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VOL. IV | ISSUE IV<br />
MARGINS<br />
of what the Toronto community would<br />
think [since] there was no one else like me<br />
in the community, you know? I just felt like<br />
as soon as that would happen, I would<br />
kind of be the outcast in the Toronto community,<br />
especially the HEELS community.<br />
That experience really opened my eyes<br />
and it really made me feel like something<br />
was wrong there. Something was wrong<br />
in our community that needed to be fixed.<br />
I was eighteen, so I knew that something<br />
felt wrong but I didn’t know what to do<br />
yet. Now with Co.Lab, I just feel like this is<br />
my opportunity to make sure no one else<br />
has that experience. I want every artist to<br />
come into our studio knowing that we want<br />
them to come as their true selves, regardless<br />
of what that is. To be a genuine artist,<br />
you have to come as your true self, you can’t<br />
fake it till you make it [because] that only<br />
lasts so long. So with Co.Lab, I feel like it’s<br />
been a build of taking from numerous experiences<br />
within my life. Without my experiences,<br />
Co.Lab definitely wouldn’t be alive today.<br />
ZH: Wow, well thank you so much for sharing<br />
that! I think that’s so interesting. It really<br />
points out why you guys have the scale and<br />
the scope you have on where you want [Co.<br />
Lab] to go and what you want to see based on<br />
experiences you have had. Maybe the absence<br />
of support [while knowing] the kinds of experiences<br />
you would have [wanted to have]<br />
allowed you to now say “okay, let’s make that<br />
space” so that other people can have that.<br />
LM: For sure and like I said, Kristina [and I]<br />
were both very new to the community so<br />
the idea of opening a studio is very daunting.<br />
You have the more experienced dancers who<br />
have been here forever looking at you thinking,<br />
“who do you think you are?”. Kristina and<br />
I come from a support circle that is literally<br />
the best support circle you could ever have.<br />
[We have] so many strong females behind<br />
us [and] so many supportive males as well.<br />
Everyone just has our back and even when<br />
we first launched Co.Lab, we were getting an<br />
overwhelming amount of support and that<br />
support is what pushes us through every<br />
day, whenever we hit roadblocks. We really<br />
appreciate everyone’s support, everyone’s<br />
messages, everyone’s shares... just know<br />
[that] Co.Lab wouldn’t be what it is without<br />
the people and without the experiences.<br />
ZH: That’s great to hear! Speaking of which,<br />
what can you tell us about where you are in<br />
the process of creating this space and how<br />
can people continue to support it?<br />
LM: Co.Lab launched pretty recently, the<br />
idea officially incorporated in September<br />
of 2020. We launched our first “Welcome<br />
to Co.Lab” video (“All Day Long” on<br />
Youtube) in November and [it featured]<br />
females from at least ten Toronto teams,<br />
so there [were] over fifty females in that<br />
video. It was kind of a sign of unity, a sign<br />
of change, and [a] new beginning. With<br />
that video, we kicked off our GoFund-<br />
Me campaign. This GoFundMe campaign<br />
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