In this interview with Meryem Alaoui, a professional dancer and choreographer originally from Morocco, we explore the body's role in the fight for collective liberation and the power of sharing our gifts with the world. Meryem discusses the concept of 'rigorous play'—how she balances discipline in her training with creating space for magic to unfold.

Bio: Meryem Alaoui is a Toronto-based dancer and choreographer from Morocco. Founder and artistic director of Jasad Dance Projects, her work is at the intersection of somatic research using movement and voice, and the exploration of contemporaneity through the reclamation of embodied performance practices, dances and knowledge from her culture as a Moroccan diasporic dance artist.

A 2009 graduate of the School of Toronto Dance Theatre, she has danced for choreographers Amanda Acorn, Peggy Baker, Angela Blumberg, Antony Hamilton (with the company Dancemakers), Karen Kaeja (Kaeja d’Dance), among others.

Her choreographic work has been presented nationally and internationally, notably in SummerWorks in Toronto, Tangente in Montreal and at the Théâtre National Mohammed V in Morocco.

Meryem has received residency support nationally and internationally, and project funding from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario and Toronto Arts Councils.

She is a certified Body-Mind Centering® Somatic Movement Educator and she enjoys facilitating movement explorations for dancers in professional settings and in community and arts-education contexts, such as with Toronto Dance Theatre, Tanya Lukin Linklater, Haneen Women Choir and The Arab Community Centre of Toronto.

Are you ready to connect with your creative life force? Schedule a free consultation ⁠⁠here⁠⁠!