Saskatchewan
Noor Tajik is known successful the section creation country for her choreography skills, thing she pursues extracurricular of her time occupation arsenic an engineer. Keeping some the sciences and arts successful her beingness brings her balance, portion besides bringing pridefulness to her migrant parents.
Noor Tajik says choreographing helps her link with others and to her South Asian roots
Janani Whitfield · CBC News
· Posted: May 22, 2025 7:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 5 hours ago
This communicative is portion of a CBC Saskatchewan bid showcasing movers and shakers for Asian Heritage Month successful May. For much connected this project, sojourn cbc.ca/lovesk.
By day, Noor Tajik is solving problems arsenic a municipal engineer. In her escaped time, the Regina dancer applies her captious reasoning skills to her enactment arsenic a choreographer.
"I ever archer radical I'm a large choreographer due to the fact that I'm a large engineer," she said, noting that both aspects of her enactment mean zeroing successful connected insignificant errors and fixing them. Attention to item pays off.
"That's what engineers do. They similar to hole problems."
As portion of her choreography broadside gig, Tajik has travelled and worked with influential artists, including Indian singer, histrion and movie shaper Diljit Dosanjh and Parth Dani, the laminitis of the Bollywood Dance School Canada, who besides collaborated with her successful creating a euphony video for Punjabi rap creator Sultaan.
"Even though I americium a full-time engineer, and I person each these different commitments, there's that consciousness of joyousness that comes with [dance]," she said. "There's that consciousness of nostalgia that keeps maine going with dance."
Tajik grew up successful Mississauga, wherever she learned respective styles of dance including hep hop, Afro beats, Afro location and dancehall. But the soundtrack of Bollywood was a continual presence, with her parents having travel to Canada from Pakistan and keeping that portion of the civilization live successful their household.
"My ma said she'd ever drawback maine dancing increasing up, pursuing the steps, singing the songs," Tajik said, laughing arsenic she recalled however she and her champion person utilized to transcript the moves of the elaborate creation sequences that are a hallmark of Indian films, portion besides mixing successful their ain hep hop moves.
When she began studying astatine the University of Regina, creation helped her link with radical successful the section community, which saw her pivot from dancing herself, to teaching and past choreographing. Dance helped stave disconnected feelings of being displaced and isolated aft her move.
"It felt similar [being] backmost location with my puerility champion friend, being like, 'Hey, tin I larn this creation with you?' There's that transportation there," she said.
At times, Tajik's parents expressed interest astir her splitting absorption from her engineering studies to dance.
"They sacrificed truthful overmuch to travel present and they did it truthful we could person a harmless spot to be, truthful we could beryllium palmy — person a coagulated job, person a coagulated education, beryllium safe, person immoderate security," she said.
But erstwhile she stopped dancing and started focusing conscionable connected her studies, her grades began slipping.
"So past they noticed, 'OK, this is astir apt important to her,'" Tajik said, adding her parents encouraged her to "just find the balance."
"I deliberation it was a bully reminder due to the fact that it did support maine grounded, but past it besides disciplined maine successful some creation and school."
To this day, maintaining the equilibrium betwixt her engineering enactment and her choreography brings her joy.
- Read our different stories celebrating Asian Heritage Month here.
On a caller Sunday afternoon, Tajik worked with dancer Tessa Rae Kuz connected a portion that volition beryllium performed successful Regina arsenic portion of a May 25 evening featuring South Asian classical music.
Kuz noted moving with Tajik has opened her satellite to "different beats, antithetic rhythms, antithetic steps that I didn't person successful my grooming increasing up."
It not lone expands her signifier arsenic a dancer, but is portion of however radical are exchanging their taste practices, she said.
"I deliberation sharing dances and being capable to speech cross-culturally is… precise powerful," Kuz said.
Tajik said there's an openness to mixing and crossing creation styles.
While she loves moving with radical similar Kuz and Dani, her parents are besides acceptable collaborators and cheerleaders, offering her input connected her dances oregon opus selections.
"I cognize they're truly arrogant of maine and I don't deliberation I could bash fractional of what I'm doing without them," she said.
Tajik said she's grateful for however her parents made it imaginable for her to research her creativity and passions.
"I decidedly deliberation that they spot a small spot of themselves done maine successful a originative mode that they mightiness person not done themselves. So I deliberation that they bask it — oregon I anticipation they bask it."
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Janani Whitfield is simply a assemblage engagement shaper who besides edits diagnostic storytelling and First Person columns for CBC Saskatchewan. Contact her astatine [email protected].