A dream has come true for a Saskatoon ballerina. Prarthona, 12, a Saskatoon ballerina who has been receiving Creative Kids funding since 2014 will be going to the Alberta Ballet School this summer.

Dance has always been a part of Prarthona’s life. She started taking formal lessons at the age of three, and since then she’s been training hard in ballet. Now, her hard work is paying off and her dream is becoming a reality. She auditioned and was accepted into the Alberta Ballet School Summer Intensive Program held in July.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for me, and I am excited,” she says. “Dancing is a significant part of my life; I wouldn’t be who I am today without it. It is a way I can express my feelings without using any words but by using different movements.”

She adds that she is grateful to Creative Kids, her parents, and her sister, Prokriti – who is also her regular dance partner – for supporting her dreams.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for me, and I am excited. Dancing is a significant part of my life; I wouldn’t be who I am today without it. It is a way I can express my feelings without using any words but by using different movements.”

Prarthona’s mother, Jebunnessa Chapola, a singer, cultural activist, and an educator who came from Bangladesh, says the initial funding
from Creative Kids helped her dare to dream; to raise her daughters to become artists. This was her hope but financial constraints, and settlement challenges stood in her way.

“Funding from Creative Kids gave us hope. As a full-time graduate student and mother, I wouldn’t be able to achieve this. Thanks to
Creative Kids for supporting this artist to serve the dance community.”

As a visible minority woman, Chapola found that there were many cultural, social, religious, gender and dominant discipline-related barriers to raising her children as artists. As the years went by, she decided to create new platforms to pass her artistic knowledge on to her
daughters. She started teaching them Bangla songs and dances; got them to learn Indian classical dance, but again she realized there may not be enough opportunities for them to practice ethnic arts. Finally, she encouraged them to learn ballet.

“For the past few years, I learned deeply from my lived experiences that cultural activities are important tools to build transnational cultural bridges.” She adds that she is learning alongside her daughter what ballet is all about, as it is a different culture from hers. Prarthona will be studying ballet for up to eight hours a day at the prestigious school this summer.