpets announce the arrival of Von Rothbart. He brings his daughter, Odile, on whom he has cast a spell to appear as Odette. The prince is captivated by her beauty and he dances with the imposter.

ACT 4

Unbeknownst to Prince Siegfried, the true Odette is watching him from a window. The prince soon confesses his love to Odile and proposes marriage, thinking that she is Odette.

Horrified, Odette flees into the night. Prince Siegfried sees the real Odette running from the window and realizes his mistake.

Upon his discovery, Von Rothbart reveals to the prince the true appearance of his daughter Odile. Prince Siegfried quickly leaves the party and chases after Odette.

Odette has fled to the lake and joined the rest of the girls in sadness. Prince Siegfried finds them gathered at the shore consoling each other. He explains to Odette the trickery of Von Rothbart and she grants him her forgiveness.

It doesn't take long for Von Rothbart and Odile to appear in their evil, un-human, and somewhat bird-like forms. Von Rothbart tells the prince that he must stick to his word and marry his daughter. A fight quickly ensues.

Prince Siegfried tells Von Rothbart that he would rather die with Odette than marry Odile. He then takes Odette’s hand and together they jump into the lake.

The spell is broken and the remaining animals turn back into humans, with the exception of one spider who helped Von Rothbart with the illusion magic. They quickly drive Von Rothbart and Odile into the water where they, too, drown. 

My Notes

The title was basically copied off the Barbie Swan Lake one. Apparently it’s really difficult to draw a football shape, because I must’ve tried at least 20 times! 

So, originally, I meant to draw the prince running with the crossbow for the first picture. But the journal I had with me at the time was pretty small, and I couldn’t get the angle right, so I gave up on that. Often with these drawings, I’ll have an original idea, find out its beyond my capabilities at the moment or that it’s kind of boring, and then switch it up. (Oh, the best laid plans of mice and men…) So instead I drew the crossbow. It has a swan on it at least!

The second picture was another one that ended up quite different from the original. For one, I wanted to draw inspiration from the Barbie version of Swan Lake (one I hold dearly in my heart) and the movie The Swan Princess, which was a musical comedic retelling of Swan Lake, except the villain wants to marry Odette to rule her kingdom, Odile is his henchwoman, and Siegfried (who has a different name) grew up knowing Odette. You may have seen versions of it - it was actually a really great movie but Disney shut it down pretty quickly, so the studio that made it became poor and now make crappy sequels for the movie instead. ANYWAY I suddenly remembered, when I was only in the figure drawing phase, Stephanie Kurlow.

Stephanie Kurlow, as I am writing this, is credited as the first Hijabi ballerina. So while she’s probably not the first Muslim ballerina, she is the first one to insist on an outfit that honors her religious beliefs. She is an Australian teen who wishes to make ballerina outfits more accessible to different beliefs, and she and her mother have started a studio that does respect beliefs. I guess that a lot of professional studios, due to the wish for uniformity for its background dancers and the bigger difficulty in dancing well in longer skirts, have trouble with this concept. But in any case, she and her outfits heavily inspired Odette’s dresses. I did not draw her face for Odette, but I was very heavily inspired by her.

For the third picture, that was pretty much a mix of Barbie’s Swan Lake, the Swan Princess and Stephanie Kurlow again. The prince is the one from Barbie (his hair was brown and your mom doesn’t believe me that for a short while the Ken characters had brown hair!), Odile’s evil reflection was based off of Odette from Swan Princess, and of course she is wearing a Stephanie Kurlow outfit. Did you see the evil spider in the corner? I’ve only found one version with the spider, but it fit my purposes :). 

Last picture is a toughie. I want you to know, that despite its inclusion in the story, suicide is NEVER the answer. If you ever feel like you’d be better off dead, or even if you start thinking about what the world would be like without you, a lot, please talk to someone. It can be your parents, someone at your church, a counselor, or someone else you trust. They will help you. (Okay back to the drawing stuff)

I wasn’t sure how to draw the spirits rising up, so I kind of just drew Odette, with the prince at her back, rising towards the moon. It was hard figuring out where the billows of her dress go, lol. But yeah, they’re rising up from the lake. I decided to make the moon look like the one on many flags of Islam because I thought it would be cool.

(Apparently, when Islam spread to what is now Turkey, the people in the area worshipped a moon goddess, so the moon was incorporated into their worship, just like Easter, a celebration of spring fertility, was incorporated into Christianity for the German peoples. They later added a star to the moon because the Quran, their holy book, has a lot of mentions of stars. Then, when the Ottoman Empire fell (Turkey was its base), Turkey was the biggest remaining Muslim world power, so its flag with the moon and the star became synonymous with Islam, and many groups adopted it.)

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed coloring! Good luck for next month!

@boopboopboopbadoop​

[dualdeixis]

[Image description: A digital drawing of two people happily holding hands. The person on the left is a niqabi in green and red. The person on the right is a hijabi in pink and has green hair. Stylized hearts float around them. End image description.]

had the thought “pmd grovyle is actually a he/him lesbian” and that naturally progressed into this

[rantreader]

Oooh. Guys. One of my stories has a hijabi ballerina. I thought they were quite common (but still had some issues) so I did some research and guess what? There is really only one hijab wearing girl who is breaking barriers. Her name is Stephanie Kurlow. She’s about 15 and wants to open a diverse performing arts academy. She is so cool.

[crazycatsiren]

Get to Know Stephanie Kurlow, Who's Training to Become the First Professional Hijabi Ballerina

[butchniqabi]

stephanie kurlow is taking off her hijab because of harassment...i hope every person who pushed her to this decision has a terrible fucking life

[tiredveena]

hijabi ballerins inspired by stephanie kurlow!

[readitonce-official]

Muslim Teen Defies Tradition to Become First Hijab-Wearing Ballerina

Muslim Teen Defies Tradition to Become First Hijab-Wearing Ballerina

With a dream of becoming the first hijab-wearing Muslim ballerina, 14-year-old Stephanie Kurlow recently launched a fundraising page in the hopes of pulling together more than $7,000 so she can get her certification to open a performing arts program in her native Sydney because, she has said, “I don’t want certain people who are discriminatory to hold anyone back from achieving their dreams and…

[swanlake1998]

stephanie kurlow photographed by taylor-ferne morris

[dear-indies]

hi babes! do you have any fc suggestions that could pass as a professional ballerina?

People who have had ballet training and/or ballet roles:

Nelly Karim (1974) Egyptian / Russian - ballerina and actress.

Summer Glau (1981) - ballerina and actress.

Marianela Núñez (1982) Argentine - ballerina.

Natalia Osipova (1986) - ballerina.

Sofya Skya (1987) - ballerina and actress,

Emma Rigby (1989) - ballerina and actress.

Francesca Hayward (1992) Kenyan / English - ballerina and actress.

Michaela DePrince (1995) Sierra Leonean  - ballerina.

Casimere Jollette (1995) - ballerina and actress,

Stephanie Kurlow (2001) - ballerina.

Luna Montana (2001) - ballerina and youtuber.

Natalie Burn (?) - ballerina and actress.

Sarah Murphy-Dyson (?) - ballerina and actress.

Jenna Dewan (Step Up) Lebanese, Polish / German, English.

Ji-Hyo Song (Princess Hours) Korean.

Misty Copeland (A Ballerina’s Tale) African-American, German / African-American, Italian - ballerina and actress.

Sarah Hay (Flesh and Bone) Ashkenazi Jewish / English, possibly other - ballerina and actress.

Tiler Peck (Ballet Now, Ballet 422) - ballerina and actress.

Anastasia Shevtsova (Polina) - ballerina and actress.

Keenan Kampa (High Strung) - ballerina and actress.

Sonoya Mizuno (High Strung) Japanese / English, Argentinian - ballerina and actress.

Michalina Olszanska (Mathilde)

Sutton Foster (Bunheads)

Bailey De Young (Bunheads)

Jeanine Mason (Bunheads) Cuban.

Other suggestions - if you’d like more specific suggestions feel fee to send in another message!

Lucy Liu (1968) Chinese.

Lupita Nyong'o (1983) Luo Kenyan.

Laura Vandervoort (1984)

Troian Bellisario (1985) African-American, Louisiana Creole [African, French, English] / Italian, Serbian.

Treechada Petcharat / Nong Poy (1986) Thai - trans.

Nikohl Boosheri (1988) Iranian.

Jenna Talackova (1988) Czech / Babine - trans.

Pia Wurtzbach (1989) Filipino [Tagalog] / German.

Valentijn De Hingh (1990) - trans.

Laura Harrier (1990) African-American / Rusyn, English, German, Swiss-German.

Aiysha Hart (1990) Saudi Arabian / English

Sasha Luss (1992)

Ashley Moore (1993) African-American, Cherokee, Unspecified White.

Nyané Lebajoa (1994) Basotho.

Bae Suzy (1994) Korean

Emilija Baranac (1994)

Moon Ga-young (1996) Korean

Milena Tscharntke (1996)

Imaan Hammam (1996) Egyptian / Moroccan.

Nicole Maines (1997) - trans.

Sophie Simnett (1997)

Kaylee Bryant (1997) ¼ Japanese ¾ English, Danish, German, Irish.

Brianne Tju (1998) Chinese / Indonesian

Gabbi Garcia (1998) Filipino

Hunter Schafer (1999) - says that her sexuality is closer to what people would call lesbian - trans.

Meg Donnelly (2000)

Emma Ellingsen (2001) - trans.

Satō Kayo (?) Japanese - trans.

-C

[iwontdancenetwork]

Swans For Relief 

32 premier ballerinas from 22 dance companies in 14 countries perform Le Cygne (The Swan) variation sequentially with music by Camille Saint-Saëns, performed by cellist Wade Davis, in support of Swans for Relief. 

Organized by Misty Copeland and Joseph Phillips, 100% of the funds raised will be distributed to each dancer’s company’s COVID-19 relief fund, or other arts/dance-based relief fund in the event that a company is not set up to receive donations. To donate please visit,  https://charity.gofundme.com/SwansFor... 

Ballet companies are largely dependent on revenue from performances to pay their dancers and fund their operations, but due to the coronavirus pandemic, all performances have been halted. Consequently, many dancers are unable to depend on paychecks and are facing the hardship of paying rent and/or buying food and other necessities.

Le Cygne (The Swan) with music by Camille Saint-Saëns, performed by cellist Wade Davis (USA), choreography by Michel Fokine by kind permission of the Fokine Estate-Archive.

Dancers: •Stella Abrera American Ballet Theatre, USA •Precious Adams English National Ballet, England •Nathalia Arja Miami City Ballet, USA •Isabella Boylston American Ballet Theatre, USA •Skylar Brandt American Ballet Theatre, USA •Misty Copeland American Ballet Theatre, USA •Monike Cristina Joburg Ballet, South Africa •Ashley Ellis Boston Ballet, USA •Greta Elizondo Nacional de Danza Mexico, Mexico •Nikisha Fogo Vienna State Ballet, Austria •Angelica Generosa Pacific Northwest Ballet, USA •Sarah Hay Freelance Ballerina, USA •Francesca Hayward The Royal Ballet, England •Robyn Hendricks The Australian Ballet, Australia •Whitney Jensen The Norwegian National Ballet, Norway •Yuriko Kajiya Houston Ballet, USA •Maria Khoreva Mariinsky Theatre, Russia •Ako Kondo The Australian Ballet, Australia •Misa Kuranaga San Francisco Ballet, USA •Stephanie Kurlow Freelance Hijabi Ballerina, Australia   •Sara Mearns New York City Ballet, USA •Ginett Moncho Ballet Nacional de Cuba, Cuba •Katherine Ochoa Ballet Nacional de Cuba, Cuba •Hannah O'Neill Paris Opera Ballet, France •Denise Parungao Ballet Philippines, Philippines •Tiler Peck New York City Ballet, USA •Tina Pereira The National Ballet of Canada, Canada •Ida Praetorius The Royal Danish Ballet, Denmark •Jemima Reyes Ballet Philippines, Philippines •Ingrid Silva Dance Theater of Harlem, USA •Bianca Teixeira San Francisco Ballet, USA •Xu Yan The National Ballet of China, China

[peacebeuponu]

Stephanie Kurlow put on her first tutu at the age of 2. She donned her first hijab at the age of 9. When Kurlow first converted to Islam along with her family nine years ago, she feared her beliefs could never coincide with her artistic passion.

Now, at only 14 years old, Kurlow’s fears are behind her. The young dancer is en route to becoming the first professional ballerina in the world to don a hijab.