Movement Crafted In Denim | Tania Dimbelolo
Meet Tania, a contemporary dance artist. Inspired by her dad, a contortionist, who lived in Paris, Tania began performing alongside her sister, as assistants during their father’s Parisian street shows.
Over the years, Tania came to prefer dance over contortion, because of the freedom and creativity dance allows. She doesn’t believe that dance should have a uniform narrative, and is passionate about pushing beyond the comfort zone.
As well as being a dancer, you’re a contortionist, how do you combine these?
I feel like I fell into everything I do for every part of my career. I now also model and act, and I feel like all of them I fell into. I started as a kid. My dad is a contortionist, a big contortionist, he was in Cirque du Soleil for a bit, before all of that he was street performing in Paris. There was an act where he goes inside a washing machine, for example. Me and my sister would go to visit him, and we'd be showgirls. We would help his act out - and I got curious!
Your dad was a big inspiration, did anyone else inspire you to become a dancer?
My grandma would love to say that she did, but she absolutely can't dance! I would definitely say it was primarily my dad. My mom also loves dancing. I think she's very free with her body, which is nice. I think a lot of people think: 'Oh, if I'm not a dancer, I can't dance.' And actually, there's a certain liberation that some people just have in their bodies, whether they're trained or not, which is really lovely.
When did you start to dance?
I was always interested in dancing, and I always was interested in ballet but it's just so expensive. We could never afford it when I was young. I did want to do it, but it wasn't accessible. When I was at school, I went to a gifted and talented youth club and there was another dance youth club called ‘Vivid’ that I started doing. That’s when I fell in love with dance.
Where do you get your determination?
I definitely think my mom. She was a single parent working like three jobs, working super hard to put a roof over our heads. After what I was exposed to when growing up, I knew from a young age that I didn't want that for me or my future children. I kind of knew I just wanted to do really well, and have a completely different financial situation.
I saw my mom work so hard for us to succeed, and I didn’t want that to be for nothing. I really wanted to be in a situation where I could help her and support her, which I'm starting now to be able to do. It is such a good feeling. It means the world to me, and is a big, big part of why I worked so hard. I’m also stubborn. I've been that way forever!