The story behind Amala Movement

I’ve been dancing for like forever! Since I was 3, I’ve done all sorts of dance classes like ballet, modern and tap. I then pursued dance professionally, taking it at GCSE and A-level before spending a year studying dance at London Roehampton University. Wanting to take my love of dance even further, I applied to dance schools in the UK and got into the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds. It was a dream come true. But also a challenge.

Unfortunately, in my first year I got a back injury. It was bad. At one point lifting my chin would hurt my lower back. It was really hard emotionally to sit and watch my classmates do what I dearly loved doing – dancing. I could only make notes when I was itching to physically participate. It caused me to experience a lot of self-doubt as many dancers do when faced with an injury. I wrote about my journey and changing the mindset around injuries in detail in this blog. 

I had to keep going and find a way forward. That’s when I was led down the route of exploring breathwork and the connection between the mind and body. I met some life-changing teachers, namely Fabiano and Jennifer-Lynn, who introduced to me the deep work of somatics, body-mind learning and integrative movement which helped me to keep dancing with my injury. They inspire me to this day. 

During this time of working on my physical well-being, I also needed to look after my mental well-being. I embraced yoga, not for the physical benefits necessarily, but for the headspace it helped me get into. After being so frustrated with my body due to my injury, I could return to a place of self-love, understanding this too will pass and I was loved no matter what. 

The soft practices of gentle and restorative yoga helped me to keep doing what I loved, dancing. I continued to explore movement and mindfulness by learning about different types of yoga, getting involved in both traditional and creative yoga practices. It was so exciting when in the summer of 2016, I went to Bali to do my yoga training. It was such an amazing experience to fully immerse myself in yoga and the philosophy behind it.  

After that, I graduated from Northern and I found myself really enjoying teaching dance and yoga because it was a shared space for people to express their creativity, feel good and develop connections. I got to witness precious moments of people expressing their stories through movement. Bringing people together in this way is so inspiring I can’t quite put it into words! I want to share the experience with as many people as I can.

I’ve always been passionate about advocating for inclusivity in the world of dance and yoga. Even before graduating, I was teaching classes and reaching out to inclusivity programmes to see how I could get involved. I’ve now worked with Leaps and Bounds since 2017 and West SILC, a school for children with multiple and profound learning difficulties, since 2018. 

There’s something so magical about the deep connection forged from dance, yoga and person-centred movement, whether you’re a professional dancer or have never taken any kind of movement class before. Amala movement is how I share that magic with the world.