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OUR ARTISTIC DIRECTOR & FOUNDER BIO
Stephanie : Breaking Performer Stereo Types!
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Stephanie Strugar founded Difinity Dance Studio and Productions in 2008 with the goal to collaborate with community organizations to provide therapeutic performing arts services to at-risk youth, disabled youth and adults, and the elderly.
This goal was achieved as she developed programs and workshops for dance studios, fitness centers, and community arts organizations across Manitoba. Through grant funding and strategic partnerships her innovative dance, fitness, and music services were provided to children across MB. in schools and daycares.
As a choreographer, dance & fitness educator, model, actress, R&B singer and songwriter and certified body painter, Stephanie lives and breathes the arts. She has entertained family and corporate audiences for over 10 years as a professional clown, mascot, celebrity impersonator, event comedian and Emcee.
She has dedicated herself to sharing industry knowledge by developing and facilitating custom therapeutic performance art and visual arts programs for a wide variety of community and arts organizations. From organisations that serve a diverse clientele such as at-risk youth, people with learning/ physical disabilities. women with physical injuries, and adults recovering from addictions.
Stephanie has facilitated dance and fitness programs in schools and daycares across Manitoba and she has also spearheaded several productions city wide. Currently her projects include her DIFINI DOLLS Multi-Cultural Dance Crew “Breaking Performer Stereotypes” and DIFINI MINIS “Anti-Bullying” Dance Crew that fundraise for several worthy causes and sponsor at-risk youth for free multi cultural dance classes. She is also the founder of Manitoba's 1st all-deaf dancers dance crew, DEF.UP! Which made national news.
Her focus is to utilize the challenges she's faced as a youth to inspire DDSP students. As a youth she was bullied and developed an eating disorder and depression, but her involvement in performance arts and visual arts kept her on a straight path. She is a body positive activist who offers wellness coaching to all her students promoting holistic nutrition, meditation, fitness, and involvement in the arts. She is a trailbazer who has competed locally as lead in Bachata dancing who rejects the idea that a woman can not be physically strong, or only strong in certain "body types." Her community advocacy includes teen talks about the subject of self worth, and this is a philosophy her Teen Girl Empowerment Project Initiative "GEM POWER" focuses on.
As a mother of one, Stephanie has increased her focus on developing whole family, cross generational community performance arts programs for the City of Winnipeg, and isolated Manitoba rural communities.
She was born with a physical disability called Scoliosis, and a learning disability called motor-sequencing disorder. This lead her to have social anxiety and depression as a youth as she struggled to keep up academically in the classroom, and physical education in school. In her youth she sustained several concussions from sustaining head trauma from tripping and falling. Her learning disability made it difficult for her to adjust to various sensory stimuli, and the physical pain from her scoliosis caused her to develop a sleeping disorder at a young age.
Due to the challenges she faced, she had to stay home from school often and began falling behind in her academics. From middle school on she was bullied for her disability and this lead her to develop body dismorphia disorder. Her childhood trauma as an at-risk youth developed into PTSD as an adult. It was Stephanie's creative abilities in dance and art that helped her channel her negative feelings into these positive outlets.
As such, she has dedicated DDSP and her newly formed not-for-profit DIFIE Inc. to helping children, youth, and adults achieve
whole body wellness through her trademarked dance fitness programs.
This goal was achieved as she developed programs and workshops for dance studios, fitness centers, and community arts organizations across Manitoba. Through grant funding and strategic partnerships her innovative dance, fitness, and music services were provided to children across MB. in schools and daycares.
As a choreographer, dance & fitness educator, model, actress, R&B singer and songwriter and certified body painter, Stephanie lives and breathes the arts. She has entertained family and corporate audiences for over 10 years as a professional clown, mascot, celebrity impersonator, event comedian and Emcee.
She has dedicated herself to sharing industry knowledge by developing and facilitating custom therapeutic performance art and visual arts programs for a wide variety of community and arts organizations. From organisations that serve a diverse clientele such as at-risk youth, people with learning/ physical disabilities. women with physical injuries, and adults recovering from addictions.
Stephanie has facilitated dance and fitness programs in schools and daycares across Manitoba and she has also spearheaded several productions city wide. Currently her projects include her DIFINI DOLLS Multi-Cultural Dance Crew “Breaking Performer Stereotypes” and DIFINI MINIS “Anti-Bullying” Dance Crew that fundraise for several worthy causes and sponsor at-risk youth for free multi cultural dance classes. She is also the founder of Manitoba's 1st all-deaf dancers dance crew, DEF.UP! Which made national news.
Her focus is to utilize the challenges she's faced as a youth to inspire DDSP students. As a youth she was bullied and developed an eating disorder and depression, but her involvement in performance arts and visual arts kept her on a straight path. She is a body positive activist who offers wellness coaching to all her students promoting holistic nutrition, meditation, fitness, and involvement in the arts. She is a trailbazer who has competed locally as lead in Bachata dancing who rejects the idea that a woman can not be physically strong, or only strong in certain "body types." Her community advocacy includes teen talks about the subject of self worth, and this is a philosophy her Teen Girl Empowerment Project Initiative "GEM POWER" focuses on.
As a mother of one, Stephanie has increased her focus on developing whole family, cross generational community performance arts programs for the City of Winnipeg, and isolated Manitoba rural communities.
She was born with a physical disability called Scoliosis, and a learning disability called motor-sequencing disorder. This lead her to have social anxiety and depression as a youth as she struggled to keep up academically in the classroom, and physical education in school. In her youth she sustained several concussions from sustaining head trauma from tripping and falling. Her learning disability made it difficult for her to adjust to various sensory stimuli, and the physical pain from her scoliosis caused her to develop a sleeping disorder at a young age.
Due to the challenges she faced, she had to stay home from school often and began falling behind in her academics. From middle school on she was bullied for her disability and this lead her to develop body dismorphia disorder. Her childhood trauma as an at-risk youth developed into PTSD as an adult. It was Stephanie's creative abilities in dance and art that helped her channel her negative feelings into these positive outlets.
As such, she has dedicated DDSP and her newly formed not-for-profit DIFIE Inc. to helping children, youth, and adults achieve
whole body wellness through her trademarked dance fitness programs.
HISTORY2010- Became a public health advocate and workshop facilitator for organizations who serve persons with disabilities, youth at risk, homelessness, and children in foster care. She inspired her audience with her first hand experiences, and challenged them to take action in their lives.
2011. Began planning and directing events and productions. In addition she extended her services to family entertainment, grads, birthday parties. Offering professional mascots, celebrity and super hero impersonations, singing telegrams, body artistry, and Caricatures. Her vibrant personality and comedic flavor won over audiences across MB. Stephanie has face and body painted, temporary tattooed, and sketched hundreds of Manitoban's ages 3 and up. 2012- Extended her dance studies full time to ballroom, latin, east coast and west coast swing, performing at various dance events in MB working with internationally award winning choreographers. 2013- Stephanie showcased as a RAW.org Artist in there first ever Winnipeg showcase "The Awakening". Her musical theatre, cross cultural dance crew "DIFINI DOLLS" showcased their abilities, along with her "body positive" plus size models that featured Stephanie's body artistry. 2014- Began collaborating with performers and directors from various performance arts disciplines to co-direct local Artist-Run productions. - Difinity Dance created Educator Training & Mentorship Program for multi disciplinary dance teachers in rural areas to learn DDSP Trademarked dance, cirque, theatre, fitness fusion programs to provide students in their community ages 1.5 and up with access to DDSP satellite programs year-round. Removing barriers and inequal access challenges new and experience dance educators face who are located in Rural, MB. 2015- Her focus turned to recruiting and training amateur and semi-professional models, dancers, actors, and singers to perform in her artist focused, artist funded productions to encourage artists to learn from each other to create a more cohesive and productive community - Her dance crews "DIFINI DOLLS" and "DIFINI MINIS" was chosen as an Urban Artist Focus and performed a 20 min dance showcase at CUT CONNEX Urban Trade Show and Awards that featured her original R&B tracks and dance choreography.Since then she has gone on to direct several multi cultural musical theatre and cirque productions in MB with the goal to mentor artists in the business side of arts and cultural entertainment and education providing teaching, performing, and administrative opportunities. 2016- Founded and directed Winnipeg's BaZoo (No Nudity Burlesque Arts Zoo) to create a professional venue for triple-threat amateur to professional female burlesque performers from manitoba to perform in. She also started a family, and began studying post-partum fitness and dance education, Early Childhood Education, and Special Needs Education. Showcase took place at Park Theatre Cafe, Wpg.MB. - Difini Dolls Dance Crew produced a body positive, non-nude burlesque show "Santa Baby Burlesque Dance Theatre". Vintage choreography and performing arts were brought back with a contemporary cultural dance twist. Showcase took place Nov.30th., 2018 at the Park Theatre Cafe, Wpg.MB. - Became a governing Board member of Arts and Accessibility Network of Manitoba, and Difinity Dance became a partner of AANM. 2017- The non-nude, body positive, cross cultural, cross-generational Burlesque Dance Theatre Showcase "Beach Bum 2018" that took place July.7th., 2018 at the Dramatic Arts Centre. Wpg.MB 2018- The non-nude, body positive, cross cultural, cross-generational Dance Theatre Showcase "Crystal Circus 2018". A christmas themed, parody of classic christmas films, and TV Characters. - Manitoba's first Deaf/ Hard of Hearing dance crew Def.Up for multi-disciplinary amateur to semi professional dancers ages 13+ was founded. Her inspiring work with the Deaf community was featured on CBC.TV, CTV.TV, and CJOB.680.Radio. This project was made possible through collaboration with Manitoba Cultural Society of the Deaf, and Arts and Accessibility Network of Manitoba. - Began competing in scottish highland heavy games, as one of the few females in Canada to participate in the sport. She is currently training for Strongman Games, and plans to compete for the first time in fall 2019 right here in Manitoba. 2019- Certified Asthma Ambassador of Canada. Stephanie has struggled with exercise induced asthma since childhood.Exercised-induced asthma is a narrowing of the airways in the lungs triggered by strenuous exercise. It causes shortness of breath, wheezing, coughing and other symptoms during or after exercise.The preferred term for this condition is exercise-induced bronchoconstriction (brong-koh-kun-STRIK-shun). This term is more accurate because the exercise induces narrowing of airways (bronchoconstriction) but isn't a root cause of asthma. Among people with asthma, exercise is likely just one of several factors that may trigger breathing difficulties. As an Ambassador, the interim goals of advocacy are:
2019- Became a Maintaining Respectful Workplaces in the Arts Consultant/ Trainer for C.H.R.C (Cultural Human Resources Council) of Canada. Here: http://respectfulartsworkplaces.ca/trainers 2019- Founded DIFIE Inc.a not for profit organisation dedicated to providing inclusive dance, fitness, and health education services to Manitoba. Founded 2019 by a professional Board of Directors dedicated to the expansion of inclusive dance and fitness education for Manitoban families. https://www.difiedance.org/ MEDIA COVERAGEDDSP cares about Manitoba's diverse communities, and we are in constant pursuit of improving accessibility of our programs. Here are some of our recent successful endeavors. Clicks the link below to hear more about our stories:
1. CONFIDANCE CAMP 2018 - Carberry,MB: www.carberrynews.ca/News/improvingphysicalliteracywithconfi-danceminicamp 2. DEF.UP DANCE CREW 2018: www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/def-up-dance-troupe-stereotypes-1.4917479 https://winnipeg.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=1548976 3. UGOT THIS TEEN HEALTH WORKSHOP- Red River Valley Echo Newspaper 4. MORDEN WORLD DANCE EDUCATOR TRAINING: https://www.mordentimes.com/news/local-news/world-dance-classes-for-kids-starting-in-fall |
QUOTES WE OPERATE BYDDSP Believes that our Educators must be competent in teaching, but most of all have strong character in order to be good role models for our students. These 10 quotes are just some of the core believes we carry, that we expect our Educators to example in all aspects of their lives.
1. "The child supplies the power, but the parents have to do the steering"- Dr.Benjamin Spock 2. "Everyone has beauty, but not everyone sees it." - Confucius 3. "We are the hero of our own story." - Mary Mc.Carthy 4. "Only when we are no longer afraid we begin to live." - Dorothy Thompson 5. "Courage is the ladder on which all other virtues mount". - Clare Booshe Lee 6. "There is always something left to love, and if you have not learned that you have not learned anything." - Lorraine Hansbery 7. " Children require guidance and sympathy far more than instruction." - Anne Sullivan 8. "Life is for participating, not spectating." - Katherine Switzer 9. "It is through art that we prevail, and will endure. It lives in us, and defines us as people." - Rita Moreno 10. "Permanent remorse, but a failing to be humane, in my oppinion is worse than loosing your life.;" - unknown - DDSP TEACHING PRINCIPLESWe believe as Educator's of children and youth, it is our duty to honor the younger generation by teaching leadership, accountability, compassion, and initiative through our self-disciplined, open-conversation method of education. The following are the 5 skill sets we actively work towards building our students character.
OVER-ALL SOCIAL BENEFITS:
· SELF DISCIPLINE & COMMUNITY ACCOUNTABILITY- We believe children should have a strong foundation in health through balanced nutrition, strong physical literacy, cultural education, and a commitment to individual community leadership. Our students are actively engaged in the decision making process of what they would like to learn in class. This encourages them to take responsibility for their own wellness, and teaches them when and how to ask for guidance or assistance when needed. We encourage students to reach for their own personal bests while demonstrating what good sportsmanship looks like DDSP COMMITMENT TO CHARACTER DEVELOPMENTWe believe that DDSP dance students and educators must demonstrate the following character qualities on the dance floor of life whether in rehearsals, on stage, at home, and in their community.
1. Commitment - Your yes must remain a yes, or say no regardless of the challenges you face, keep your commitments and rise above your circumstances. 2. Determination - If there is a will, there is a way. Life is not a cookie cutter path, find yours and life it out. 3. Gratitude - Be grateful for the mentors, friends, family, opportunities, and food on your plate, every day. 4. Hardwork - Be more than your talent and wisdom, push yourself everyday in all aspects of your life, never settle, never stop. 5. Integrity - Integrity means doing the right thing even if your standing alone, or stand to loose everything. 6. Truth - Be honest about who you are, and what you want to be. Start with this, and healthy boundaries will follow. 7. Openess - Try new things, explore other cultures and communities different than your own, do not be quick to judge. 8. Preserverance - When all seems lost or hopeless, do it anyway. 9. Reliability - Be reliable even if the benefits of the engagement change. Be the person who is there through the good and hard times. 10. Justice- Forgive those who have hurt you, and share your story and advocate for positive changes in your community. DDSP'S COMMITMENT TO KIDS & FAMILIESAll of our Educators are required to complete the following before they are accepted into our Educator Training Development courses:
Depending on our Educator's chosen specialty of expertise with DDSP, they will also be required to obtain specific coaching and fitness designations in Sport, Fitness, and Dance, or renew all applicable certifications. Our Educators also under go extensive year round training with DDSP, and dance organisations across Canada. When booking a DDSP Educator, we provide the host with all applicable copies of certifications our Educators have upon request. |